- Quality, free image sources are available if you know where to look.
- Some sources are generic, others offer photos for a specific niche.
- Free image sources offer high quality images, but you should always make sure you have permission for commercial use.
The modern Internet is teeming with potential sources of free stock images. Sometimes these are libraries maintained by specific photographers or collectives of photographers who use free images to promote their own work. In other cases, they’re platforms created to provide business resources for general marketing or for specific niches of blogging and content creation.
One thing is for sure, they aren’t all the same. Some source libraries outperform the others. Here we’ve compiled 10 of the best and made it clear why they deserve their place on this list.
What’re stock images?
When photos are taken, edited, and made available for general use, they’re called stock images. They aren’t usually of identifiable people, trademarked products, or landmarks. Instead, they usually depict specific themes, messages, or concepts.
Online stock images fall into two general categories. High-quality stock images require special attribution and royalties for use, but offer a wider selection. Royalty-free images can be used free of charge and for no reason.
What’re free stock images?
If you’re on a tight budget and want to avoid unnecessary spending, free stock images can help you grow your business through marketing campaigns that won’t break the bank. Free images are usually subject to a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, which means they can be copied, adapted, and distributed without requiring the explicit permission of the creator for each use.
Many free websites accept contributions from amateur photographers. These photographers are often unaware that a disclaimer is required for photographs of individuals. You may need to contact the website to clarify this issue before using some images.
What makes high-quality stock images?
A high quality archival image has a print resolution of at least 640 x 480 pixels. These images must be sharp, in focus, and free of “noise.” The best stock photos stand out because they’re creative and subtle, and don’t rely on putting people in awkward poses or using clichés to get their point across. We looked for sites that balance versatility, ease of use, and quality selection.
The best sites for free stock images
These are our favorites for the top 10 source libraries for free stock images. We’ve chosen them based on the versatility of their collections, the extent to which they offer really high-quality images, or in some cases because they effectively focus on a specific niche that makes them valuable for certain businesses or project types. Importantly, they’re also easy to search, with the best having intuitive tags and categories that users can interact with.
1. Unsplash
Unsplash is one of the most recognized leaders in the field and has an expertly curated library that includes some outstanding work. It’s a fairly powerful search tool, offers site and user-created collections on specific topics, and an iOS app for users on the go. The overall collection isn’t as extensive as other sites, but makes up for it with consistent quality.
2. Adobe Stock Free Collection
Adobe recently released tens of thousands of photos and other creative assets for free creative, personal and business use. The photos are of extremely high quality and are generally made available under Adobe’s standard flexible licensing terms, which restrict sharing the photo’s source file or selling items that use the photo as a primary source of value. The site’s filtering system makes it easy to find the subject you want.
3. Pixabay
Pixabay is a major source of public domain images – including vector illustrations and even videos alongside the photo library – and offers downloads in a variety of resolutions. The selection is varied, although the overall quality is a bit more inconsistent than a source like Unsplash. Pixabay is best known for its library of landscape images, an excellent source of background images for blogs and websites. The site does contain some NSFW images, which can be avoided by using the SafeSearch feature.
4. Pexels
Pexels hosts images uploaded by the public and curates the best of them for its searchable collection and offers thematic search for specific types of photos. Pexels is popular with web and app designers for its collection of device-themed images and offers creative and imaginative free stock photos. Some of the images have limited usability, so it’s important to be mindful when downloading.
5. Vecteezy
Vecteezy’s search engine makes it easy to filter the large library of free photos by various criteria such as color, style, and orientation. This is a detail that’s often left out of free stock photo websites, and it makes Vecteezy’s library one of the safest from a liability standpoint. Vecteezy’s content team expertly curates each uploaded item, making the collection as a whole an outstanding example of consistent quality.
6. FreeImages
FreeImages is a bit simpler than some of the other providers in terms of site design and search functionality, but still offers thousands of high-quality images, both photos and illustrations, divided into more than 80 categories for easy browsing. Common marketing categories such as fitness and food, money and travel, fashion and family, and business in general can usually be used to find something useful for most projects.
7. Burst by Shopify
Burst is a Shopify feature that provides e-commerce entrepreneurs with easy access to promotional images. Burst offers a mix of Creative Commons-licensed photos and images that are under Shopify’s photo license. Most of these images were created by Shopify itself and not obtained from public sources. Therefore, the collection isn’t as versatile as others, but is great for focusing on trendy niches.
8. Freestocks.org
The last three places on this list belong to collections that cover more of a niche. Freestocks.org is run by a small team of three photographers dedicated to providing cliché-free images, and it shows. The search function is quite rudimentary, but the collections offer extremely high-quality images, especially for fashion, nature and pet photos. Despite its limitations, this is one of those sites that goes the extra mile for specific needs.
9. Foodiesfeed
Founded by a young Czech food photographer, Foodiesfeed started as a promotional opportunity for the work of a single freelancer, but has grown into a food photography juggernaut with many contributors. Foodiesfeed is a must-visit site for food bloggers, offering an exceptional selection of images for common foods and beverages. Don’t expect exotic foods like durian fruit, but for common food blogging purposes, the site offers a wealth of high-quality stock images. Foodiesfeed also offers a versatile search function.
10. New Old Stock
Finally, there’s New Old Stock. It may be more of a photo blog than a searchable library, but it occupies a truly unique niche by offering an impressive selection of old stock photos. What makes this collection special is that you won’t find a trace of “stock photo” clichés anywhere. These images are as much living witnesses to a forgotten history as they’re stock photos, and that alone makes them worth the effort.
