Recently, metal foams have been intensively studied to be used as alternative flow fields to the conventional channel-rib flow field in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) to enhance the uniformity of gas distribution and reduce the weight of fuel cells. This work demonstrates a simple and compact design at the cathode side for achieving effective electrons and gas transport in PEMFCs, which includes a porous metal foam flow media coated with a microporous layer (MPL) on its top to form one single hierarchical porous component functioning as both the gas distributor and diffusion media. With this low-cost and light-weight design, the conventional gas diffusion layer (GDL) can be eliminated. A comparative analysis of PEM fuel cell performances for the conventional carbon paper-based GDL and three metallic GDL designs containing different MPLs is conducted under varied stoichiometric ratios and relative humidity (RH). At 100% RH, the optimum performance is achieved on the CB/CNT MPL-coated metal foam, with the maximum power density increased by 21% than that of the conventional design when the stoichiometric ratio of air is 1.5. Under dry conditions (40% RH), all the metallic GDL structured cells outperform the conventional one at a low airflow rate (stoichiometric ratio = 1.5).