It is widely recognized by the scientific community that thermal spray coatings exhibit anisotropic behaviour of mechanical properties, e.g., the elastic modulus values of the coating in-plane (i.e., parallel to the substrate surface) or through-thickness (i.e., perpendicular to the substrate surface) will tend to be significantly different due to their anisotropic microstructures. This work shows that thermally sprayed ceramic coatings may exhibit isotropic mechanical behaviour similar to that of bulk materials even when exhibiting the typical anisotropic coating microstructure. Elastic modulus values on the in-plane and through-thickness directions were measured via Knoop indention and laser-ultrasonic techniques on a coating produced via flame spray (FS) using a nanostructured titania (TiO 2 ) powder. No significant differences were found between the coating directions. In addition, four major cracks with similar lengths were observed originating near or at the corners of Vickers indentation impressions on the coating cross-section (i.e., a typical characteristic of bulk ceramics), instead of two major cracks propagating parallel to the substrate surface, which is normally the case for these types of coatings. It was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that coatings tended to exhibit an isotropic behaviour when the average length of microcracks within the coating structure oriented perpendicular to the substrate surface was about twice that of the microcracks aligned parallel to the substrate surface. Modelling, based on scalar crack densities of horizontal and vertical cracks, was also used to estimate when thermal spray coatings tend to exhibit isotropic behaviour. Crown