Best free stock photo site of 2024
It started 5 years ago as a modest Tumblr blog offering leftover photos from a custom shoot, for free. Negative Space is based in the UK, so much of the photography features British scenes. At the time of writing, the collection has several shots of architecture in London, so it’s worth checking out this guide to intellectual property and the London skyline before using these. Free public domain images are an important cultural resource for everyone.
Pexels offers a wide variety of free photos and videos to use in your next project, and the website is fast and easy to use. Pixabay is packed with well over a million public domain images – not only photos, but also illustrations, vector graphics, and even a handful of videos. Its selection of landscape photography is particularly strong, and the Editor’s Choice is well worth a look if you don’t have something specific in mind.
Outstanding (and Free!) Stock Photography Sites Your Marketing Team Should Know About
Click Images next to the search bar to look for images by type, or you can search more granularly by becoming familiar with Pixabay’s advanced search options. Pixabay lets you search by photographer, orientation (i.e., landscape or portrait), best stock photography for designers size, and even color. The site also features an Editor’s Choice curation section, which highlights the best images chosen by the Pixabay team. Click the Explore dropdown menu in the upper-right corner of the site to see their selections.
- These sites usually let you search and filter by keyword or category, making it easy to find what you’re looking for.
- Niche agencies have their charm, and if you’re after something specific, they’re ideal.
- Another important function is a Publishing assistant to manage and send out designs to your different channels from one place.
- Heavily influenced by the Berlin style, their library follows an authentic aesthetic with unconventional models, non-posed shots, and out-of-the-box concepts.
- While Pic Pac photo packs aren’t necessarily free, they’re “Pay What You Want” so you can place whatever value you’d like on them.
There are a few copyright restrictions in the Royalty-Free license. In general terms, you cannot sell the image as is to anyone else, you cannot use it in defamatory ways, and you cannot use it in products for resale unless you have an Extended License. Always make sure to read all the limitations carefully prior to using a stock photo. Pexels is a free stock photo site based in Germany, created by twin brothers Bruno and Ingo Joseph, both with a background in computer and software technology. The site aims at providing free photos that are more authentic and modern. They have hundreds of thousands of photos submitted by users –including many more aggregated from similar free photo sites–, API integrations, and a very cool blog.
Shutterstock – The Best Stock Photo Giant
Most small businesses don’t have an on-staff photographer and graphic designer to take care of their visual content creation. If you’re looking for the prestigious photos of Getty Images, Getty Images Ultrapacks are very convenient, saving you up to 15% off regular price and making premium photos more affordable. Keep in mind that you can’t use every photo you find on Flickr for free—especially for commercial use. Run a search for an image, and then click the Any license dropdown menu and select Commercial use allowed.
The site monetizes by including sponsored images from paid stock photo collections they’re affiliated to, in their results and galleries. If you like one of those photos, you’ll be redirected to the agency website to buy it. You know CC0 means risk, but this is certainly a serious and respectable website. You might have noticed Photocase is already listed under Premium Stock Photo Sites, but did you know it is also a very unconventional stock photo agency? Heavily influenced by the Berlin style, their library follows an authentic aesthetic with unconventional models, non-posed shots, and out-of-the-box concepts. This is the most trendy photographic style of our days, as you can learn in our article about Authentic Stock Images.
iStock – The First Microstock Agency
In addition to their free section, they offer a premium service with a deeper well of images. And, despite their paid service, PicJumbo doesn’t shirk on the number of free photos they offer. If you’re looking for authentic, unique, and outstanding visuals with a modern feel, you should definitely try Photocase. You can buy photos on demand for between $14-$42 each, and if you use credit packs you can get them for as little as $7,60-$33. But they have a great selection of Royalty Free photos and editorial images that you can buy in an Ultrapack on demand, with great discounts for bulk purchases.
IStock (previously known as iStockphoto) was the pioneer company in selling stock photos online under a royalty-free license, using a micropayment method –therefore, the first microstock agency–. This is the model adopted by most other stock photography libraries that populate the web today. The photos on Flickr are known for containing rich metadata, including geolocation information, EXIF data, tags, and more. So if you want to find photos taken in France, select the World Map under the Explore dropdown, and click on one of the pink dots that pop up in that country. If you want to find images of golden retrievers, simply type the term into the search bar in the upper-right corner of the Flickr homepage, and thousands of results will come back.
Best free stock photos site for a variety of media types
Free Stock Photos’ collection of stock photos and clip art contains both public domain images and images with other licenses, so make sure to check the license of each image. Finding the best free stock photos may seem impossible with everybody charging for every social media post and content these days. Barn Images was launched by two Latvian photographers as a way to help redefine traditional stock photography, proudly naming their images “non-stock”. New public domain images are added every weekday and everything on the site is available for commercial use (read about their license here). Everystockphoto.com is a free stock photo search engine that lets you filter for public domain image licenses.
But, they offer both beautiful high-res photos and videos for free. Some of the art and photography on Pixabay can be a little… odd. I’ve found that if you’re having trouble finding what you need elsewhere, that you may have luck at Pixabay. One of our favorite features is that you can download the images in your custom size specifications. We wholeheartedly believe that stock art and photography have no place in your core visual branding materials. These plans also come with extra downloads for the first year of membership and complementary upscales, video downloads, and even vehicle templates.
Unsplash even has an iOS app, which helps you find stock pictures to use for creative work on an iPad or iPhone. The easiest way to get affordable, high-quality custom logos, print design, web design and naming for your business. StockSnap also can email their most popular photos every week. Unsplash claims to provide “photos for everyone.” With a vast collection of over 800,000 photos, they may be right.
All images uploaded are licensed under CC0 (you can read more here) and are only restricted based on identifiable people, who can not be featured in a bad light or in a way they may find offensive. Realistic Shots is just that… a collection of free stock photography that looks like anything but stock. All images are free to use anyway you please and every week, seven new photos are added.
The laws regarding public domain images are different in every country, so it’s also important to be certain it’s a public domain image in both your country and the country that your client is a citizen of. Remember that some photos may require a model or property release. And never assume that a shiny “Free Download” button is a blank check.
