Being one of the pillars supporting modern industry, the additive manufacturing (AM) field has gone through significant developments over the years, and that is certainly also the case of deposition processes based on the use of the electric arc. However, although most of the knowledge for that specific purpose comes from the more consolidated arc welding counterparts, inherent and yet critical challenges emerge from arc additive manufacturing (Arc-AM). As main advantage, Arc-AM processes offer the capacity to build metallic parts at very high deposition rates and at accessible prices (given their arc welding roots), but generally at the cost of high heat input levels and of tendency for heat accumulation occurrence. Such a negative facet leads to many complications concerning quality factors of the parts, which are related to thermal effects as in terms of geometry/aspect characteristics, distortions, macro/microstructural features, residual stresses, and mechanical properties, and even of production time, invariably in an intertwined connection. The solution, in this case, depends on a large extent on implementations of proper thermal management of the parts being built, which have been indeed the focus of attention of many research and development efforts in the field of Arc-AM over the years as this review aims to present. Thus, the general intent of this work is to contribute to further developments in Arc-AM via a comprehensive review of the related thermal management approaches that have been attempted. The idea is to facilitate the comparison and assessment for suitability of the different thermal management approaches, helping developers working on Arc-AM processes with the foundations for their application and/or improvement. As the subject of thermal management in Arc-AM tends to a more mature scenario, this review ultimately aims at the establishment of a more direct bridge on that matter between academia and industry. Thus, a scientific and hence more critical perspective of the related knowledge is balanced with a technological/engineering and hence more informational side of it. To be representative, it covers information produced over a decade (2013–2022) on scientific and technological developments that somehow have effects via thermal consequences on the metallic layers during the Arc-AM processing time. And it is organized in three main parts. First, in Section 1, after the introduction to the subject of interest and presentation of the general and specific objectives as well as of the scope and delimitations of the review, the complications related to poor thermal management are compiled and discussed in such a way that its importance is characterized and the scientific bases for understanding the functions/effects of the diverse approaches to it are stablished. Then, in Section 2, a systematic bibliometric survey of related publications is presented in detail for auditability and future consultations, and the various thermal management approaches (in fact applied to different Arc-AM processes, metallic materials, and part shapes within the period of analysis) are categorized and then briefly described and representatively discussed in dedicated subsections, which eventually include preliminary remarks and general guidelines for application. The first main section (specifically the part on complications related to poor thermal management) as well as the subsections of the second one were actually built in such a way that they can be consulted individually depending on specific interests of the audience. At the end, in Section 3, the entire subject is recapitulated with combined graphical data, being the main remarks on the thermal management approaches for Arc-AM outlined and the ways by which they are applied to the different deposition processes, materials, and parts globally quantified and characterized. For closure, within the same section, opportunity windows for further developments on thermal management for Arc-AM are finally drawn. Despite the quantity and diversity of approaches identified, as has always been the case in modern manufacturing, the thermal management technology in Arc-AM is expected to keep evolving in the face of new challenges and different scenarios with constant advancements, for which this review will hopefully serve as a relevant source of consultation.