This paper investigates the dynamic buckling of bi-directional (BD) functionally graded (FG) porous cylindrical shells for various boundary conditions, where the FG material is modeled by means of power law functions with even and uneven porosity distributions of ceramic and metal phases. The third-order shear deformation theory (TSDT) is adopted to derive the governing equations of the problem via the Hamilton’s principle. The generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method is applied together with the Bolotin scheme as numerical strategy to solve the problem, and to draw the dynamic instability region (DIR) of the structure. A large parametric study examines the effect of different boundary conditions at the extremities of the cylindrical shell, as well as the sensitivity of the dynamic stability to different thickness-to-radius ratios, length-to-radius ratios, transverse and longitudinal power indexes, porosity volume fractions, and elastic foundation constants. Based on results, the dynamic stability of BD-FG cylindrical shells can be controlled efficiently by selecting appropriate power indexes along the desired directions. Furthermore, the DIR is highly sensitive to the porosity distribution and to the extent of transverse and longitudinal power indexes. The numerical results could be of great interest for many practical applications, as civil, mechanical or aerospace engineering, as well as for energy devices or biomedical systems.