Abstract The aim of this work is to obtain the electroplating parameters for preparation of Ni–W/Al2O3 composite coating with high tungsten content, high micro-hardness and excellent wear resistance by pulse plating procedure. Our results showed that the duty cycle is a dominant parameter for the tungsten content in the coating and the tungsten content increases significantly with increasing duty cycle. The further analysis showed the great influence of tungsten content on micro-hardness of the coating. A maximum micro-hardness of about 859 Hv was obtained in pulse electrodeposited Ni–W/Al2O3 composite with tungsten content of 40 wt.% at a peak current density of 20 A/dm2, a duty cycle of 80%, a pulse frequency of 1000 Hz and a particle loading of 10 g/L alumina in the plating bath. Although the hardness of Ni–W/Al2O3 composite coating was only slightly affected by the alumina content of the deposits prepared in present investigation, the alumina content effect on the tribological characteristic of Ni–W/Al2O3 composite coatings is significant. The friction coefficient was lowered to 0.25 and the wear loss was reduced to 1.05 mg by setting the control factors according to the values mentioned above for obtaining the coating with the highest micro-hardness.