The Best Free Stock Photo Websites

The Best Free Stock Photo Websites

Finding the perfect photo for your next blog post, design project, or advertisement can be a challenge. Luckily, there are a number of great free stock photo websites out there that you can use to get photos for personal or commercial use on any budget (or with no budget at all).

In this blog post, we’ll share our picks for the best free stock photo websites. These sites offer thousands of photos that can be downloaded and incorporated into your work. Cover photo by Werayuth Tessrimuang via Vecteezy.

The Best Free Stock Photo Websites

We all know that a good photo can make or break a blog post, article, or marketing campaign. Stock marketplaces present plenty of options, but there may be times when there’s no room in the budget to purchase a stock photo license. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the best free stock photo websites, so you can find the perfect image for your needs without spending a dime.

Whether you’re looking for beautiful scenery shots or fun and quirky graphics, there’s a site here that will meet your needs. So take a look and start downloading!

1. Vecteezy

vecteezy

Vecteezy is a creative marketplace that offers millions of stock photos, stock videos, and vector graphics. Most of the resources can be downloaded for free, but you’ll also find some premium resources that require a Vecteezy Pro subscription or download credits. However, if you’re looking specifically for free content, you can use the search filter to see only resources that are offered under the free license.

The selection of stock photos at Vecteezy is large and growing quickly. They also focus on quality, as every resource (even the free photos) is manually reviewed before being added to the site. You won’t have to scroll through a lot of low-quality photos to find the gems, because images that don’t meet their standards never make it onto the site.

Another important detail that separates Vecteezy from most free photo sites is that they require contributors to submit a signed model or property release if a photo includes a recognizable person or place. This is often overlooked when it comes to free photos, but it’s significant because it protects you by knowing that models and property owners have given their consent. Photos that are lacking a necessary signed release and photos with a visible logo or trademark will be released under an editorial license instead of a commercial license.

The free license from Vecteezy allows you to use the photos for personal or commercial purposes with attribution. The requirement for attribution is waived for Pro subscribers.

2. Pexels

pexels

Pexels is one of the most popular free stock photo websites and they have a huge collection with photos in just about any category you can imagine. The quality of photos at Pexels is generally very good, and everything is completely free to download (they also offer videos in addition to photos).

The user experience at Pexels is excellent. There are a few filters you can use to narrow the search results and find exactly the type of image you’re looking for. There are also no ads on the site, so the layout is clean and uncluttered.

The resources available at Pexels are offered free for personal and commercial use with very few restrictions. You do not need to provide attribution.

The downside of Pexels compared to Vecteezy is that Pexels does not collect signed model and property releases. Likewise, there are logos and trademarks in some of the images, so you need to be careful about how you use the photos.

3. Unsplash

unsplash

Unsplash is similar to Pexels in some key ways. This is another outstanding site with a huge selection of high-quality free photos. One of the reasons why Unsplash has become so popular is that the photos you’ll find here do not have the stereotypical stock photo look. Instead, you’ll find unique photos with more of a custom feel.

Unlike the first two sites on our list, Unsplash focuses exclusively on photos (at least, for now). That means you won’t find videos, vector illustrations, or other types of resources.

The Unsplash license is very similar to the Pexels license. You can use the photos for personal and commercial purposes with very few restrictions, and you don’t need to provide attribution.

Also like Pexels, Unsplash does not collect signed model or property releases, and some of the images include brand logos or trademarks.

4. Canva

canva

Canva is well-known for its free web-based design software, but Canva also offers a large selection of free photos, and an even bigger collection of premium stock photos. Canva owns both Pexels and Pixabay (the next site on our list) and many of the free photos available at Canva are pulled from those sites.

If you use Canva’s design tools, their photo selection adds convenience to your work. It’s easy to grab the photos and use them within your designs.

While Canva offers a sizable selection of high-quality photos, the downside is that the licensing details are a bit more complicated. You’ll find free resources that use one of several different licenses, (Pexels, Pixabay, CC0, and Canva’s own free license). Of course, they also have a separate license for the pro content, and that license has many more restrictions that you’ll need to be aware of if you’re using the paid content.

5. Pixabay

pixabay

Pixabay, now owned by Canva, offers one of the largest selections of free photos, as well as videos and illustrations. You’ll find plenty of outstanding photos at Pixabay, but the search results also tend to show many photos of lower-quality as well. If you’re using Pixabay, you’ll need to sift through more photos to find the ones that are good enough to use in your work.

The resources available at Pixabay are offered under Pixabay’s own license. You can use the content in personal or commercial projects, and you do not need to provide attribution or credit. There are very few restrictions related to how you can use the photos, videos, and illustrations.

Like Pexels and Unsplash, Pixabay does not collect signed model or property releases from contributors, and some of the photos may include brand logos or trademarks.

6. Burst

burst

Burst is a free photo site owned by Shopify, the world’s largest e-commerce platform. You’ll find a wide variety of photos at Burst, but Shopify’s emphasis is on e-commerce, there are more photos that would be useful for online shops and advertisements. But you’ll also find an excellent selection of photos to use in blog posts, social media images, and many other purposes.

The selection of photos at Burst isn’t as big as what you’ll find at other sites like Pexels and Unsplash, but the quality is excellent. Additionally, you won’t find many of the same photos at Burst and other sites.

Some of the photos at Burst are released under a Creative Commons license (CC0) and others use Burst’s own license. In either case, the photos can be used for personal or commercial purposes with no attribution required.

Burst does not specify whether they collect signed model and property releases, so it’s best to assume that they do not.

7. Gratisography

gratisography

If you’re looking for unique, fun, and creative photos, Gratisography will become your go-to source. The selection of photos at Gratisography is much smaller than the other sites on our list, but these photos are not like any other stock photos you’ve seen. Gratisography specializes in quirky, original photos, and many of them have been provided by the site’s creator, Ryan McGuire.

The photos from Gratisography won’t be the right fit for every project, but you’ll love having the option to download and use these original photos at no cost.

The Gratisography license allows the photos to be used for personal and commercial purposes with no attribution required. There are very few restrictions involved.

While Gratisography does not provide information about model or property releases, the license does indicate that images may be subject to other intellectual property rights.

8. Picjumbo

picjumbo

Picjumbo is another site where most of the photos are provided by the owner of the site. Like Gratisography, the number of photos available at Picjumbo cannot compare to what you’ll find at the larger sites on this list, but the photos at Picjumbo are of excellent quality.

In addition to the free photos, Picjumbo also offers some premium photos that require a purchase. However, the majority of the photos are free to download.

Picjumbo organizes the photos into collections, so you can browse by collection and find many similar images.

The free photos available at Picjumbo can be used for personal and commercial purposes without attribution. Model and property releases are not available for all photos, and some of the images do include brand logos or trademarks. As a result, you need to be careful about how you use the photos.

9. ISO Republic

iso republic

ISO Republic isn’t nearly as large as some of the sites that are ranked higher on our list, but you’ll still find thousands of high-quality images here, and videos too! The selection is good, but not overwhelming.

While you won’t be able to use ISO Republic as your only source of photos, it serves as an excellent complement to the other sites on our list.

All of the photos from ISO Republic are released under the CC0 license, which means they can be used for just about anything with no attribution required. No model releases or property releases are available, so use the photos with caution.

10. StockSnap

stocksnap

StockSnap offers thousands of quality photos that can be used for free. The site is fairly similar to Pexels or Pixabay, but on a smaller scale. You can browse photos in many different categories or use the search functionality to find what you’re looking for.

The site offers a pretty good user experience, but there are times when the Shutterstock ads blend in with the photos from StockSnap, which can be a little confusing. Each photo page also includes a link to edit the photo, and that leads to Shutterstock’s editor.

Photos available at StockSnap use the CC0 license, so you can use them for just about any purpose. However, model releases and property releases are not collected by StockSnap, and some of the images include logos or trademarks.

11. PikWizard

pikwizard

You’ll find a large collection of more than one million images at PikWizard. Some premium stock photos from Shutterstock are also displayed in the search results, but there are also plenty of free photos.

The quality of free photos at PikWizard is pretty good overall, but there are some lower-quality images mixed in as well. PikWizard’s free license allows the photos to be used for personal or commercial purposes without providing attribution. Like most of the other sites on this list, PikWizard does not get involved with model or property releases, so you’ll need to use the photos with care.

Conclusion

You might be surprised at how many options you have when it comes to free photos. In this article we’ve covered what we feel are the best free stock photo websites, along with details of what each site has to offer. With all of these resources at your disposal, you’ll be able to find quality photos you can use at no cost for your own projects, and even for client work.

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Related: Best Free Stock Video Websites

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