Currently, tin-based binary chalcogenide semiconductors such as SnSe and SnS have been increasing interest in the production of earth-abundant and environment-friendly thin film solar cells. The solution-based preparation of these compounds offers a promising path towards minimizing the production cost. Therefore, this paper provides a status review on the solution synthesis methods of these compounds. This review focuses on the fundamental, critical aspects of solution synthesis methods along with the resulting structure, morphology, and band gap engineering of SnS and SnSe compounds. Further, this review deals with the issues of the fabrication of SnS and SnSe nanoparticle based solar cells. The progress made thus far in developing these new technologies faces several problems. Therefore, the photovoltaic behavior of SnS and SnSe are examined using bulk heterojunction and photocurrent response. Finally, the challenges and prospects to improve the performance of SnS and SnSe nanoparticle based solar cells are explained. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.