Heavy-flavour hadrons, containing open or hidden charm and beauty flavours, are considered as hard probes of the quark–gluon plasma (QGP), which is a hot and dense phase state of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) matter. Production of heavy flavours involves large momentum transfer processes during collisions. Heavy quarks are expected to be produced in the initial stage of collisions and therefore prior to the formation of the QGP in heavy-ion collisions. Consequently, heavy quarks travel through and interact with the QGP. Hence, measuring both open and hidden heavy-flavour production in large systems provides information on the QGP properties and heavy quark hadronisation. Heavy-flavour production is measured in small and large systems with ALICE in order to test (perturbative) QCD and study the effects induced by the medium. In this contribution, recent ALICE results on heavy-flavour production in pp, p–Pb and Pb–Pb collisions are reported.