The scaffold concept was applied to systematically determine, analyze, and compare core structures of kinase inhibitors. From publicly available inhibitors of the human kinome, scaffolds and cyclic skeletons were systematically extracted and organized taking activity data, structural relationships, and retrosynthetic criteria into account. Scaffold coverage varied greatly across the kinome, and many scaffolds representing compounds with different activity profiles were identified. The majority of kinase inhibitor scaffolds were involved in well-defined yet distinct structural relationships, which had different consequences on compound activity. Scaffolds exclusively representing highly potent compounds were identified as well as structurally analogous scaffolds with very different degrees of promiscuity. Scaffold relationships presented herein suggest a variety of hypotheses for inhibitor design. Our detailed organization of the kinase inhibitor scaffold universe with respect to different activity and structural criteria, all scaffolds, and the original compound data assembled for our analysis are made freely available.