This work makes particular emphasis on the following methods: the biocatalyzed whole cell synthesis of nucleosides mediated by phosphorylases, key biocatalyzed steps involved in other chemoenzymatic routes to prepare nucleoside analogues and the transformation of nucleosides in derivatives with particular properties. The literature covered in this work confirms that biocatalytic procedures that make use of whole cell systems can be successfully applied to obtain a wide variety of nucleoside analogues and their derivatives, providing alternative and complementary routes to traditional chemistry. The direct use of microbial whole cells as biocatalysts affords competitive results since it avoids the cumbersome procedures involved in enzyme isolation and facilitates multienzymatic processes. These biocatalysts also maintain the enzymes in their natural environment, protecting their activities from reaction conditions. Although the information presented herein shows that these methodologies have reached a high degree of development, it is expected that future contributions of protein engineering and nucleoside metabolism knowledge, among other disciplines, will expand the already wide range of applications in nucleoside chemistry of whole cell biocatalysis.