Objective To investigate the influence of acetabular morphology on contact mechanics of the human hip joint. Methods One anatomical finite element (FE) model of natural hip joint and three simplified FE models with different acetabular geometry were established to study the contact mechanics of hip joint under gait loads. Results (1) Contact predicted by the anatomical model was mainly distributed in the acetabular medial-superior area, from anterior to posterior, with the peak contact pressure occurred in the anterior-superior area; (2) Compared with the anatomical model, the rotational ellipsoid produced similar contact behavior, while the sphere and the rotational conchoids predicted that contact was distributed in the medial-lateral direction; (3) The rotational ellipsoid predicted the largest contact area and the lowest peak contact pressure and Von-Mises stress; (4) The sphere and rotational conchoids had similar contact mechanical behavior. Conclusions Compared with the sphere and rotational conchoids, the rotational ellipsoid could be more preferable to represent the anatomical morphology of the acetabulum and its contact mechanics.