This work deals with the simulation of a perovskite solar cell with structure, ITO/SnO2/MAPbI[Formula: see text]Clx/Spiro-MeOTAD/Ag using SCAPS-1D software. The optimization of absorber thickness and carriers’ lifetime results in [Formula: see text]% ([Formula: see text][Formula: see text]V, [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mA/cm2 and [Formula: see text]%). The same structures are also analyzed without ETL and HTL for making cost-effective solar cell. The efficiencies for both ETL and HTL free structures are found to be 17.42% and 9.98%, respectively. Further, the optimization of gradient doping shows a significant increment in performance parameters i.e. [Formula: see text]% ([Formula: see text][Formula: see text]V, [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mA/cm2 and [Formula: see text]%). Moreover, the analysis of various factors like average doping concentration, number of absorber sublayers, recombination velocities and temperature on the cell performance are performed to examine device stability. Present observations suggest that by considering only two sublayers, one can achieve the highest cell performance by using the gradient doping method. We have also validated the cell performance by comparing it with the experimental results and found a good agreement in both. Our findings may provide an effective route to fabricate highly efficient solar cell devices.