Natural biomass-derived carbons have attracted great attention due to their interesting characteristics of naturally porous or hierarchical structured and heteroatom doping. In this review, the recent progress in the synthesis of naturally-derived carbon and their composite electrodes is summarized in detail. Advantages and disadvantages of different methods (e.g., chemical and physical activations) are discussed. In addition, we further address the pore formation mechanism on biomass-derived carbons. Furthermore, their applications for electrochemical energy storage in lithium ion batteries and sodium ion batteries are briefly reviewed and highlighted associated with their structural merits such as hierarchical porous structure, high conductivity as well as large surface area. Outlook of research trends on next-generation high-performance electrodes based on biomass-derived carbons is provided at the end. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.