The ability of saw dust and neem bark as low-cost natural adsorbents were investigated for adsorptive removal of Zn(II) and Cd(II) ions from aqueous solutions. Various physico-chemical parameters such as pH, initial metal ion concentration, and adsorbent dosage level and equilibrium contact time were studied. The optimum pH for adsorption was found to be 5 for Zn(II) and 6 for Cd(II). Kinetics data were best described by pseudo-second-order model. Mass transfer coefficients were also determined for individual adsorbents for removal of Zn(II) and Cd(II) ions from aqueous solutions. The equilibrium adsorption data were fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models for Zn(II) and Cd(II) adsorption respectively. The adsorption capacities (qmax) for individual metal ions in terms of monolayer adsorption were compared with the other reported values. The sorption energy calculated by using Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm for different system indicated that the adsorption process is physical in nature. The thermodynamic equilibrium constant and the Gibbs free energy were determined for each system and results indicated the spontaneous nature of the adsorption process. FT-IR studies were carried out to understand the type of functional groups in saw dust and neem bark responsible for metal binding process.