A current trend in anion sensor design has been to append the host with a chromophore or fluorophore either covalently or non-covalently; this strategy has yielded impressive optical and fluorescent anion sensors. Considering their rich spectroscopic and electrochemical properties, porphyrin derivatives are ideally suited for sensor design. The porphyrin platform is also ideal for receptor design because it presents a convergent surface that can be functionalized with a variety of recognition elements thus creating a binding pocket for target guests. Reported here is our strategy for the use of the porphyrin chromophore for anion sensing purposes through the synthesis and evaluation of several metalloporphyrin derivatives functionalized at one meso position with urea anion recognition elements. The hosts were designed to complement the bent, trigonal planar and tetrahedral geometries of the anion guests. The results show that the anion to metal binding interaction and the guest shape-complementarity of the hosts are key components to the ability of the porphyrin hosts to bind anion guests.