In the light of the concept of spherical wave source, the theoretical model of nearfield acoustic holography (NAH) based on the spherical wave superposition method (SWSM), including reconstruction of expansion coefficients, prediction of acoustic field, error sensitivity analysis, regularization method and a searching method with dual measurement surfaces for determining the optimal number of expansion terms, is established. Subsequently, the spherical wave source boundary point method (SWSBPM) and its application in the NAH are introduced briefly. Considering the similarity of the SWSM and the SWSBPM for realizing the NAH, they are compared. The similarities and differences of the two methods are illuminated by a rigorous mathematical justification and two experiments on a single source and two coherent sources in the semi-free acoustic field. And, the superiority of the NAH based on the SWSBPM is demonstrated.