Accumulation of excess water in Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is one of the significant technical challenges that needs great attention, since it makes the performance of the fuel cell highly unpredictable and unreliable. To address this formidable task, herein by inserting porous inserts in inline and staggered arrangements on the provisions of landing surface of serpentine flow field, we minimize water clogging in gas diffusion layer. Two types of porous inserts namely porous carbon inserts (PCI), porous sponge inserts (PSI) of sizes 2 mm × 2 mm x 2 mm (2 mm porous inserts) and 4 mm × 2 mm x 2 mm (4 mm porous inserts) are tested for water management of PEMFC, and their respective performances are analyzed. The results showed that power density produced by MSI flow field is 9.5% and 11.57% higher than serpentine flow field for 2 mm and 4 mm PCI respectively while the MSS flow field produced 31.81% and 42.56% higher performance in terms of power density compared with serpentine flow field for 2 mm and 4 mm PCI respectively. The MSS flow field with 4 mm PCI produced 27.77% higher power density compared with 2 mm PCI. Using porous sponge insert instead of porous carbon insert increases the power density by 23.33% for 2 mm porous insert and the power density increases 21.73% for 4 mm PSI in MSS flow field. Increasing the size of PSI from 2 mm to 4 mm increases the power density by 26.12% in MSS flow field. •PEMFC performance has increased by using porous carbon inserts due to better water removal.•Porous sponge inserts have increased performance compared to porous carbon inserts.•Increasing the size of the porous inserts improves the performance of PEMFC.