In today’s digital age, captivating visuals play a crucial role in capturing the attention of online users.
However, not everyone has the resources or skills to create original visuals. This is where stock photo websites come to the rescue.
In this article, we will explore the best paid and free stock photo websites that provide a vast collection of high-resolution images, helping you enhance your online presence with ease.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
Paid Stock Photo Websites
1. Depositphotos
DepositPhotos is one of the most popular and fastest-growing stock photo websites in the world.
This creative content marketplace allows anyone to buy high-quality stock images, vectors, drawings, audio, and movies.
Depositphotos is available in 20 languages and provides service and support to clients from more than 192 countries.
You gain access to over 255 million files that suit any of your projects, with this website serving multiple international companies’ mind-blowing visual and audio content.
This photo site offers a pay-as-you-go plan, monthly subscriptions, yearly subscriptions, and an enterprise plan for stock photo access.
The monthly and annual plans have a set number of daily downloads, with the cost increasing for higher-tier plans.
The enterprise plan is custom-made for large businesses and offers unlimited downloads, support, and flexible pricing. Users can switch between plans as needed.
2. iStock
iStock is a stock media platform that provides royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, audio, and graphic design elements.
iStock also offers a flexible pricing model, allowing customers to pay only for what they need, whether a single image or a larger package.
Subscription plan price:
- $24.90/monthly.
- $14.90 per month( Annual plan)
3. Shutterstock
A creative platform for high-quality, legally obtained photos, movies, and music.
Shutterstock users gets access to over 200 million images, videos, and music tracks from talented global contributors.
Subscription plan price
- $29/monthly ( for 10 Images).
NB: the price of your monthly plan increases as your number of downloads increases.
4. EnvatoElements
Envato provides over 1000+ digital courses, e-books, and many more to boost your creative journey.You can take advantage of Envato free trials before purchasing a license.
Subscription plan price:
$16.50/month
5. Getty Images
Getty Images, founded on 14 March 1995, is a leading online stock image library that offers a vast collection of photographs, illustrations, and videos for all content creation needs.
With over 200 million images and videos, it provides users with a diverse range of high-quality, royalty-free images and videos for personal, editorial, and commercial use.
Getty Images offers both free and paid options to access its library.
The free options feature offers a limited number of images and videos that are available for free under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.
Subscription plan price:
- $375 or $499/download (for a single photo).
6. Adobe Stock
Another leading stock photo platform that provides high-quality imags.
Adobe Stock has no free alternatives in Adobe Stock. There are, however, a few free trials available.
The free trial features give you access to ten free stock images and a small number of stock assets. You can also access more than 180 million high-quality stock assets, advanced editing tools, and unlimited free images.
Subscription Plan Price
- $29.99/Monthly (10 Standard Assets)
- $79.99 /Monthly (40 Standard Assets)
- $79.99/Monthly(750 Standard Assets)
NB: Monthly plans come with rollover benefits for unused subscriptions, which vary with plans.
7. Freepik
Freepik provides free resources like vector graphics, illustrations and gated multimedia collections for premium users.
Premium user’s benefits also include access to the entire collection of icons and stickers packed on the website.
Freepik Premium Plans
They only have 2 Premium subscription options currently:
- 15 EUR* /monthly( you can automatically renew it or cancel the automatic renewal option. )
- 108 EUR*/ 12 months ( Annual subscription).
Free Stock Photo Website Options
8. Picography
Picography offers access to a limited number of high-quality free images for individual or professional use.
The platform contains over 1 million unique images for diverse project types.
FREE ACCESS ( No Payment)
9. Unsplash
Unsplash is a popular free stock photo site with over 2 million free stock photos readily available for download.
Although Unsplash recently gated bulks of photos behind a paywall, the majority of images on Unsplash are still freely accessible.
10. Pexels
Pexels, founded in 2014, is one of the most visited websites for sourcing royalty images.
Pexels search feature is user-friendly as you can easily find the right image by inputting not just the seed keyword but also the keyword variations.
FREE ACCESS ( No Payment)
11. Stocksnap.io
Stocksnap gives you access to millions of images from different photographers worldwide for free without paying a dime.
It’s image collections is frequently updated which helps maintain a steady inflow of recent and unique images.
12. Life of Pix
This platform gives you access to unlimited stock images with no copyright issues, making them available for commercial use.
FREE ACCESS (No Payment)
13. Pixabay
Highly loved by many, Pixabay houses millions of stock assets contributed by different people around the world.
This site gives users free access to more than 2 million movies and photographs, serving as an excellent resource for bloggers.
Pixabay also offers a powerful API for developers to access images and videos and utilize them in their applications and websites.
You can also download the Pixabay iOS/ Android app for easy access on mobile.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
– Do bloggers use stock photos?
Yes, bloggers often use stock photos as a quick and cost-effective way to add visual content to their blog posts.
They can help to illustrate a point, break up large blocks of text, and make blogs more visually appealing.
– What images can I legally use on my blog?
You can legally use images that are:
- Creative Commons licensed.
- Public domain.
- Your original work
- Images for which you have obtained permission from the copyright holder.
It’s essential to give proper credit to the image source. Avoid using copyrighted images without permission which may result in legal consequences.
– Will I get sued for using stock photos without paying permission?
Yes, getting sued for using stock photos without paying or permission is possible, as it would be considered copyright infringement/violation of intellectual work.
The owners of the stock photos have the right to take legal action against anyone who uses their pictures without permission, regardless of whether the use was intentional or not.
– Can you get sued for using copyrighted images?
Yes, you can be sued for using copyrighted images without permission. Using someone else’s work without their consent is illegal unless it falls under the doctrine of “fair use.
If you use copyrighted material without permission, the owner may take legal action against you, including filing a lawsuit.
– Can I use pictures from Google on my blog?
It depends on the copyright status of the pictures. If the photos are under copyright, you must have permission from the owner to use them on your blog.
You can use them if they are in the public domain or licensed under a Creative Commons license. However, it’s always best to double-check and attribute the source.
– What pictures am I allowed to use on my blogs?
You are allowed to use pictures that are:
- Images that are under a Creative Commons license (CCO) because they have no copyright issue. Or images you own or create.
- If using an image not under a Creative Commons license, ensure you have the appropriate permissions from the owner.
- Images that are not considered offensive or inappropriate for your audience.
Final Thoughts on Best Stock Photo Sites for Bloggers
Choosing the right stock photos for your blog is crucial for grabbing your reader’s attention and keeping them engaged.
If you have the budget then you can use premium stock photo websites as it gives you access to more unique images which make your blog stand out.
Unlike free photo websites, you’d most likely find the image that best describes its use case on your blog using a paid photo website due to its gigantic library of rich photos.
If you don’t have the budget or just getting started with blogging, you can explore the various mentioned free stock websites and progress over time as you grow.
Till we meet again on another article,
..do have a nice day.
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