To improve the rate capability of hard carbon (HC), the corresponding hierarchical porous morphology was designed and the metal organic framework (ZIF-8) was selected as a precursor, and the hierarchical pore structure was adjusted via the addition of BiCl3. The results show that the synthesized hierarchical structure of HC electrodes can effectively improve the diffusion of Na ions. The synthesized hierarchical porous hard carbon can achieve a high reversible capacity of 225 mA·h/g and 177 mA·h/g at different currents of 2 A/g and 5 A/g, respectively, based on the optimized micro-and macro-pores. Furthermore, a relationship between the hierarchical porous structure (with micro-and macro-pores) and the sodium storage process was discussed. It is indicated that the micro-pores prefer to facilitate the sodium-ion diffusion in a plateau region, while the meso-pores prefer to provide more defect sites to enhance the adsorption of sodium ions, consequently improving the sodium storage capacity.