Service industry development of resources-based cities is one of important methods for achieving their industrial transformation, however, China has so many different resources-based cities, the objective, method and ways for their economic transition are different. By choosing 107 resources-based cities as sample, this paper analyzed their evolution trend and characteristics based on the ratio of value-added services, employment ratio and output efficiency in the service industry from 2005 to 2015 in China. The results indicate that service industry development in resource-based cities does not deviate from the general rule of industrial evolution, but lags behind the whole process of Chinese service industry, that there are significant differences in the development trend in different types, these differences have strong correlation with regional distribution, urban type, economic growth rate and especially industrialization stage. The development of service industry in resources-based cities should not purely raise the proportion of service industry and unilaterally pursue the high-end service industry but should match their stage of industrialization by taking advantage of comparative advantage and industrial basis of the cities so as to smoothly realize economic transition.