Cloud is an important and emerging technology utilized by various fields for storing, processing and retrieving of data anywhere and anytime without any interruption. Cloud is now acting as a platform for many companies for storing and other computational purposes to reduce infrastructure and maintenance cost similarly they can utilize their application widely based on pay per use. To make available of data to all cloud users Resource Allocation (RA) is mandatory process. In cloud hardware, software and platform are the resources utilized to satisfy user needs hence sharing these resources according to users need is a difficult task. Cloud service provider and cloud service consumer plays the major role in RA. The parameters under resource allocation, its issues and challenges are needed to be analyzed deeply before implementing any optimizing approach in RA. Hence in this work various resource allocation methods have been studied and issues in it is analyzed and presented as a survey. This work is useful for both cloud users and researchers in overcoming the challenges faced in RA. © 2023 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.