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7+ Best Free Stock Photo Websites To Access Amazing Images

the best free stock photo websites

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Choosing the best free stock photo websites can be daunting, especially because there are so many out there.

You’ll often think about the cost when building a website without graphics. Many sites offering free stock photos are great, but most do not fulfill the needs because they are either poor in quality or too limited in terms of use.

However, many high-quality free stock photo sites can significantly help if you don’t want to invest in website graphic design software. What’s more, most of these websites also provide free stock videos.

Stock photography can take your articles from ordinary to extraordinary. Finding free stock images is not always the easiest task and can become costly if you are looking for high-quality, high-resolution images.

In addition to browsing through individual stock photo websites, you can also leverage this great tool by the Chamber of Commerce to find photos across multiple free and paid websites on the same page. This way, you’ll be able to speed up the process of finding the ideal stock image for your needs.

With this in mind, I list some of my favorite free stock photo websites.

What Are The Best Free Stock Photo Websites?

Below are my favorite stock photo websites that I personally use for this blog and other online ventures I’m in.

1. Pixabay

Pixabay

Pixabay makes the top of the list as it includes over 2.6 million high-quality photos, images, videos, and even stock music.

Everything in Pixabay’s vast library is free to use commercially, and you don’t even need to give the author credit. All the assets are licensed under the creative commons zero license (CC0), which indicates that the publisher makes their work available to the public for usage.

Pixabay is a website where users may share free material they have created. It has a lot of nice donors who appreciate it when they get credit, even though it isn’t needed.

The quality varies, but much of it is high-definition, with a good portion being 4K. If you want to see one of the greatest collections of free videos and photographs, make sure you go to Pixabay.

2. Pexels

Pexels

Pexels began as a stock photo site, although it also has a lot of good video clips these days. Their high-quality stock photos are all provided under the creative commons zero (CCO) license, which means you can use them without giving attribution or limiting them.

One aspect that distinguishes Pexels from other free stock photo websites is the inclusion of many vertical images. Many photos have a cinematic quality to them, as skilled photographers create them.

If you wish to sell something you found on Pexels or use it on merchandise, you must substantially alter it.

3. Unsplash

Unsplash

Unsplash is a curated collection of royalty-free photos that can be used commercially.

Because it provides users with access to a vast library of free photos with high resolution, Unsplash has emerged as one of the most reliable resources for stock images.

The crew at Unsplash goes through all the newly uploaded photographs and selects the finest ones to publish on their homepage. Under the terms of the Unsplash license, each photo is available for free download.

4. PikWizard

Pikwizard

Because PikWizard is so large (it has over 1 million photographs and videos), you can find images you won’t find on smaller stock video sites.

The search function is excellent; a fast search will bring up footage of what you require. There’s also no obligation to give the author credit.

You can browse photographs by category, with the most popular photos appearing first. Although the image quality varies, there is a significant amount of high-resolution content. All of their assets are high-quality, current, and copyright-free.

5. Burst

burst by shopify

Burst is a Shopify resource that offers free stock pictures to business owners. Some photographs are Creative Commons CC0 licensed, while Shopify’s own photo license covers others.

Burst was created to assist entrepreneurs in creating better services, websites, and marketing strategies. Most photos are originals taken in-house and are centered on popular business categories, such as DIY, beauty, family, fashion, and travel. There are also more generic images available.

6. Stockvault

Stockvault

Stockvault is one of the top free stock photo sites offering thousands of royalty-free stock images for every need.

Their sole mission is to compile and maintain a library of high-resolution pictures that professional photographers, graphic designers, and students can freely share with one another and use in their individual and academic creative projects.

Photographers and artists from around the world have contributed their work in the form of photographs and graphics. They review every photo sent to them, and they insist that the ones that make the cut are of an exceptionally high standard.

7. picjumbo

picjumbo

Viktor Hanacek, a designer and photographer, launched picjumbo in 2013. It all started when his photographs were rejected by every conventional stock photo website owing to a “lack of quality.”

After two years, users have downloaded over 2.5 million pictures from picjumbo, making it one of the top sites with free stock photos published in the most prominent online magazines.

picjumbo offers high-quality, royalty-free photos for personal and commercial use. The website has a wide variety of categories, including abstract, animals, architecture, business, fashion, food & drink, holidays, love, nature, people, technology, transportation, and much more.

8. Freepik

Freepik

Freepik offers some of the best photos, icons, PSDs, and vectors among the free stock photo websites discussed in this article. While most stock photo and video websites rely on graphic designer communities and photographers for their content, Freepik has an in-house team that works on their content.

The company, however, also relies on a community of vector artists and graphic designers. This explains the reason why they can upload more than 80,000 great quality free stock image icons, PSDs, and vectors each month. 

Freepik has ensured that all its resources are grouped into different categories and subcategories. This makes it possible for users to narrow down their search and get exactly what they are looking for. All resources also come with relevant tags for specific searches.

To use Freepik’s resources, you need to be a registered user. This allows you to download 20 resources every month. Premium users can download up to 100 resources every day. It is important to note that your downloads cannot be carried forward to the next day or month.

Free Stock Photos vs. Paid Stock Photos

Free stock photos are great if you’re just starting out. They’re perfect for small projects, and they can be a lot of fun to use. They also come in handy if you have a limited budget or want to test various sites before committing to one.

However, paid stock photos tend to be of higher quality than their free counterparts.

It’s not uncommon for professional photographers to shoot multiple versions of each image so buyers can choose from different angles or styles of lighting. Paid images also tend to be more diverse because many photographers specialize in specific types of photography and rarely cover everything from fashion shots to landscape scenes (though there are exceptions).

In addition, professional photographers often produce custom shoots and work closely with clients when creating new collections so that they can always find something new and exciting for their portfolios—which means you’ll never run out of options.

Are free stock photos really free?

They frequently are, depending on the licensing. You may often make as much money as you want from a free photograph without ever paying anyone. However, before using the image, read the license, as some images are less free than others.

How do free stock photo sites make their money?

Like many other internet businesses, they provide a free version to attract consumers and profit from a paid version. Affiliate marketing is also used on these sites. They usually contain adverts that take you to another website (usually Shutterstock), and if you buy something there, they get a cut of the profits.

Do you have to register an account to download free stock images?

A lot of the time, you can download pictures without signing up. Pixabay, for example, allows you to download all their photos without creating an account.

Many other sites are similar in that they strive to make their sites as simple as possible. Hence they do not require an account. Even if they demand an account, they only require your email address, not a credit card number. It merely takes a few mouse clicks to access free photo content.

Conclusion

Unlike royalty-free music libraries, where it’s hard to find free content, there are plenty of free stock photo websites. While you can shoot hundreds of photographs daily, you can’t create the same number of songs in a day. That’s why stock images are the heroes of free content on the web.

As you can see, there is an increasing amount of wonderful resources available for stock photos. These websites have turned into a godsend for those working in design and marketing, as well as bloggers. There’s no need to rely on tacky stock photos anymore.

You can acquire whatever you desire for free if you know where to look.

Vaslou is a passionate digital creator and blogger who loves to explore unique paths to generate online income. He’s also a musician, always looking for exciting paths to articulate his inventive spirit in the musical realm. When he’s not at work on his online endeavors, Vasco loves to delve into spiritual realms to become a better version of himself.

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