The genomes of plants contain more than 600 genes encoding a diverse set of proteases and the subunits of proteasomes. These proteases and proteasomes consist of plant proteolytic systems, which are involved in various cellular metabolic processes. Plant proteolytic systems have been shown to have diverse roles in defense responses, such as execution of the attack on the invading organisms, participation in signaling cascades, and perception of the invaders. In order to provide a framework for illustrating the importance of proteolytic systems in plant defense, characteristics of non-proteasome proteases and the 26S proteasome are summarized. The involvement of caspase-like proteases, saspases, apoplastic proteases, and the 26S proteasome in pathogen defense suggests that plant proteolytic systems are essential for defense and further clarity on the roles of plant proteases in defense is challenging but fundamentally important to understand plant-microbe interactions.