When it comes to web design, blogging, or other creative projects, at one point or another stock photography can and will be needed. When you Google stock photography, it would seem that there are an infinite amount of great options to choose from but don't be deceived. Although there are a lot of stock photography websites out there some can be very expensive $$$ (iStock), others make you agree to pricing plans and annual fees and don't allow you to purchase individual photos (shutterstock) and others just don't have great images.
While stock photography websites like shutterstock are necessary at times, we try to avoid paying for stock photography at all costs (unless we need something very specific and of very high quality). To avoid paying a lot for stock photography, we have developed a list of go to free stock image websites that we use on a daily basis. Here is our 5 best free stock image websites list. Don't forget to subscribe to our blog to get weekly updates!
5 Best Free Stock Image Websites
OBVIOUSLY The best price is free
5. PICJUMBO (HTTPS://PICJUMBO.COM/)
Picjumbo is a good place to start but definitely is not our favorite of the free stock image websites. It has a rather small library to choose from and a lot of their images fall into a few similar categories.
Picjumbo is one of the few free stock image websites that offers a "Premium" membership that gives you access to their premium images that are not available through the free side of their website. Their "Premium" memberships aren't as costly as others in the business BUT they also don't have the library that a shutterstock has. Don't be tricked by their "Premium" membership. Only use Picjumbo for their free images.
4. Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/)
Pexels was one of our first go-to websites for free stock photography. It has an overall good selection but is limited in specific categories. The UX is pretty nice overall and it has a good search function where you can search photos by popularity, color, photographer, and of course associated keywords. Pexels also claims that photographers upload and share over 100 new photos a day which can be helpful when trying to find images that others haven't already used thousands of times.
If you are looking for a solid go-to source for stock images that has an overall good selection, then look no further than Pexels.
3. kaboompics (http://kaboompics.com/)
Kaboompics is a popular choice for free stock photography but in our opinion it is only a good resource if you are looking for images in these 5 specific categories:
- Abstract
- City & Architecture
- Fashion
- Food
- landscapes
Of course they have images that fall into other categories, but those 5 main categories is where a majority of their stock photography fits into. Kaboompics has a fairly nice user interface with a sound search feature as well as a running "new image blog" displaying the new free stock images that are available on their website. One pretty cool feature of their website is their newsletter where they email you new images that might be of interest to you based on your specific downloads. This awesome feature can definitely come in handy!
2. FREEIMAGES (HTTP://WWW.FREEIMAGES.COM/)
Freeimages offers a rather robust library of free stock images with over 350,000 images available for download. They cater to all industries and their images are of very high quality overall. Freeimages also has a very easy to use, user-centric interface. It is very clean and easy to navigate as well as search their database.
Freeimages, like Picjumbo offers a premium service but in our experience isn't necessary. One piece of advice, be sure to not be fooled by the Getty Images Freeimages pipes into their search. It is easy to forget and before you know it you are on Getty Images website looking at an image that costs $$$.
1. Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/)
Pixabay is currently my personal go-to for free stock images. Pixabay has over 750,000 free stock images for download and their UX is a lot like shutterstock's which means it is easy to use. Not only does Pixabay have a great selection of free stock images, they also specialize in free stock video which can really come in handy.
Their search functionality is nice and they also have a nice sponsored images bar on top where they show relevant stock images that can be found on websites such as shutterstock in case you don't find what you are looking for on Pixabay. One specific part of their search functionality that we have really enjoyed is being able to search by image size as well as orientation.
Pixabay is definitely our go-to and will remain our top option until of course, we find a website that is better...
