Cost, power density and durability are still major challenges to the large-scale commercialization of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Most of these issues could be addressed by changing the conventional architecture of PEMFCs. The present work introduces a novel, net-shape flat architecture with unique capabilities. This netlike design increases the active area dramatically by bringing each channel in contact with three different electrodes. These capabilities are further investigated through a well validated three-dimensional non-isothermal model in ANSYS Fluent. Comparing the polarization curves shows that, per unit active area, the net-style design has a performance significantly better than that of conventional (classical) PEMFCs. In addition, it shows more uniform distribution of oxygen, water, current and temperature. Moreover, it provides remarkably higher current and power densities. Owing to its netlike shape, the proposed multi-channel PEMFC is also considerably smaller and requires less bipolar plates per unit active area. As a result, the state-of-the-art design introduced in this work can enhance the performance of PEMFCs remarkably while reducing their size and the bipolar plate cost. The net-type stack can therefore be considered one of the promising designs for the next generation of PEMFCs. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.