金缕梅目是显花植物的一个分支，1981年的克朗奎斯特分类法将其放到金缕梅亚纲之下，包括5个科：

1. 金缕梅科
2. 连香树科
3. 领春木科
4. 悬铃木科
5. 香灌木科

分子生物学的研究证明这些植物种类并没有基因方面的联系，所以2003年的APG II 分类法将这些分类打乱，将金缕梅科和连香树科列入虎耳草目，将领春木科列入毛茛目，将悬铃木科列入山龙眼目，将香灌木科列入洋二仙草目。

Hamamelidales is an order of flowering plants formerly accepted in a number of systems of plant taxonomy, including the Cronquist system published in 1968 and 1988. The order is not currently accepted in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III system of plant taxonomy, the most widely accepted system as molecular systematic studies have suggested that these families are not closely related to each other. The APG II system (2003) assigns them to several different orders: Hamamelidaceae and Cercidiphyllaceae to Saxifragales, Eupteleaceae to Ranunculales, Platanaceae to Proteales, and Myrothamnaceae to Gunnerales. Additional studies of the chloroplast genome have since confirmed that the families moved into the Saxigragales are closely related.