The 19 Best Stock Photo Websites Free & Premium

Its website is fast, making it easy to search and find images. Stock websites are websites that have like images, videos, illustrations, and other forms of media which are quickly and easily retrievable. You can download any of these images for free or for a fee, and businesses can use them commercially. However, if you want to use stock photos, you should be aware of the crediting and licensing rules cited on the website. As for affordability, Yay Images offers a range of plans from single images to credit packs up to 200 a month.

BigStock is owned by Shutterstock, and runs a fairly similar service. Both offer good quality images and a range of payment options, including subscriptions and credit packs. Also, its free trial offer comes with 35 free images, by far the most generous on our list. With over 300 million stock photos, 360° images, vectors and videos, you’ll stand a high chance of finding what you’re looking for.

The Mid-Size Stock Photography Sites

Their database is vast, with over 4.2 million assets to choose from. It’s easy to navigate and displays the stock photos with no distractions. Depositphotos is one of the best stock photo sites I have come across. The breadth of the database offers you a range of stock photo options. There’s everything from stylized shots to more playful and simple images. They also provide royalty-free videos, music, templates, and special effects.

All three offer a huge range of good-quality photos that are competitively priced. So choosing between them really comes down to small differences. Stocksy is one of the best paid stock photo websites, but at the same time, they’re highly selective about choosing contributing photographers. The commission for the contributors varies free stock photos for designers between 15% and 45%, depending on the options the photographer chooses when submitting new visual content. To apply, you’ll need to send in some of your best work to the Vecteezy team to review. Then, if you’re accepted, you can start uploading your best stock images into the marketplace for the public to purchase and download.

#4. iStock Photo

Most stock photo sites operate with either Royalty Free or Rights Managed licenses. These six sites offer an impressive array of free stock images to fuel your visual endeavors. IStock offers three types of subscriptions—basic, premium, and premium + video. The monthly rate starts at $29 and goes up to $333, depending on what and how much content you want to download. Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories.

• In an effort to expand its offerings and attract the discount buyer, Shutterstock acquired Pond5 in 2022.
• FreeImages is one of the most popular free stock photo websites on the web.
• Any premium upgrades and payments must be clearly signposted for users.
• We publish growth advice, technology how-to’s, and reviews of the best products for entrepreneurs, creators, and creatives who want to write their own story.
• Founded in 2004, Can Stock Photo offers lower prices than most other stock photo sites.

Marketers and designers searching Vecteezy for stock photos also have access to high-quality stock photos from Shutterstock’s library. In an effort to expand its offerings and attract the discount buyer, Shutterstock acquired Pond5 in 2022. Pond5 is a video-first content marketer but also has a library of 90 million stock photos, along with music tracks and sound effects.

The Best Stock Photography Sites Compared

This means that, for example, you can change the background of an image in Shutterstock rather than have to take it into a software program like Photoshop. It's also added a text-based AI image generator so that if you don't find an image you like, you could try to generate one using AI. Some stock libraries have prohibited AI-generated images due to concerns about copyright (see how to use DALL-E 2 for more on how the technology works). We give you the lay of the land, dividing stock image websites into free and paid, so you can quickly identify and use a creative asset that’s perfect for your project. You can avoid hours of scouring the internet by checking out our 11 best stock photo sites.

Free sites like Unsplash offer a good starting point, but they have a limited number of images and the licences will often be restrictive. For wider variety and higher quality, consider paid stock photo sites including the ones in our list above. You may also find that niche sites will cater for specific needs, such as food photography. In broader terms, Getty also offers an excellent range of more general stock photos and other assets.

Death to Stock

It's always worth checking before you download a photo though, as there may be exceptions. These programs provide means for websites to earn commissions by linking to products. As a member, we earn commissions on qualified purchases made through our links. We publish growth advice, technology how-to’s, and reviews of the best products for entrepreneurs, creators, and creatives who want to write their own story.

Stocksy focuses on authentic, atypical stock imagery, and it really excels in this. Just one look at the curated gallery is enough to see that you’re dealing with top-tier photographers. If the contributor chooses the non-exclusive option, it means that the photographer can upload the images not only to iStock, but to other stock sites as well. I hope this article gives you a better understanding of the world of stock photography. If you have any questions or comments, please submit them in the space below. All images are free to download for personal or commercial projects.

Best Stock Photo and Royalty Free Image Websites

With an interest in everything from instant film to experimental videography, her work has been featured internationally in a variety of photographic exhibitions and publications. The site’s main drawback is that it can be a bit tricky to navigate. As a free service, the site requires advertisers to stay online. Competitors such as Adobe take full advantage of this by showing off their content on Pexels’ site. If you’re not paying attention, you may accidentally stumble onto a site that will cost you.

The extra price may be worth it if you’re looking for extremely well-taken stock images. It’s the most extensive stock photo site, with over one billion images to search through. This is because they were one of the first stock photo sites around. Pixabay is another very large free stock photo library that also offers illustrations, vector graphics and a growing number of videos.

The 8 best free stock photo sites

Just click Images, select Illustrations, enter in your search terms, and that's that. You can also use Pixabay to search for vector graphics, videos, music, and even sound effects. As a freelancer and a business owner, I've done my fair share of scouring the web for that perfect stock photo.