Detection of p-nitrophenol, a product of several enzymatic reactions, is useful and important in many fields of modern bioanalytics. Here, we have developed and applied a complete photometer dedicated for such measurements that is extremely economic and easily customized for specific experimental setups. The instrument consists only of paired emitter-detector diodes (PEDDs) coupled with an extremely simple and low-cost signal transduction system. The experimental data confirmed that this photometric system adapted for cuvette as well as flow measurements can be applied for fast and reproducible determination of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity.