Soil salinization is an escalating global environmental challenge, posing a severe threat to agricultural production and ecological security. This review elucidates the types of salinized soils and microbial inoculants with varying formulations and compositions. It primarily analyzes the mechanisms by which microbial inoculants promote plant growth and soil health. Microbial inoculants can effectively alleviate osmotic and ionic toxicity under salt stress, enhance plant antioxidant capacity, and promote nutrient cycling by improving the rhizosphere microenvironment and soil aggregate structure. However, their application efficacy is constrained by multiple factors, including microorganism-plant specificity, soil condition heterogeneity, extreme salinity, and competition from indigenous microorganisms. Future research should focus on developing synergistic multi-species composite inoculants, leveraging intelligent technologies for optimized inoculation strategies, and establishing ecological assessment systems based on microbial indicators, thereby advancing the application of this technology in sustainable agriculture.