Nitrogen-doped Fe-based carbon electrocatalyst (Fe–N–C) is developed by a one-pot pyrolysis method, using a solid-state Fe-EDTA coordination complex. The synthesized catalyst was analytically evaluated by various physical and electrochemical measurements. The effect of various synthetic parameters such as sucrose and EDTA and the effect of metal contents were systematically evaluated. The synthesized Fe–N–C shows significant oxygen reduction activity with half-wave potential of 0.81 V, closer to the commercial Pt/C catalyst, with a nearly 3.9 e− transferred per oxygen molecule. The developed catalyst also shows admirable stability under repeated potential cycling conditions, when compared to the Pt/C catalyst. In a single-cell fuel cell performance analysis, the Fe–N–C catalyst exhibited a peak power density of 118 mW cm−2. Moreover, the Fe–N–C showed remarkable durability during the accelerated stress test (AST) at highly corrosive conditions. © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.