Diseases of the kidney often progress to end-stage renal failure over a period of several years and might lead to life-long dialysis. To avoid loss of renal function, kidney disease should be diagnosed as early as possible in order to initiate therapeutic measures in time. Several invasive and non-invasive radiological imaging techniques for the detection and characterization of renal disease are available. Particularly, non-invasive computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have seen substantial technical advances in recent years. Today, both modalities offer a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation of renal diseases in a single examination, comprising detailed information of the parenchyma as well as of arterial and venous vasculature. This review article describes the most important vascular and parenchymal kidney diseases and their radiological characteristics with a focus on MRI and CT.