Lead free piezoelectric ceramic 0.5(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3−0.5Ba(Ti0.9Zr0.1)O3, which reveals a high piezoelectric coefficient was synthesized using two different precursors. The sample synthesized separately using ZrO2 and BaZrO3 as Zr-ion dopant precursor exhibits remarkable difference in characteristics. The dielectric studies revealed a clear ferroelectric transition at 95 °C for both the samples along with the expected tetragonal to orthorhombic and orthorhombic to rhombohedral transitions. The sample fabricated using BaZrO3 as precursor has lesser amount of secondary phases, and exhibits high density, large d33 (410 pC/N), and high remnant polarization (9.2 μC/cm2) which are suitable parameters for piezomechanical applications. On the other hand, the sample synthesized with ZrO2 as precursor yields the characteristic parameters suitable for energy storage applications such as large maximum polarization (17 μC/cm2), low remnant polarization (4.1 µC/cm2), large recoverable energy density (W = 164 mJ/cm3) with high percentage efficiency (74%). The studies illustrate the way of changing the physical properties of the piezoceramics towards selected applications by the choice of precursors. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l.