White light emitting diodes (white-LEDs) are the promising light sources of new lighting technology due to their high efficiency, energy saving, long life and environmentally friendly. In this review, different techniques proposed for the development of white-LEDs have been discussed in terms of their performance efficiency and potential usage. The Phosphor based white-LEDs are widely used LEDs, as compared to RGB based white-LEDs, due to their luminous efficacy, service life, display color gamut and the color rendering. Furthermore, thermal issues related to high power white-LEDs have been discussed as it greatly impacts the performance efficiency. To resolve thermal issues, heat sinks having high thermal conductivity are most widely used among others.