If the core-cooling systems are impaired, temperatures within the fuel cladding may reach up to 1200°C, leading to hydrogen generation and thermal energy release. Research has focused on accident tolerant fuel cladding (ATFC) coatings to mitigate this. Physical vapour deposited (PVD) nitride-based coatings have been demonstrated to act as barrier materials for Zircaloys. PVD coatings can be used to improve performance related to: surface hardening, wear resistance, electrical insulation, and, most importantly for zirconium, in-reactor applications, as an added barrier for corrosion resistance, and for the reduction of hydrogen ingress. Five nitride-based coatings from two suppliers were deposited onto Zircaloy substrates through PVD. The adhesion, nanohardness, and wear resistance of a variety of PVD nitride-based coatings on Zircaloy substrates were tested using nanoindentation and scratch testing at room temperature and 300°C. For nanohardness tests, displacement rates were varied from 5 nm/s to 50 nm/s to assess if there was any effect on the measured hardness. It was found that the displacement rate did not affect the hardness values at room temperature. The AlCrN-coating was found to have the highest hardness of the tested nitride-based coatings, with the CrN-coating being the softest. A number of analytical techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the coatings.