In this paper, we make a comparison for the impacts of smooth dynamical dark energy, modified gravity, and interacting dark energy on the cosmological constraints on the total mass of active neutrinos. For definiteness, we consider the Lambda CDM model, the wCDM model, the f(R) model, and two typical interacting vacuum energy models, i.e., the I Lambda CDM1 model with Q = beta H rho (c) and the I Lambda CDM2 model with Q = beta H rho (Lambda). In the cosmological fits, we use the Planck 2015 temperature and polarization data, in combination with other low-redshift observations including the baryon acoustic oscillations, the type Ia supernovae, the Hubble constant measurement, and the large-scale structure observations, such as the weak lensing as well as the redshift-space distortions. Besides, the Planck lensing measurement is also employed in this work. We find that, the wCDM model favors a higher upper limit on the neutrino mass compared to the Lambda CDM model, while the upper limit in the f(R) model is similar with that in the Lambda CDM model. For the interacting vacuum energy models, the I Lambda CDM1 model favors a higher upper limit on neutrino mass, while the I Lambda CDM2 model favors an identical neutrino mass with the case of Lambda CDM.