Conventional lithography by laser mask projection has several drawbacks in terms of flexibility and costs which result in its use only for mass production. Small batches can be processed more easily and cost effectively by using direct laser writing. Laser direct ablation of resists and direct laser photopolymerisation can be used to achieve small structure sizes at acceptable costs. Depending on the strategy, also several processing steps can be skipped compared to the conventional mask exposure method. The paper describes advantages of the maskless laser lithography.