Abstract The multi-energy complementary ecosystem is an important form of the modern energy system. However, standardized evaluation criteria and the corresponding method framework have not yet been formed, resulting in unclear standards and irregular processes of its construction. To cope with this issue, a novel comprehensive evaluation framework for multi-energy complementary ecosystems is proposed in this study. First, a 5D comprehensive evaluation criteria system, including environment, economy, technology, safety and systematicness, is constructed. Then, a novel multicriteria decision-making model integrating an analytic network process, entropy and preference-ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation under an intuitional fuzzy environment is proposed. Finally, four practical cases are used for model testing and empirical analysis. The results of the research show that the unit cost of the energy supply and the internal rate of return indexes have the highest weights of 0.142 and 0.010, respectively. It means that they are the focus in the construction of a multi-energy complementary ecosystem. The net flows of four cases are 0.015, 0.123, –0.132 and –0.005, indicating that cases with a variety of energy supply forms and using intelligent management and control platforms to achieve cold, heat and electrical coupling have more advantages.