An experimental analysis was carried out with basin-type vertical multiple-effect diffusion solar still coupled with solar pond (BVMEDS-SP) to evaluate 24 hours overall performance of still by varying feed flow rate and temperature in addition to other affecting parameters. A solar pond was utilized to harness solar energy diurnal and the same energy was provided to basin water nocturnal in batch mode to produce distillate throughout the day. It can be seen that the daily energy and exergy performance of BVMEDS-SP having four effects was improved by 21.74 and 16.83, respectively, when the feed flow rate was reduced from 0.32 g/m2/s to 0.13 g/m2/s. As the temperature of feed water was enhanced from 25.65°C to 32.4°C, the daily energy and exergy efficiency of BVMEDS-SP correspondingly increased by 41.76 and 46.62. In addition, increasing the number of effects from 2 to 5 improved the overall energy and exergy efficiency to 93.15 and 171.80, respectively. The cost analysis revealed that cost of distillate for 2-effect still was Rs. 4.64/kg and it reduced to Rs. 3.11/kg for 7-effect still. A productivity correlation was furthermore developed and estimated that the experimental database of current research was in good agreement with the error band of-5 to +10. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press.