Objective: The staging and surgical method for borderline ovarian tumors (BOTs) are controversial issue. In BOT compare to malignant ovarian tumors, it is difficult to determine the surgical method due to development of tumors at the earlier stage and in younger women. This study aims to compare the serous (sBOT) and mucinous borderline ovarian tumors (mBOT), with respect to clinic-pathologic factors, recurrence-free survival (RFS), and overall survival (OS). Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted at Asan Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea between January 1st, 1990 and December 31th, 2015 among patients diagnosed with borderline tumors histopathologically. Results: Of the total 678 patients, patients with sBOT and mBOT were 200 and 478, the mean ages were 44.1 and 40.9 (p = 0.016), and the average of the largest tumor diameter were 9.4cm and 16.4cm (p <0.001) respectively. Patients who underwent open surgery was 61.5% for sBOT and 73.4% for mBOT. The rate of staging procedure was 33.5% in sBOT and 5.2% in mBOT. We found that the rate of stage IB, IC or II-IV were higher in sBOT than mBOT. In sBOT, the recurrent rate was lower in the staging procedure group compared with the non-staging group. While, the recurrence rate in the incomplete staging surgery group of mBOT was lower than that of sBOT. Futhermore, there was also no difference in OS between sBOT and mBOT (p = 0.132). Conclusion: During surgery, sBOT was found to be more advanced than mBOT. The recurrent rate was lower in the mBOT compared with the sBOT. But, the recurrent rate of malignancy was higher in the mBOT compared with the sBOT. Our study has shown that the staging procedure can be omitted in mBOT, however it should be considered carefully when stage is more than IA in sBOT. Also, since there is no difference in RFS, more research is needed to confirm whether the staging procedure is meaningful.