The use of light radiation to cause the dissociation of water into hydrogen (H₂) gas has tremendous promise as a green method of hydrogen production. Herein, we reported a comparative study for the photocatalytic activity of TiO₂ nanocomposite with two co-catalysts e.g., Pt or Cu nanocrystals (3–4 nm) using different synthesis procedures; incipient wet impregnation (Imp), hydrothermal (HT), or photo-deposition (PD) methods. The effect of catalyst mass loading percentages (0.1–1 wt.%) was investigated. The mass loading of 0.3 wt% for both co-catalysts exhibited the highest value of the generated hydrogen. Even without a precious metal such as Pt, Cu/TiO₂ synthesized using the PD method provided an initial rate of 24 mmol h^-1g⁻¹, which is 3.5 and 1.4 times higher than the composite synthesized using HT and Imp methods. On the other hand, the highest rate for Pt co-catalyst was observed for the Imp method with a rate of 58 mmol h^-1g⁻¹ which was higher by 1.6 and 1.1 times than the composite synthesized using PD and HT methods, respectively. This study offers new perspectives on the significant influence of the co-catalyst deposition technique on the efficiency of photocatalysis for producing hydrogen through water splitting.