This article will compile a list of the best online stock photo websites to ensure you have instant access to millions of free stock images.
Perhaps you're an aspiring photographer looking for inspiration, or you're simply trying to find stock photos (general images, illustrations, and icons created without a specific project in mind) to add to your website. Whatever your purpose, it's helpful to have a number of stock photo websites at your disposal.
That's why today's article compiles a list of the best online stock photo websites to ensure you have instant access to millions of free stock images.
These stock photo websites are great when combined with free clip art download websites , which you might find useful when you need something in addition to photos.
What does "free photos " mean?
Some websites allow you to download images for personal use (e.g., as wallpapers ) but do not permit commercial use (such as printing business cards, creating websites, or designing posters).
The following websites support or have fully licensed CC0 images (a type of royalty-free license) available for everyone to use. The owners of these images have granted permission for users to modify, edit, and use their images without any copyright data response.
Two things related to common courtesy when using CC0 images are:
1) Although you don't have to acknowledge the work of the person who created the photo, you should do so to encourage the artists.
2) These websites often have a Donate page or notification that appears on the screen. If you use that free image hosting website regularly, consider donating to them.
Here are some websites you should keep in mind to find high-quality, royalty-free images.
17 websites to find high-quality, royalty-free images.
1. Unsplash
Unsplash is a side project started by Crew, an online marketing company dedicated to 'making your design dreams come true'. Founded in May 2013, Unsplash provides free, up-to-date images uploaded by photographers from locations around the world, making the platform an effective way to share your photos with a wide audience.
While this creates an opportunity for your photos to reach a wider audience, Unsplash typically doesn't pay photographers when their photos are downloaded and used. Therefore, most photographers agree to allow the use of their photos free of charge without permission (or attribution) for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.
Most images displayed on the Unsplash website are actually free, within certain limitations. Unlike many other online image sources, Unsplash allows both commercial and personal use. No prior permission is required to use images with Unsplash's standard license.
Meanwhile, bloggers, social media content creators, and news media benefit from a massive source of valuable free images. This might sound like a problem for traditional stock photo websites. In reality, Unsplash is now owned by one of the largest and most valuable stock image sources, Getty Images, and charging for photos remains a viable business model.
In addition to providing free stock photos, Unsplash also showcases user-created graphic design work in its MadeWith section. Unsplash retains control over its image catalog and unauthorized republishing is prohibited. An application programming interface (API) is available that allows access to the catalog feed, giving Unsplash control over data rates and the potential to monetize the content.
2. Pexels
Pexels is a stock image website offering hundreds of thousands of free, high-quality stock images and videos to users worldwide. Compared to some other free stock image platforms, such as Pixabay, Pexels is relatively new to the market. Founded in 2014 by Bruno and Ingo Joseph, Pexels joined forces with Daniel Frese in 2015 and has strived to become a leading resource for high-quality, free stock images ever since. Pexels has developed a reputable image library. Pexels' mission statement highlights the goals the website aims for:
"We help millions of designers, writers, artists, programmers, and other creators access beautiful images that they can use freely, helping them create products, designs, stories, websites, apps, artwork, and other amazing things. We call it: 'Empowering Creators'." (According to Pexels.com)
Pexels is also unique in that it doesn't just display images on its own website. It also outsources images from high-quality websites like Gratisography, Little Visuals, and many others.
Best of all, Pexels displays images in the highest possible quality. Note that you can also download high-quality videos from the website.
The biggest advantages of Pexel include:
- Pexels offers a curated collection of over 500,000 free stock images.
- Each month, artists upload more than 50,000 new images to the Pexels platform.
- Pexels uses a powerful search algorithm that helps filter and sift through hundreds of thousands of images easily and quickly.
- The search function includes unique options, such as searching by color.
- Pexels highlights top-rated images and showcases unique categories.
- Pexel's API allows for seamless integration of their images and videos into websites and other visual products.
- Pexels' image sources include websites that provide free images such as Pixabay, Gratisography, and Little Visuals.
- All images on Pexels are listed under the Creative Commons Zero license, meaning they can be freely used for personal or commercial purposes without attribution.
- The images on Pexels are high-quality and far superior to the cold, emotionless images found on other free photo hosting websites.
- If you like the work of a particular contributor, you can contact them directly through the platform.
- Pexels offers a "Heroes" program for its top content contributors.
3. Flickr
Although Flickr isn't exclusively for free images, it does have a huge library of high-quality free images.
Flickr has been around for quite a while. It's one of the largest image libraries on the internet. With over 3 million free, high-quality images, you'll probably use them all up in no time.
4. Pixabay
Pixabay is an integrated image archive from various image hosting websites. It strives to gather the best free stock images for users to use for personal or commercial purposes.
Pixabay also allows easy access to camera search, enabling users to discover images based on the camera used to take the photo. This is a great resource for both beginners and professional photographers.
5. Wikimedia
Wikimedia provides a truly stunning archive of images, on everything from beautiful landscapes to historical events.
With over 34,000,000 freely available media files, including video and audio, Wikimedia is an essential tool for graphic designers , photographers, and artists seeking free, high-quality images. Wikimedia is also part of a larger organization dedicated to free imagery, education, and information.
6. Vecteezy
Vecteezy is a fantastic royalty-free image website with a wide variety of options. Vecteezy's image range is extensive, but what sets it apart from other royalty-free websites is its vector section, featuring many pure vector images in various styles and types. You can also see what's trending on the site and use that information for the stock images you download.
Like other royalty-free image websites, Vecteezy has a Pro License subscription model, allowing them to offer free stock images. Vecteezy's free images are clearly marked, and you can use the Free License search tool to focus on what you want.
7. Openverse
If you're looking for a royalty-free image search tool, then Openverse is the one for you. Developed and maintained by WordPress, you can use Openverse to search for royalty-free images on the internet. Even better, you can use Openverse to search under various Creative Commons licenses, such as CC BY (attribution only) and CC BY-ND (attribution only, reproduction not permitted).
One thing to note with Openverse is that you have to click on the image website to find the correct display license, not just use the Openverse URL (which doesn't count).
8. Adobe Royalty Free Images
Adobe is one of the biggest names in the creative industry, with the world-leading Adobe Creative Cloud, trusted by countless creators and businesses worldwide. However, the platform is also notoriously expensive, which is why you might be surprised that Adobe maintains a collection of royalty-free images for anyone.
Adobe licenses allow for use in most applications, but become more difficult to navigate when you use the work for editorial purposes. However, Adobe's royalty-free image database is easy to search, very high quality, and covers a wide range of themes, etc. The large number of royalty-free transparent background images is also really useful, as you can find many people making gestures, in specific poses, etc.
9. Freerange
After registering for a free membership at Freerange, thousands of high-resolution stock photos will be at your fingertips at no cost. All images on the site can be used for personal or commercial projects. For photographers, Freerange also offers a Google AdSense revenue sharing service when you contribute.
In addition to thousands of unique images, the website also features approximately 20,000 CC0 images, most of which have accurate keywords and descriptions.
10. Life of Pix
Some people have spent hours searching for beautiful photos on Life of Pix.
Created by the Montreal-based advertising agency LEEROY, Life of Pix is a haven for free photos. Even better, the Life of Pix website also features impressive stock video footage , and it's completely free too!
11. StockSnap
StockSnap offers a fantastic library of free stock images. With hundreds of high-quality photos added weekly, StockSnap is not your average photo archive.
All images on StockSnap are free for you to use. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better image hosting service than StockSnap.
12. Burst
There are things that work well even when you barely notice it, and that's exactly what Burst offers. Like Unsplash, Burst not only provides a sleek interface to explore but also has a wealth of images and categories to choose from. Even better, it offers both low- and high-quality image options, depending on whether you're adding images to a website or using them for graphic design.
If you need a large online archive of high-quality images, check out Burst immediately.
13. KaboomPics
KaboomPics is a truly impressive website. From its user interface design to its images of the stars, you'll find all the images you need.
You can select suitable images in KaboomPics. Then, use both the color search tool and the color palette for that image!
This changed the landscape of what KaboomPics offers. From images to informative blog posts, it's one of the most impressive websites for free stock photos.
14. Gratisography
Looking for something a little different? Need a unique, free, high-resolution photo? Then Gratisography is the place for you.
This website has a wealth of royalty-free, "truly unique, and always free" images that will allow you to add a unique touch to your next project.
15. Libreshot
Libreshot is another useful source for finding slightly unusual royalty-free photos. Every photo on the site is the work of its owner, Martin Vorel.
Vorel uploads his amazing photos from all over the world to Libreshot, allowing you to use them for free. Martin Vorel only asks that if you use one of his photos, please consider adding a link to the website.
16. Negative Space
Negative Space offers you thousands of stunning royalty-free images across various categories. Like some of the other top royalty-free image websites, you can search Negative Space by using the color of the image you want instead of a specific search term or category.
New free images are added all the time, so be sure to check Negative Space for your next project.
17. Reshot
The final option for finding royalty-free stock images is Reshot. If you want truly unique stock images, Reshot is one of your best choices.
Our development and creative team will vet every royalty-free photo uploaded to the site, ensuring only the best of the best is available to you. This means the standards of photography at Reshot are very high – and that will be reflected in your work as well.
The great thing about Reshot is that you can also use it to find unique icons and illustrations for your next project, as well as search for images using different search criteria.
Thanks to tools like those listed in this article, viewing, enjoying, and using high-quality images for free is now easier than ever. However, remember that there are some common courtesys you should observe for the benefit of the creator.
See more:
- 39 websites offering free image libraries for art enthusiasts.
- 5 free websites to download stunning HD wallpapers for your smartphone.
- Software and applications for downloading high-quality wallpapers.