The identification of microbial indicators holds significant promise for detecting key challenges of anaerobic digestion, driving microbial management. In order to be considered reliable, microbial indicators must possess certain features, such as universality, significant abundance changes under stressful conditions, and the ability to predict CH4 yield. To investigate the performance of microbial indicators, a meta-analysis was conducted on 178 publicly available 16 S rRNA gene sequences from 12 studies that examined the anaerobic digestion process of organic solid wastes. The analysis identified key taxa that achieved microbial indicator features through two different approaches: whole community and core microbiome analysis. The alpha diversity analysis indicated that a specialized genus-level microbial community with a high number of sOTUs was crucial for achieving high CH4 yield. Aminobacterium, Clostridium, HA73, T78, Corynebacterium, Lactobacillus, and Prevotella exhibited a higher number of microbial indicators attributes, including a significant response in their abundance and predictive capability for CH4 yield, along with relevant metabolic roles associated with inhibitory compounds. Among them, Corynebacterium, Lactobacillus, and Prevotella demonstrated robust fold-change features to increase the likelihood of successful categorization and, Aminobacterium, Clostridium, HA73, and T78 showed universality, suggesting easy detection across various anaerobic digestion processes. Understanding the advantages and drawbacks of reliable microbial indicators and considering their features will aid in the selection of appropriate detection techniques, offering valuable insights for future validation and implementation for AD processes improvement or control.