We have created a list with 14 Amazingly Free Stock Photo Websites that are absolutely worth a visit. It’s complicated to find amazing non-cheesy images for your latest blog, do you agree? When you use Google to search for ‘free stock images’, you will virtually always end up on the pro picture websites with an impressive image library specialized in selling stock photography at high prices.
Those who are willing to invest some time and energy into a thorough search will quickly find out that the web is filled with amazing sites that offer beautiful high-quality pictures, videos and explainer videos. Images that will give your blog or website that unique look!
14 Amazingly Free Stock Photo Websites with creative non-cheesy collections of gratis high-quality photography
#1 Pixabay
Pixabay our number one from our list of Free Stock Photo Websites has an archive/image library filled with over 1.300.000 high-quality pictures, illustrations, and vector images. Pixabay offers its images for commercial use.
Mentioning the author’s name is not necessary. All pictures and videos in the Pixabay image library are classified under CC0 – Creative Commons.
Pixabay Addons
Pixabay provides plugins for popular software like Adobe and Microsoft Office (Powerpoint / Word). These plugins let you search and insert Pixabay images into your creative projects directly. Pixabay Images is a WordPress plugin that lets you pick pictures from Pixabay and insert them with just a click anywhere on your blog.
#2 Unsplash
Unsplash is a well-known website with an amazing collection of over 400,000+ unique, creative photos. Labeling these images as just ‘stock photography’ does not do them justice. Unsplash manages to build a unique image library that will provide your website or webshop with a distinctive identity and appearance. New pictures added daily. The photos are available for both private and commercial use. Attribution is not mandatory.
The news that Unsplash has just raised $7.25M to add cryptocurrency to the platform suggests that in the near future it may be necessary to start paying for stock photos on the Unsplash platform.
#3 Gratisography
Gratisography is a site that offers an extensive collection of creative, artistic images that everyone can use for nothing. An amazing project created by artist Ryan McGuire. For anyone interested in artistic non-cheesy stock pictures. Gratisography is a website worth visiting!
#4 Death to the Stock
Death to the Stock offers a subscription service for which you can register by email. Every month you will receive a set of pictures to use. In addition to the complimentary registration, they also offer a ‘premium’ version (private starting from $12/mo and $28/mo for businesses) which allows for direct access to the image library with over 2000 unique photos. Currently, Death to the Stock is working on an image library with video material in addition to the existing assortment of special photography.
#5 Negative Space
The image library of Negative Space has a collection of high-resolution images that can be used for both commercial and private purposes. All pictures are classified under CC0 – Creative Commons. Mostly for business purposes. You can also find a reasonable collection in the field of other categories such as sports, people and black & white photography. All Negative space members can add pictures to the community.
#6 Picjumbo
Picjumbo has a beautiful collection of high-quality stock photos. Founded in 2013 by Viktor Hanacek out of dissatisfaction. The major renowned stock photo websites rejected Viktor’s work. Frustrated, he decided to create his own website to share his work. This has certainly proven profitable for Viktor; within two years’ time, over two and a half million photos were downloaded from his website Picjumbo!
#7 Pexels
Pexels is a website with 40,000+ stock photos in its collection. And every month at least 3,000 new pictures will be added. All stock photos are classified under CC0 – Creative Commons.
#8 Life of Pix
Life of Pics website consists of a community of photographers that try to offer a creative collection of images that are different than usual. Due to its interesting collection, it is certainly worth a visit.
#9 Kaboompics
Kaboompics was founded by Karolina (last name unknown), this website now consists of a beautiful and unique collection of photos. Kaboompics focuses primarily on lifestyle, interior design and specialized bloggers worldwide. An absolute must where you can also search for photos based on a color palette!
#10 Burst (Shopify, e-commerce)
Burst was developed by Shopify, specialized in eCommerce solutions. Photography for various industries, captured with e-commerce in mind. Webshops that are looking for stock photos to enrich the image of their web store.
#11 Foodiesfeed (food photography)
Foodiesfeed, the image library for food lovers and food bloggers! A limited but rich collection with 900+ photos. All stock photos are classified under CC0 – Creative Commons.
#12 Pikwizard (high-quality person photos)
Pikwizard is the latest addition to the image website family. It holds over 100,000 high-quality images, with 20,000 completely exclusive to the site. What makes Pikwizard stand out, however, is its high-quality images of people, which are few and far between on the best stock photography sites. There is also no attribution required!
#13 Freerange Stock
Freerange Stock offers a library with high-resolution photos for download and use in both personal and commercial projects. Photos and illustrations licensed for commercial use. No attribution required.
#14 Stocksnap.io
Stocksnap.io offers a large collection with many popular categories. Hundreds of high resolution images are added weekly. All images on StockSnap are governed exclusively by the generous terms of the Creative Commons CC0 license.
What is Creative Commons?
Creative Commons is a license whereby authors renounce certain rights and intellectual property, making it possible to use creative works for nothing under the agreed conditions. Icons indicate what you can and can not do with individual work, such as for example editing the photo.
We have found a straightforward video from Creative Commons Kiwi that explains the meanings of the different licenses when using free stock photography.
Creative Commons Search Engine
In this post, we will give you useful tips to find high-quality photos to use online that you can use to your heart’s content for your hobby blog as well as for commercial purposes such as your corporate website.
Creativecommons.org has its own search engine: search.creativecommons.org which provides the perfect start for looking for the perfect stock photo. You will be able to immediately look for works with a creative commons license on various platforms and image libraries such as Flickr (largest online image library), Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons, Google Images and other image libraries. In addition to photography, you can use the creative commons search engine to look for video files on YouTube and audio files on, among others, Jamendo and Soundcloud.
CC Search Beta
In 2017 Creative Commons announced a new CC Search in Beta. The beta search offers list-making and one-click attribution. The Beta version added the possibility to search open content from 500px, the New York Public Library, Flickr, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rijksmuseum.
Conclusion
In 2020 there are more free stock photo websites than ever where you can find amazing, artistic images created by talented photographers that are worth finding!
If you are interested in infographic design then you definitely need to check our Do-It-Yourself Guide to Infographics.
Do you have a website, application or other platforms where you can download legally royalty-free pictures, images and/or videos? Please share them with our readers in the comments.
Stock Photography Infographic
Share the best stock photography websites with your followers, check out this cool infographic we have put together.
Further reading: Photography For Beginners Explained in 6 Infographics
Thanks for sharing,
I will update my Website photo by the way.
Great article and thanks for sharing. Wondering if you have come across rawpixel.com as well? If not, I would highly recommend the site. One always needs some more lists up the sleeve to make sure you get all the right images ;). Cheers!