Porphyrins, as an organic photosensitizer in medicine, play a very important role in photodynamic therapy. Their main mechanism is to absorb laser energy to produce reactive oxygen species, so as to achieve therapeutic purposes. In this paper, the basic synthetic route, the characteristics of each generation of porphyrin photosensitizers and the scientific research of porphyrin photosensitizers are reviewed. At present, porphyrin photosensitizers are widely used in photodynamic therapy, and with the development of new photosensitizers, photodynamic therapy will have a prominent application prospect in clinical treatment.