Objective To explore the difference of intervention effect between high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) on patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS). Methods China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang Data, PubMed, Web of Science and EBSCO were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) till May 2022. Two reviewers independently reviewed the literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of included RCTs. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software was used for meta-analysis. Result A total of 5 RCTs were included, including 216 patients. The results of meta-analysis showed that: except fasting blood glucose, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, waist circumference, body mass index and body fat percentage (P>0.005), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [mean difference (MD)=−7.487 mg/dL, 95% confidence interval (CI) (−12.543, −2.431) mg/dL, P=0.004], total cholesterol [MD=−11.487 mg/dL, 95%CI (−16.523, −6.452) mg/dL, P<0.001], triglycerides [MD=−26.296 mg/dL, 95%CI (−50.557, −2.035) mg/dL, P=0.034] and diastolic blood pressure [MD=−2.770 mm Hg (1 mm Hg=0.133 kPa), 95%CI (−5.131, −0.409) mm Hg, P=0.021] of HIIT were better than MICT. Conclusion In terms of blood glucose indicators and morphological indicators, the effect of HIIT group and MICT group was similar, but the effect of HIIT on blood lipid indicators and blood pressure indicators of patients with MetS was better than MICT.