Looking for the perfect free stock image for your blog or website? We have reviewed the best stock photo sites to find awesome free, high-quality images for your next project.
Whether you’re creating a website, a presentation, social media post or an educational report, visual images are always a vital component. You can easily find these stock images online, but most of them are either paid or copyrighted, So how can you find them without attribution or for free?
Thankfully, plenty of websites offer free stock images, easy to download and use without giving any credit.
We’ve curated a list of the best stock photo sites in the post.
So, without much ado, let’s take a look.
1. Pixabay
Pixabay is one of the many popular websites that enables you to get free stock images to download and has one of the largest collections of stock images, amounting to more than 1.7 million images. It is possible to find all your images here.
One of the fantastic features of Pixabay is that all the images come with a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licensing, which enables you to utilize the images personally and professionally without violating any copyright.
Along with images, you can also find royalty-free vector graphics, illustrations and videos here. You will be glad to know that the website does not disappoint with its quality.
Most of the images on the site are of high quality. You can download them in different resolutions as per your requirement.
It is considered one of the best options to get stock images for your site with absolutely no fuss! Can it get any better than this? Literally no!
2. Freerange stock
Freerange Stock has a community of more than 800,000 registered users who receive high-quality free stock pictures. Since 2007, their collection of images has been routinely highlighted and promoted on websites that offer lists of the best places to find free images. In addition, to support the success of their members, they offer dynamic graphic tools that are all licensed for widespread commercial use without credit.
Additionally, they've got an API. If you require free, high-quality images for your application, you need to get in touch and tell them more about your project. They will give you an API key and integration instructions if you are accepted.
3. Pexels
Pexels is considered a top free-stock photo website in today’s time. It is highly recommended for bloggers and designers looking for high-quality images based on the Creative Commons License. In other words, you can utilize them free of cost for personal and commercial purposes without spending a single penny!
The good news is that all the photos you check out on the site are correctly tagged, therefore searchable and easy to discover through their discovery page. In addition, you can browse images by themes, including locations, emotions, and pastimes, and search for a specific image.
Pexels is popular among web and app designers because the website has a vast collection of perfect images for displaying interface mock-ups. And the vast majority of images are original and creative.
It is one of a few websites offering free space images that look amazing. Some of the photos are from NASA, so there’s no doubt of quality.
4. SplitShire
SplitShire is an excellent free stock photo site that prioritizes quality. The photos you see on the website have been clicked and uploaded by the owner. Now, you get to use his images free of cost.
The good thing is, since a photographer has taken all these photos for over a decade, you will find some exclusive pictures that are not available on other stock photo sites.
These photos include technology, nature, abstracts, wedding, things, landscapes, etc. However, the best of the lot is in the places and building categories. You will always find original photos unavailable on any other stock photo site.
A premium version is available, allowing you to download the photos in bulk. However, if you are happy with manually downloading one image at a time, you do not have to spend a single dollar from your pocket. Check this site out if you are looking for an exclusive set of unavailable photographs on other stock photo websites.
5. Photosonic
Photosonic is an AI-powered tool that lets you create stunning images from your imagination. It combines multiple inputs, coherently blends them, and generates an original image in seconds.
Photosonic is web-based and has a user-friendly interface. All you need to do is simply add a few words describing what you want to generate. It creates stunning images you can download or share with just a click.
If you are a content creator, marketer, or someone who needs a unique photo, try Photosonic! It can simply:
Spice up your blog posts, social media posts, newsletters, and landing pages with eye-catching visuals that match your message.
Generate unique artwork for your personal or professional projects, such as book covers, posters, logos, wallpapers, and more.
Enhance your creativity, express yourself with endless possibilities of styles, themes, colors, and effects, and learn and teach about different topics.
Coming up with unique images has never been so easy, right? And the best part is that Photosonic keeps on adding new features.
Pricing:
Free trial - 15 credits
Basic plan for $10 - 100 credits
Unlimited plan for $25 - Unlimited credits
6. 123RF
123RF is another one of the largest stock photo sites in the world. It has millions of best stock image collections and is used by various creators and business owners daily.
It is one of the old stock photo websites, so you can find collections from over a decade. This collection of imagery, sound, and motion is contributed by talents worldwide. You can easily search for photos using desired keywords. Users can also curate their favorite stock images into personalized collections.
You can freely download stock images from more than 500,000 high-quality collections spanning various categories like technology, nature, abstracts, wedding, things, landscapes, etc.
Apart from the free plan, they have premium plans to get high-quality images, vectors and 3D animation. The exciting fact is that they are adding metaverse-ready content in the coming day.
7. Freepik
Freepik is a free-to-use stock image website, expanding at an alarming rate and boasting one of the fastest-growing startups in Europe.
This beneficial service provides you with high-quality photos and design assets for the broader creative community, setting its sights on graphic designers, marketers, and even students who, in turn, become part of Freepik’s thriving online community.
As a user, you will benefit from the millions of hand-picked images and other creative assets, such as vectors, illustrations, mockups, and an assortment of templates, meticulously categorized for a user-friendly experience. Finding resources has never been so easy with Freepik!
8. Moose
Moose is a stock photo resource created by Icons8 that offers both free and premium images. The free photos always appear first in search results and are marked by a yellow box to find them easily. The premium images can also be downloaded for free, but they require attribution to be used in your projects - whether they’re personal or commercial.
9. Envato Elements
Envato Elements offers over 4M of premium, royalty-free stock photos. The library is focused on capturing an image that appears to be "at the moment." You can rest assured that by using Envato Elements' photos, your project won't look "stocky" and will have the perfect "real life" touch.
Envato Elements is a one-stop shop for all things creative. You can also find thousands of other digital assets to complement your marketing materials, such as graphic templates, stock videos, fonts, presentations and more. If you're ready to let your creativity fly, this is definitely the place for you to get everything you need. You can subscribe for $16.50 a month or try it free for seven days.
10. Pixexid
Pixexid is one of the best stock photo sites that provides high-resolution images for personal and commercial use.
Find the perfect photo quickly by browsing through our collection of images. Then, visually Crop it before downloading to ensure everything is aligned perfectly with your project needs!
We know how important it is to find the perfect image quickly. So we provide Adobe Lightroom presets that will help you edit your pictures quickly and easily!
Also, Pixexid has a vast collection of 360-degree panoramas
11. Depositphotos
Depositphotos is a commercial website connecting creators of high-quality, legally-licensed stock photos, graphics, vectors, and movies with grateful consumers. They create the ideal setting for fusing business with creativity thanks to the work of great individuals worldwide and their top-notch technology solutions.
It has royalty-free images, videos, vectors, illustrations, and music that can be easily filtered based on the camera angle, portraiture, gender, age, etc.
With more than 234 million or more files, customers in 192 nations, continual assistance in 20 languages and strong teams in New York, Milan, Kyiv, Limassol, and Warsaw, they have come a long way.
Additionally, DepositPhotos offers a live chat option.
12. Vecteezy
Vecteezy offers a massive selection of high-quality free photos. One of the advantages of sourcing photos at Vecteezy is that they manually review all submissions, and only photos that meet their quality standards are accepted. So you won’t have to browse through many poor-quality images to find what you’re looking for.
In addition to photos, Vecteezy also offers free vectors and stock videos for personal and commercial purposes. Their site also indicates if a signed model release or property release is on file, ensuring that you can use the content legally and with full permission. In addition, they are one of the few free photo sites that require model or property releases from contributors.
Searching Vecteezy is simple; it allows various filters to narrow the results and find what you want. In addition, you can create collections and save favorites by organizing the resources you like with a free account.
13. Picography
Picography has beautiful high-resolution free images. that can be used for any project. No credit is necessary. Save your favorite ones now!
Looking for captivating images you want to use as a virtual background for virtual meetings? Then you should visit Picography as there is a virtual background for everyone, including white-washed wood textures, fuzzy cityscapes, and free stock photographs of the moon's surface.
14. ImageFree
If you’re looking for high-quality authentic images at no cost, check the good collection at ImageFree.com.
They offer a wide range of stock images for startups, bloggers, publishers, freelancers, designers, developers, and producers, especially if you’re focused on getting images from Iceland and Nordic countries.
You can use the keywords tag-based categorization system to quickly identify the images that best meet your mood, sentiment, sensation, or content needs.
15. Gratisography
If you need something surreal, fun, and original, Gratisography is like fresh air.
This collection was created by talented graphic designer Ryan McGuire, who likes everything quirky.
His photos have a surreal edge, and they are perfect if you’re sick and tired of stock photo clichés.
Compared to other websites mentioned here, Gratisography has less variety of free stock images, but new pictures appear every week, and you’re sure to stand out from the crowd.
If you subscribe to his newsletter, you will receive weekly email alerts with his latest images.
The photos are available in 9 categories: animals, business, fashion, food, nature, objects, people, urban and whimsical.
All pictures are free to use, and you do not need to credit Ryan McGuire, but he will be thankful if you do.
16. Life of Pix
Life of Pix is your photo-sharing website where various photographers can share their shots for free. The best part is that it allows you to get quality photos and a dedicated page for photographers enabling you to search for pictures of your favorite photographers.
You will not get this feature on other stock photo sites, which is one of the primary reasons to love Life of Pix. Although the photo selection is limited, you can see all high-quality photos. Some of the widely popular categories include nature, cities, and animals.
17. Stockvault
Stockvault is a website where photographers, designers, and students freely exchange images, graphics, and vector files.
Since 2004, Stockvault.net has provided free stock photographs, "ready-to-use" site layouts, and logos to its visitors, assisting individuals who lack the resources to turn to royalty-free agencies.
18. StockSnap
StockSnap is another website hosting royalty-free images with Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. It has photos on the website provided by a community of photographers.
Surf its library through categories or by what’s trending, most downloaded, most views, and most favorite.
The good news is that all the images are of high resolution. This site is a must if you are into technology because it consists of ideas about technology and gadgets, especially MacBooks.
19. Unsplash
Unsplash believes in "Pictures for all" the world's generous community of photographers has provided over 3 million free high-resolution pictures.
They struggled to find high-quality, valuable pictures, which led to Unsplash's creation. Because of this, over 4 billion Unsplash photos are downloaded today by millions of artists worldwide for use in presentations, artwork, mockups, and other projects.
The procedure to search, download or submit the photo is hassle-free.
20. the ISO Republic
The ISO Republic consists of a portfolio of approximately 3,000 stock photos. Although it is not as big as other sites mentioned in this list, it hosts a good collection of pictures. All the stock photos available on the site are freely available without attribution.
The good news is that the images present come in vibrant colors and excellent dynamic range. Unfortunately, the website does not contain many photos, but it makes up for the quality of images available.
You can find images connected with architecture, technology, nature, city/urban, and people on the site. It is advised to check this site from time to time, as you can find some hidden gems over here.
21. Foca
Although Foca cannot match in terms of quantity, it is much better for various images.
This site has it all, regardless of whether you want high-resolution images, scintillating videos, or pro-looking templates for commercial use.
The great news is that it allows you to edit your preferred image and select its desired size. As a result, you can create stunning posts for sharing on social media sites like Facebook or blogs like Tumblr.
It consists of a good collection of essential tools to create social media graphics. And, you can find lots of beautifully designed wallpapers, so if you are looking for cool wallpapers, this site is mainly for you!
22. Freeimages
Freeimages is a cheaper alternative to pricey stock photographs, it was introduced in February 2001. They aimed to build a website where artists could trade images for ideas or projects. With over 2,500,000 registered users and over 400,000 uploaded photographs, the website has grown into the enormous community you see today.
They have a wide range of collections from art and design to business and fitness; If you follow the guidelines of the licensing Image Agreement, the photographs are free.
Additionally, there are situations when using the photos may require permission from the artists and other times when acknowledgment must be given. These limitations are displayed next to the Download button, behind the image previews.
23. Reshot
Reshot have a variety of images. The best part is that it consists of a nice collection of trending images. This item makes it easier to search for photos to create better social media posts or blogs.
Irrespective of whether you are a tech blogger, a graphic designer, or a social media manager.
The good news is that Reshot is integrated with Facebook and Twitter, so now you can share your favorite images with your followers effortlessly.
This makes it one of the best free stock image sites in quantity and variety.
24. Shot Stash
Shot Stash has three notable features that make it a unique free stock site. Firstly, it has many stock images divided into business, technology, fashion, and more categories. This makes this site the best option to meet your image needs.
Second, it regularly updates new images to suit your latest requirements. Lastly, it comprises a vast collection of trending photos and attractive wallpapers that help you design your smartphone's home/lock screen. Can it get any better than this?
25. Foodiesfeed
Jakub and Hana created Foodiesfeed out of their passion for traveling and eating excellent food worldwide.
It provides the best source for over 2000+ free, high-resolution food images that are incredibly visually appealing.
26. Flickr
Although the primary purpose of Flickr isn’t public domain images, they have a massive library of high-quality free photos.
This is one of the oldest and most popular photo-sharing social networks.
Besides being a convenient free image hosting, it also offers excellent editing tools you can use to make the image better before you download it. You can also organize different pictures in albums.
Do note that most images you download from here will need author credits. Also, check the license that comes underneath each photo.
27. Burst
Burst is a Shopify-powered free stock photo website. To assist users in finding the perfect free stock photo for their upcoming project, our photographers continually take and upload high-resolution pictures.
Because they want to create the best free image library for business owners, they frequently add new categories and upload new images to reflect the most recent developments in e-commerce and retail.
28. Startup stock photos
The website was created in 2014 by developer Eric Bailey and marketer Josh Krakauer using pictures of their friends and familiar locations.
They aim to provide startups, bloggers, publishers, freelancers, designers, developers, producers, and everyone else with free, fantastic photographs.
All images are CC0, allowing you to use them for projects without giving them credit.
29. Vistacreate
Vistacreate is a platform where no design experience is necessary; anyone can quickly create visuals for both personal and business requirements using an online graphic design platform. They also provide stock royalty-free photos and images for commercial use.
30. Stocksnap
This is the place to come if you need captivating, eye-catching, attention-grabbing work for the web that mainly depends on sharp, stunning visuals to thrive.
To find the pictures that best suit your needs in terms of mood, sentiment, sensation, or content, you can use StockSnap's tag-based categorization system.
For instance, select the "People" category if you know you want to utilize pictures of people as the subjects. You'll find more than 5,000 pictures with individuals arranged in declining order of importance.
Or, let's say you're aware that you need to generate a specific feeling, like "love." Then, visit our "love" category tag to view more than 300 inspirational images of love between people.
Conclusion
From the list provided in this write-up, you can understand that there are many fantastic resources for stock photography. These best stock sites have become a blessing for marketers, bloggers and designers.
Sawaram Suthar (Sam) is a Founding Director at Middleware. He has extensive experience in marketing, team building and operations. He is often seen working on various GTM practices and implementing the best ones to generate more demand. He has also founded a digital marketing blog - TheNextScoop.
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