Three different approaches for assessment of seismic performance of pile foundations (and soilstructure systems in general) are discussed in this paper. These approaches use different models, analysis procedures and are of vastly different complexity. All three methods are consistent with the performance-based design philosophy according to which the seismic performance is assessed using deformational criteria and associated damage levels. It is shown that even though the methods nominally have the same objective, they focus on different aspects in the assessment and provide alternative performance measures. Key features of the three approaches and their unique contribution in the assessment of seismic performance of soil-structure systems are demonstrated using a case study.