Objective Cementless total hip arthroplasty (THA) is associated with reliable clinical results and high patient satisfaction. Short-stem prostheses (SS) were designed to achieve superior preservation of proximal bone stock and stability compared with those of conventional-stem prostheses (CS). This meta-analysis was conducted to determine the proximal bone remodelling, revision rate, Harris Hip Score, radiolucent line and maximum total point motion values of both SS and CS for primary THA. Method Relevant randomised controlled trials (RCTs) involving SS and CS in primary THA were identified from electronic databases, such as EMBASE, PubMed and the Cochrane Library. Result Ultimately, 12 RCTs involving 1130 patients (1387 hips) were included. The results showed that compared with CS, SS resulted in less bone mineral density (BMD) changes in Gruen zone 7 at 1year and 2 years postoperatively (mean difference (MD)=5.11; 95% CI, 1.61, 8.61; P=0.30; and MD=4.90; 95%CI, 1.01, 8.79; P=0.17, respectively). No difference in BMD changes was found for Gruen zone 1 (MD=2.66; 95%CI, -3.31, 8.64; P<0.00001), and no differences were observed for the revision rate (relative risk (RR)=1.52; 95%CI, 0.71, 3.26; P=0.94), Harris Hip Score (MD=-0.38; 95%CI, -1.02, 0.26; P=0.89) or stem migration (MD=0.02; 95%CI, -0.07, 0.11; P=0.04). Conclusion Our results suggest that compared with CS, SS may provide superior bone remodelling and similar survival rates and clinical outcomes. However, the short-term follow-up of the included studies was inadequate to determine the long-term performance of SS.