ZnO and cadmium alloyed zinc oxide (Zn0.9Cd0.1O) thin films were deposited on glass substrate by sol-gel spin coating technique for UV–Vis photodetection application. The properties of the thin films were investigated using X-ray diffractometer, atomic force microscope, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectrometer and UV–Vis spectrometer. The optical band gap of ZnO thin films was obtained as 3.1 eV which was shifted to 2.66 eV in Zn0.9Cd0.1O film due to the incorporation of Cd ions on Zn site. The deposited thin films based photodetectors (PDs) were fabricated with aluminium inter-digitated electrode (IDE) contact deposition by metal evaporation technique. The photo-response of the PDs as a function of wavelength was recorded. ZnO film exhibited good photo-sensitivity only towards UV wavelength but Zn0.9Cd0.1O film showed still increased sensitivity towards UV as well showed good response towards blue lights due to the red shift in cut off wavelength. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.