12 Best Websites for Royalty-Free Stock Images
Imagery is a key part of any successful website design, and finding images that are both high-quality and aligned with your brand can be a challenge.
I’ve compiled a list of my top 12 favorite websites for royalty-free stock images. These are my go-to sites when it comes to adding images to my website, blog, social media, or other branded materials.
Having your own professional photos taken is a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t always make sense for every situation. I invest in branded professional photography to ensure that I’m visible within my brand, and I select stock imagery with a similar look to use everywhere else.
Much of the time I seek out free stock images as a first step, but sometimes it’s necessary to purchase the high-quality images that I need to fit my brand. That’s why my list starts with my top 7 favorite websites for free stock images, followed up by my top 4 paid sites for all those times when I just can’t find a free image that fits the bill.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase using one of my links, I may receive a small commission.
What are Royalty-Free Images?
While the name includes the word “free,” royalty-free images aren’t necessarily free of charge. Don’t worry though, I’m going to share some sources for free (that is, no-cost) stock images that you can use in our projects. I got you my friend. ;)
Royalty-free simply means that you will not be required to pay a royalty (or fee) each time you use it. You pay for it once and that’s it. Unless it’s free of course.
You see how the use of the word free is a little problematic, no? Don’t worry. There are many sources now that offer free-of-charge royalty-free images. Awesome-sauce, yay for that.
For all those times when we just can’t find what we need on the free sites, there are also some great resources where we can purchase royalty-free images for a relatively low cost per image. I’ve included a few of those as well in my list below.
How are Royalty-Free Images Licensed?
Each royalty-free stock image site will provide its own licensing information, which is important to be aware of. Since there is no consensus on how royalty-free images are licensed, you’ll want to give those a look to be sure you’re not infringing on any copyright.
Some free image sites will require that you credit the image creator, while others do not. If you are paying for the image, you will not be required to attribute the creator, but it is still important to be aware of any limitations of the license.
7 Best Websites for Free Stock Images
1 Unsplash
“The internet’s source of freely-usable images.” Unsplash is my top go-to website for free stock photography. The images are super high-quality and most of the time I can find what I need quickly.
Unsplash has made understanding their license super simple and accessible. They provide a link right above the search bar on their homepage.
Unsplash does not require you to credit the photographer, though image attribution is always appreciated by creators, and Unsplash explains how to do that if you’d like to. You’re also free to modify the images as you like.
Another place to add the photographer’s name, when an attribution isn’t required, is to put those bits into the file name and alt text on your website.
2 Pexels
Pexels is another great option for free high-resolution photographs. They also have free-to-use videos.
Pexels keeps licensing simple and the link is right in the header of their site. They tell you “what’s allowed” and if you scroll a little further, you’ll also want to read the “what’s not allowed” section.
Image or video attribution is not required but appreciated.
3 Stocksnap.io
Stocksnap specializes in photography and allows free use of all of their images. They offer a wide variety of quality images, but beware of Shutterstock sponsored photos, which are listed first after you search for something particular.
The license verbiage is a bit more wordy than Unsplash or Pexels but the idea is essentially the same. Stocksnap uses a Creative Commons (CCO) License which makes image licensing simpler and they provide a great explanation on their site.
4 Burst
I first stumbled onto Burst while attempting to find good quality yoga photos, which are actually pretty hard to find. Burst has an excellent selection of free yoga photos as well as from many other categories.
The full Burst license agreement can be located at the top of their footer, but you can also find that info on each individual image’s page in a shortened form. Burst uses two different licensing types so it is important to take a look at what the rules are before you use the image in your materials.
Both are free to use, but depending on how you plan to use the image it’s best to know the rules.
5 Pixabay
Pixabay offers a wide variety of media that is free to download and use in your projects. They have photos, Illustrations, vectors, videos, music, and sound effects for all the times you need something beyond photography. Each item includes the licensing info on its own page or when you download.
6 Negative Space
Negative Space is another great resource to help you find the high-resolutions free stock images that you need. No attribution is required, but of course always appreciated if you choose to.
7 Flaticon
Icons can really help your designs look more professional and help tremendously when there is a lot of content or information that you’d like to break down in a more understandable way.
The Flaticon website offers a ton of free icons for web, print, and even app design.
Unlike all the other free resources here, flaticon does require that you credit the creator for any of your free downloads and they provide clear instructions for how to do so.
Another great option though, is to opt for their paid membership. You are able to download the license documentation when you download the icon file. As long as you have that license file, you can continue to use the icons in your materials after you cancel your membership.
8 Undraw
Undraw is an open source vector illustration project and new illustrations are added all the time. The style across the entire catalog is consistent and you can actually change the color in the images to your exact brand color before you download.
Pretty cool.
These vector illustrations are free to download, and no attribution is required.
The Best Paid Royalty-Free Stock Image Websites
Finding images on a free site is great and definitely helps your bottom-line, but it’s not always possible to find what you’re looking for.
That’s when it’s great to have an arsenal of great paid stock sites that have high-quality images that you can go to. It’s sometimes necessary to purchase images or other media that fit your brand and that can be used without crediting the creator.
Here are My Top 4 Best Paid Sites for Stock Images + Other Royalty-free Media
(This section contains affiliate links - if you click and make a purchase, you’ll be supporting my local baristas by way of my coffee habit. They appreciate it!)
1 Creative Market
Creative Market is my go-to paid resource for stock photography, illustrations, or icons. They also have templates for all kinds of projects, the list goes on-and-on. It’s the first place I look whenever I need to add anything to my designs that I can’t find elsewhere.
There is no need for a subscription plan, you can purchase just one product. You can also opt to add credits to the site, which is a good idea if you know you’ll be buying several things as you’ll save a bit of money this way.
Another great perk of Creative Market is that when you sign up for their email you’ll receive 6 free goods per week.
2 Ivory Mix
Ivory mix features curated collections of images that match stylistically to use across an entire website or on your social channels. They also have templates and courses that go along with images to help you plan your social media and create a cohesive look to your profile.
You have the option of buying one single image (currently around $2) or joining their unique membership and having access to the entire catalog.
If you want to see what Ivory Mix is all about you can get 550+ free images just by joining their email list.
3 iStock by Getty Images
iStock is one of the bigger royalty-free stock image sites. While I love supporting the smaller sites because more of the profit goes to creators, sometimes I still need to go to the big dogs to find what I need.
I like iStock because it allows you to purchase one single image or purchase a subscription, while some of their direct competitors make buying a single image more complicated or impossible.
You can find more than just photography, they have illustrations, videos, and music as well.
4 Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock has a huge catalog that includes photography, illustration, vector graphics, video, and audio. It’s a really great resource if you are a designer and need to have a reliable source for high-quality media on a regular basis.
This site requires a subscription plan, but you can get 10 free images as a trial. If you need a set number of images just once, you can subscribe for one month, but make sure to mark your calendar to remind yourself to cancel the membership.
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