One of the grand challenges for developing scalable and sustainable hydrogen producing systems is the lack of efficient and robust earth-abundant element based catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, a hierarchically structured Ni–Co–P film was fabricated via a gas templating electro-deposition method. This film exhibits remarkably high catalytic performance for the HER in 1 M KOH with respective current densities of −10 and −500 mA cm⁻² at the overpotentials of −30 and −185 mV with a Tafel slope of 41 mV dec⁻¹. A controlled potential electrolysis experiment demonstrates that the as-prepared Ni–Co–P film is an efficient and robust catalyst with a faradaic efficiency close to 100%. Systematic characterization suggests that the unique hierarchical structure and the mutual participation of nano-sized Ni/Co based components are responsible for the high HER catalytic activity.