Highly textured fluorine-doped tin oxide thin films have been deposited using cost-effective spray pyrolysis technique. Precursor solution for spraying is prepared with solvents viz. methanol, ethanol, propane-2-ol and distilled water. The optical, structural, morphological and electrical properties of thin films have been studied. X-ray diffraction studies revealed polycrystalline tin-oxide (SnO2) phase with tetragonal crystal structure and predominantly (2 0 0) oriented films, irrespective of solvents. The novel mat-like morphology is observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Hall-effect measurements revealed that the films are heavily doped degenerate semiconductor with n-type conductivity. The variations in electrical resistivity, carrier concentration and mobility with respect to spray solvents have been discussed. The typical P-FTO sample has maximum value of figure of merit (phi = 6.18. 10(-2) Omega(-1)) with lowest ever-reported sheet resistance of 3.71 Omega (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.