A uniform and compact hole blocking layer is necessary for high efficient perovskite-based thin film solar cell. In this study, we fabricated TiO2 compact layers by using a simple dip-coating method in contrast to the widely used techniques such as spin coating and spray pyrolysis. In this study, we optimized the surface morphologies of dip-coating based TiO2 compact layers by controlling the concentration of Ti precursor solution diluted in ethanol. The analyses of devices performance characteristics showed that thickness and surface morphologies of different TiO2 compact layers played a critical role in affecting the efficiencies. The dip-coating route to prepare TiO2 compact layers employed in this study is more amenable to fabricate the large area device and less expensive. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.