<p>The advancement of sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) depends on designing high-performance anode materials. Hard carbon (HC) is a suitable candidate due to the availability and low cost of resources for production, but its limited reversible capacity and unsafeness upon high-rate charging remain obstacles. Herein, a novel simple strategy combining low-temperature pyrolysis and hydrothermal treatment for the fabrication of a synergistic composite based on hard carbon coated by molybdenum disulfide nanosheets has been developed. The MoS₂@HC composite shows superior electrochemical characteristics for SIBs in contrast with HC and MoS₂ on their own. In particular, it demonstrates almost two times better sodium storage ability at high current densities as compared to HC. The operating potential of the MoS₂@HC composite is higher than that of HC, implying improved battery safety. At the same time, the composite shows a better cycle life than MoS₂. It stays stable during long-term cycling, whereas MoS₂ shows unacceptable behavior already after the 100^th cycle. The resulting MoS₂@HC composite at low current density of 20&#xa0;mA&#xa0;g^–1 delivers a reversible capacity stabilized at 304&#xa0;mAh&#xa0;g^–1. It also demonstrates cycling stability at high current densities with a capacity of 131&#xa0;mAh&#xa0;g^–1 over 200 cycles at 1000&#xa0;mA&#xa0;g^–1. This research opens a facile way for designing hard carbon based anode for sodium-ion batteries with increased capacity and improved safety.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>