Hydrogels have the features of high water content, good flexibility, high viscoelasticity, high biocompatibility, and unique stimulus response characteristic, which makes hydrogel materials attract much attention in the detection of bacteria. The research of hydrogel-based bacterial sensors and sensor chips is of great significance to the basic scientific research of bacteria, and it also has important application value for rapid and efficient detection of bacteria, prevention and control of bacterial pollution in specific environments, and control of disease transmission. The latest research works of hydrogel-based bacterial sensing detection are reviewed in this article. The types of hydrogel and the influence factors of the interaction between hydrogel and bacteria are briefly introduced. The sensors and sensing detection methods based on temperature-sensitive hydrogel, pH-sensitive hydrogel, enzyme-sensitive hydrogel and functionalized hydrogels with specific markers are reviewed and discussed in detail. The research progress of new type hydrogel-based flexible sensors and hydrogel-based microfluidic sensor chips are highlighted. The detection efficiency, signal acquisition, and stability of the hydrogel-based bacterial sensors still need to be further improved and expanded. With the emergence of new hydrogel materials, much more attention have been paid to developments of smart bacterial sensors, flexible sensors, and integrated microfluidic sensor chips which are shown good exploration potential and application prospects in terms of bacterial detection.