Coastal zones serve as crucial interfaces where terrestrial and marine systems converge, substantially impacting economies, ecosystems, and overall societal well-being. Regarding tidal dynamics, the accuracy of the tidal model experiences pronounced deterioration in proximity to coastal regions due to the intricate tidal interactions arising from hydrodynamical interactions. This accuracy degradation stems from many factors, including the effects of shallow water, tidal amplification, local topography, tidal resonance and the complexities introduced by tidal currents. Therefore, this study aims to assess the optimal hydrodynamic model in Malaysian coastal waters. In this study, the Tide Model Driver (TMD) is utilised to retrieve the hydrodynamic model data from the Indian Ocean model, TPXO9 model and TPXO9-Atlas model. Incorporating ground-based tidal data in the assessment contributes to the overall robustness of the analysis. This evaluation reveals that the TPXO9 model demonstrates superior performance in the context of Malaysian coastal waters, with an RMSmisfit below 10 cm for primary tidal constituents. This research is beneficial for coastal management, environmental protection, and diverse applications that necessitate a comprehensive understanding of coastal dynamics in the maritime regions of Malaysia.