•Thin film solar cells based on chemically deposited ZnO/PbSe bilayers were studied.•ZnO and PbSe films were grown by simple aqueous phase chemical deposition methods.•Films presented generally good physical properties for applications in solar cells.•Cells showed good photovoltaic performances, achieving an efficiency of 3.0%.•Our solar cells were as efficient as those already reported by similar research. We report for the first time the fabrication of thin film solar cells based only on aqueous-phase chemically deposited ZnO/PbSe junctions. In particular, ZnO and PbSe thin films were synthesized by Successive Ionic Layer Absorption-Reaction and Chemical Bath Deposition methods. The photovoltaic performance was tested by fabricating ITO/ZnO/PbSe/Ag arrangements. Fill factors (FF), open-circuit voltages (Voc) and short-circuit current densities (Jsc) in the range of 25.4–29.2%, 0.39–0.51 V and 17.9–21.5 mA/cm2 were achieved. Power conversion efficiencies varied typically between 1.9% and 3.0%. Results showed the important photovoltaic activity of our solar cells, achieving good and comparable efficiencies to those reported by similar research. Our research represents a considerable improvement of the cost-performance relation for this kind of device.