The main issues with ceria-based materials are that these materials are generally synthesized at high pressures, at salt–solvent mediated high temperatures, or with surface capping agents. Hence, the sizes of the prepared ceria particles are relatively large. Nano- and micro-structured CeO2 are well known to have higher surface-to-volume ratios with respect to the bulk material, which results in better redox, transport [17] and catalytic properties [18]. Optimal properties of CeO2 generally appear at small grains sizes, smaller than 10 nm. For this reason, developing low-cost methods for obtaining monodisperse particles with a low degree of agglomeration is still desirable. In our study, two cerium (III) and two cerium (IV) salts were used as precursors. The proposed hydrothermal treatment procedure was chosen as the synthesis strategy due to advantages that include low temperatures and easily controlled treatment conditions, and a simple apparatus. The aim of this work was to investigate the influence of different precursors on the size and morphology on the products obtained using the hydrothermal method under the same experimental conditions. Several characterization methods, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman scattering and UV–vis spectroscopy, were employed to correlate the structural and morphological properties of the obtained CeO2 nanopowders with the type of the precursor employed in the hydrothermal synthesis performed under identical conditions.