Porphyrin derivatives have been a prevalent research topic due to their outstanding photoelectric performance, and they are important molecular building blocks in the field of molecular self-assembly. The research on constructing various porphyrin-based functional nanostructures on surfaces has laid a solid foundation for their application in optoelectronic devices and other fields. In this review, we list lots of porphyrin-based two-dimensional functional nanostructures constructed by the bottom-up strategy on surfaces. The influence of the structural modification of porphyrin derivatives on surface self-assembly, the construction of multilayer porphyrin nanostructures and the porphyrin in situ reaction on surfaces are emphatically discussed.