With the increasingly serious environmental pollution and gradual depletion of fossil fuels, the development of efficient green energy conversion technology has become an urgent global issue. Photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production has attracted extensive attention due to its ability to directly convert solar energy into hydrogen energy. However, it still faces bottlenecks such as low light utilization efficiency and low quantum efficiency. Cadmium sulfide (CdS) has become a research hotspot because of its suitable band gap, excellent band structure and low-cost advantages. Nevertheless, problems such as severe photocorrosion and high carrier recombination rate of CdS have seriously restricted its practical application. This paper reviews the research progress in the characteristics, preparation methods and performance improvement strategies of CdS-based photocatalysts in recent years. It elaborates on the basic properties of CdS photocatalysts and several common preparation methods. On this basis, various modification strategies for CdS photocatalysts in hydrogen production are emphatically discussed, including morphology regulation strategy, solid solution engineering strategy, heterojunction construction strategy and element doping strategy, focusing on the efficient utilization of charges, the preparation of CdS-based material composite systems and the improvement of photocatalytic activity. Finally, the development prospects and challenges of CdS-based photocatalytic materials in photocatalytic hydrogen production are prospected.