About fifty different TiN coatings were prepared by reactive and non-reactive magnetron sputtering, as well as by reactive cathodic arc evaporation. In addition to vary between these three individual deposition techniques, we also individually varied the substrate temperature (150–700 °C), working gas pressures (0.4–07 Pa), N2 gas volume fraction (0–70 %), substrates (e.g., Si(100), MgO(100)(110)(111), sapphire), substrate-to-target distance (40–130 mm), sputtering power density (3–13 W/cm2), as well as bias potential (-20 up to -80 V). The individual deposition techniques and conditions result in either pronounced columnar or rather dense growth morphologies, with open or compact column and grain boundary regions, preferred (111)- or (200)-orientation, or even epitaxially grown single-crystals. Due to these variations in growth morphology and orientation – which we will discuss in detail as well as their correlations – the hardness (obtained by nanoindentation) of TiN varied between 15.9 and 33.9 GPa and their fracture toughness between 0.6 and 2.9 MPa√m. The fracture toughness of these individually prepared TiN coatings was evaluated from micromechanical bending tests (inside a FEGSEM) of free-standing cantilevers.