Robber flies form a distinct part of the global insect fauna with approximately 7,000 described species that has attracted researchers’ attentions for centuries. Despite ongoing interest in species-level revisionary studies, phylogenetic relationships within Asilidae are poorly understood and have never been addressed using total-evidence analysis. In this study, morphological features used by past authors are combined with previously unreported character complexes and nucleotide-sequence data for three genes (28S, EF-1alpha, CAD) to resolve relationships among 40 species representing all currently recognized subfamilies. Total evidence analysis results in a well-resolved hypothesis supporting monophyly of seven subfamilies and paraphyly of four. Asilidae is supported as monophyletic in respect to the four Asiloidea exemplars of Apioceridae, Mydidae, Scenopinidae, and Therevidae used as outgroups. The taxon (Apocleinae + (Asilinae + Ommatiinae)) forms the adelphotaxon to the remaining Asilidae. Leptogastrinae is nested deep within Asilidae, contradicting its previous placement as adelphotaxon to all other Asilidae and ranking as a separate family. Dasypogoninae and Stenopogoninae, both morphologically heterogeneous taxa, are shown to be paraphyletic. The monophyly of Laphriinae and Laphystiinae in respect to each other, assumed by previous authors, could not be demonstrated. Independent analyses of the four different data sources produced similar results, however differences in the level of resolution among data sources and of monophyly of certain taxa were evident. A higher-level classification of Asilidae is proposed based on the morphological synapomorphies resulting from the total-evidence hypothesis.