When you are working as a graphic designer, you need to find a perfect picture to get started.
When you are learning how to create a marketing strategy for your startup business, seeing the right image to represent your brand should be priority number one.
However, some professionals do not have the photography skills needed to create a beautiful photo themselves.
Soon, they may find themselves browsing the internet for good pictures, but end up getting disappointed because they need to consider licensing, attribution, permission, and price.
Fortunately, designers, bloggers, business owners, and other professionals that need images can take a look at free stock photo sites. These websites have generous communities of photographers who are willing to let others use their pictures without worrying about licensing or copyright issues.
Differences with all these sites
The content of free stock photo sites varies from a vast field of topics. While some photos may require attribution from the author, most of them are open for the public to use for different purposes. Some sites also offer a premium membership for access to more exclusive and rare photos.
To those who want to use free stock photos that require the author’s recognition, they may simply add a copyright symbol in the caption of the photo with the name of the photographer. Also, redistribution of mass downloads from one free stock photo site to another may have consequences.
There are a lot of stock photo sites, but there are some that separate themselves from others because of their unique stories, unselfish photographers, and high-quality images. Users can even contact the people behind the sites and share their desired content.
Here are the 25 best free stock photo websites you can use for your creative needs:
1) Negative Space
Negative Space shares its photos without copyright restrictions, which means that anyone can use, edit, or post them without worrying about any fraud cases. The subjects of Negative Space’s high-quality images are vast, ranging from technology to architecture. Its website also makes it easier for people to browse photo galleries, which can be sorted by color, category, and copy space position.
Negative Space aims to provide people with photos that have out-of-focus surroundings so that the subject stands out. The concept behind negative space is a technique that most photographers know but are no usually done. Sometimes, those photos are perfect for creative projects, marketing plans, and business branding.
Website: negativespace.co
2) StockSnap.io
StockSnap.io has thousands of images in high resolution that can attract users in need of a photo for a brand or an article picture. The website also has an easy-to-use search feature for its massive selection of stock photos. The public photos site also adds new content per day and can sort out the most famous pictures users love to download and view.
Website: stocksnap.io
3) Death to Stock
Death to Stock makes it easier for businesspeople, creative teams, and bloggers to find the perfect photos. This free photo stock website also has a membership program, which gives Death to Stock users the option to have preferred batches of photos sent to their e-mail address every month.
Death to Stock also offers Premium membership, which is around 15 dollars a month or 180 dollars a year. The fee helps website founders and photographers Allie and David go on photography projects to widen Death to Stock’s collection of incredible photos.
Website Page: https://deathtothestockphoto.com/
4) Pexels
Pexels photos have the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, which means that internet users can download them for personal or commercial use. The free images come from different sources around the internet, which means that people will be browsing through the most popular photos online.
With its search feature, people who need the perfect image for their creative projects, businesses, or blogs. Pexel’s website also helps people discover unexplored images through its discover page.
Website: www.pexels.com
5) Picjumbo
Picjumbo’s photographer Vicktor wants to give people high-quality photos on a wide selection for free. Picjumbo focuses on providing members with stock photos that they can use as wallpapers, profile backgrounds, and images for creative blogs. The website offers the most popular photo topics available and makes it easy for users to filter subjects.
The website also offers paid membership of at least $10 a month. The premium membership can help designers and bloggers as it includes a Photoshop and Sketch plugin for below $8, giving you the option to remove or cover up trademarks and unwanted objects in a specific photo.
Website: picjumbo.com
6) Unsplash
Unsplash serves as the stockroom of a generous community of photographers willing to help others with creative pictures for free. The free stock photo website provides users with an extensive collection of wallpapers, textures and patterns, nature, and anything under the sun. Once a Tumblr blog, Unsplash has grown into a big community that serves and inspires thousands of people.
Unsplash gives users a way to find specific photos. It also contains albums that help users find an extensive collection of images about one topic. Unsplash has the Creative Commons Zero license, which allows those who download their photos the freedom to tinker with them without attribution.
Website: unsplash.com
7) Stokpic
Every two weeks, Stokpic sends ten high-quality photos to the e-mail address of premium subscribers. Photographer Ed Gregory makes sure that everyone is up to date with the best 100 pictures with its latest 100 option. Stokpic also puts its thousands of images into categories to help users find the content they like. Apart from redistribution, subscribers can use Gregory’s photos in any way they want.
The premium membership for Stokpic not only assures members that a new batch of photos in high-resolution will arrive into their inbox, but it also gives their photographers a way to fund their creative trips and capture more breathtaking images.
Website: stokpic.com
8) Burst (by Shopify)
Burst makes it its goal to provide starting entrepreneurs with a wide selection of quality images from its in-house photographers. Powered by Shopify, Burst regularly uploads high-resolution photos for its users’ projects and commercial uses. Burst plans to help e-commerce and retail businesses with trending shots included in its new pictures and new categories section.
Burst aims to build the biggest free stock photo library on the internet without giving users the headache that comes with licensing, royalties, and attribution. The next booming business may be using a free and beautiful photo from Burst’s outstanding collection.
Website: burst.shopify.com
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9) Kaboompics
Karolina Grabowska is a photographer, a website creator, and a graphic designer who wants to help people visualize their ideas in life. Using her combined skill, Karolina creates Kaboompics, a website dedicated to helping businesspeople, travel bloggers, and creative artists find the perfect photo for their personal uses. As one of the most popular free stock photo websites in the world.
Kaboompics ensures users that the image database is continuously growing. One of Kaboompic’s most outstanding features is the free stock photo site’s Photoshoots category, which enables users to find a whole gallery of their preferred photos instead of just one. It also has a blog, which is full of stories about motivation, travels, photography advice, and many more.
Website: kaboompics.com
10) Reshot
Reshot makes it its goal to unify creators by providing a platform for them to exchange the best visual content. Reshot thinks of photography as a passionate craft instead of a job, which is why it aims to give users the freedom to download their high-quality photos without worrying about license and attribution.
Reshot’s website gives subscribers trending photos upon the first click. With its massive library of high-quality images, users can browse through Reshot using its search tool with confidence that they will find the content they desire.
Website: reshot.com
11) Pixabay
Pixabay offers a user-friendly site of free, high-quality stock photos. Under the CC0 license, Pixabay allows its users to edit, modify, and use their chosen Pixabay images without attribution or permission to use the image from the photographer. It also has a search bar that allows users to filter through images depending on color, dimensions, and orientation.
Some people may find marked images on the Pixabay website, which means that some of the pictures included in its gallery are from professional photographers.
Website: pixabay.com
12) FoodiesFeed
Some people may want to browse beautiful pictures of food for tips and models on how to post their meals on social media. There are also others who may need food photos for creative projects and restaurant businesses. Users that are into food photography can rest knowing the FoodiesFeed exists after failing to find the proper food image from other free stock photo sites.
FoodiesFeed founder Jakub Kapusnak ensures that food bloggers will have no trouble finding the right meal picture. Noticing that his food photos are starting to pile up, Kapusnak created Foodiesfeed, and the free stock photo site’s popularity skyrocketed ever since.
Website: foodiesfeed.com
13) LibreShot
Martin Vorel refuses to let his breathtaking photos remain inside folders in his private computers. Willing to share his pictures to the rest of the world, Vorel started LibreShot. The collection of images in LibreShot range from architecture to floral, all of which have Vorel’s unique style to it. LibreShot allows users to take free stock photos and use it for commercial purposes, personal use, website or phone wallpapers, educational materials, E-books, posters, news articles, and many more.
All photos from LibreShot are under Creative Commons Public domain, which means that users can do what they want with the images. However, they must refrain from mass downloading LibreShot images to redistribute to other stock photo sites and hotlink pictures.
Website: libreshot.com
14) Gratisography
Ryan McGuire knows that most free stock photo sites have similar content, which is why he decided to create a free stock photo website that offers the most unusual yet interesting pictures for everyone. Gratisography banks on the element of surprise and humor to keep users coming back for more images to download.
Creativity is McGuire’s motivation behind the free stock photo site, which aims to define an image as a bright moment in life. All of Gratisography’s quirky and high-resolution photos come from the creative mind and photographic skill of McGuire. With new images coming in weekly, Gratisography keeps users on its toes for something more than just bland stock photos.
Website: gratisography.com
15) SplitShire
SplitShire does not want beautiful images to go to waste without use, which is why its CEO Daniel Nanescu got the concept of sharing his works of art to the world. SplitShire offers tons of free photos that are not restricted by copyright issues. Websites like CNN and Huffington Post are two major publications that love to use SplitShire’s amazing images.
Nanescu knows the average graphic designer’s struggle in finding great free pictures. The Italian photographer vows to help them with their dilemma by sharing his photographs, which are massive hits with over 2 million downloads and 6 million views.
Website: splitshire.com
16) MMT Stock
Jeffrey Betts, CEO of MMT, knows when to take photos at the right moment. His photo collections grew to the point that he knows he needs to share them with others to avoid letting them waste away. In 2014, Betts started MMT, a site that provides free photos under the CC0 license. MMT Stock offers new high-quality images for free every week while making sure users can use and even redistribute them. The free stock photo website offers categories that include workspaces, city lifestyle, nature, and more.
Website: mmtstock.com
17) Life of Pix
Leeroy Advertising Agency boasts an outstanding group of talented photographers who believe in having fun with their craft. Life of Pix contains an incredible collection of photos from all around the world. The site includes a complex structure with features like the photographer of the week, giving their homegrown group a competitive boost and extra recognition.
Life of Pix allows people to use their photos because they belong to the public domain. With no copyright restrictions for use, Life of Pix’s beautiful collection can help others with their creative projects and more. However, mass distribution remains illegal.
Website: lifeofpix.com
18) Jay Mantri
If you are looking for the best free photos for backgrounds and wallpapers, Jay Mantri is the place where you can find them. The site releases over seven photos every week under the CC0 license. The photo subject mostly contains dramatic scenes from areas over the world. The site encourages people to download their images and edit them however they want.
Website: jaymantri.com
19) ISO Republic
The ISO Republic wants to provide high-quality photos for designers, bloggers, social media creative teams, developers, and many more. The website offers unique sets of images that are easy to navigate through. The site also contains categories to help people find what they need at a fast rate. Users will have free access to more exclusive pictures when they register to its membership, giving them a way to send them to their e-mail addresses almost every week.
Website: isorepublic.com
20) New Old Stock
Many free stock photo sites only have content that is trending, which means that vintage and black-and-white pictures are not available. New Old Stock focuses on giving people excellent photos, which may be helpful to specific users craving for black and white content. Although some images need recognition, most of them are available for non-commercial purposes. The site also offers paid membership for its stunning photos.
Website: nos.twnsnd.co
21) Epicantus
Daria Nepriakhina is a visual graphic designer that creates stunning images. She knows how hard it is to catch up to deadlines, which is why she created Epicantus. The free stock photo site boasts ready-to-use edited images for business owners, bloggers, graphic designers, and more. The site’s best content contains a lot of pictures that have awe-inspiring aerial views of the world and captured moments of people during their daily work routine.
Website: epicantus.tumblr.com
22) Styled Stock
Styled Stock boasts a collection of images that contain feminine content. Its chic atmosphere provides female entrepreneurs and bloggers a place where they can browse through pictures and find a suitable picture for their business or blog. The photos are available for commercial and personal use. However, the copyright still belongs to the owner but using their photos require no attribution.
Website: styledstock.co
23) Hubspot
Hubspot understands the importance of visual content in marketing strategies but is also aware that attribution, licensing, and purchase stand in the way of finding a high-quality image. Because of this situation, Hubspot released 75 free stock photos for the public. Unexpectedly, Hubspot’s popularity rose and gave it the push to produce 160 more stock business photos for free. Users can mass download the pictures and use it for whatever purpose they like.
Website: https://offers.hubspot.com/most-searched-for-free-stock-photos
24) Fancy Crave
The remarkable photos in Fancy Crave are mouthwatering enough that users will want to take them as their own. However, Fancy Crave photographers only ask that users provide attribution for their work, but what they do with their pictures is up to them. With new photos available daily, Fancy Crave remains one of the best resources of free yet high-quality images for everyone.
Website: fancycrave.com
25) Picography
For three years, Picography has been one of the best sources for high-resolution photos. The site’s pictures are available for the public under the CC0 license. Its founder Dave Meier and his team of photographers ensure users that they will get the best content possible. You may also subscribe to Picography’s newsletter to receive updates on the latest uploaded photos for free.
Website: picography.co
Conclusion
So there you have it, those are the main stock photo sites that allow you to download images for free (sometimes with and sometimes without attribution)
Now you can use this images to make any creative banners you need, such as your Facebook cover photo.
Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments!
Hi Alejandro,
Great guide to finding good stock photos on the internet. I will also suggest https://jumpstory.com, which I use a lot. JumpStory is a new service, and it’s very different than the ones you mention, because they have much more authentic photos and videos than their competitors. Also the price is much lower – it’s totally free for 30 days and afterwards just 25 USD/month for unlimited downloads. Thanks again for sharing a good guide.
Hümeyra