Bimetallic metal-organic frameworks are rationally synthesized as templates and employed for porous carbons with retained morphology, high graphitization degree, hierarchical porosity, high surface area, CoNx moiety and uniform N/Co dopant by pyrolysis. The optimized carbon with additional phosphorus dopant exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance for the oxygen reduction reaction, which is much better than the benchmark Pt/C in alkaline media.