As statistics show, humans process images way faster than they process texts. This also makes sense as attention spans get smaller day by day. As a result of these, you will need photos of quality to grab your audience’s attention and keep it.
However, as the number of stock photos websites has been skyrocketed, and many of them inferior or way too expensive, finding the right stock photo may not be so simple. Fortunately, we are here to help! Check the list of best stock photo websites that we created for you below!
1. Pexels
Pexels is a well-organized, professional, and must-be-checked website if you are looking for great stock photography with high quality. Also, all of the stock photos are completely free to use for commercial and non-commercial usage as all of them are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0).
On the contrary to many other websites, Pexels has great algorithms and search options that will help you find exactly what you have been looking for!
2. Pixabay
Pixabay offers thousands of free stock photos, and the number of them keeps increasing every day! You can be sure that the images you will find here will be of great quality as they have a specialized team just for evaluating the submissions manually.
All stock photos are completely free and open to commercial usage. However, they have some restrictions about the redistribution and resale of unaltered images that we highly suggest you check the details before using!
3. Kaboompics
The most impressive part about Kaboompics is that all of the images -there are over 8000 of them- are the work of the same person, Karolina Grabowska who is also the creator of the website!
You can find amazing stock photos with different aesthetics and topics from fashion to abstract. Also, here you can search by the colors and have access to the color pallet of each image. However, you should be careful about the licensing of this site as there are some strict restrictions about redistribution without permission.
4. Unsplash
Unsplash is one of the sites that I check first when I need a stock image with high quality. They have an enormous number of great photos with really optimized search options which ensures that you would find what you are looking for.
If you need more modern and artsy images, Unsplash should be the first site you check out. You can use every image for free and for any usage you would like to -commercial and non-commercial- as long as you don’t compile the images.
5. Burst
Shopify developed Burst to provide stock photos of quality to entrepreneurs, and as can be seen from their website, they are doing it great! They have a big library of images with a wide range of topics from technology, trends, lifestyle, business niches, and so much more.
If you are looking for professional photos for commercial use or e-shops you should check out Burst first! However, even though all images are completely free and royalty-free, you should remember that it is forbidden to compile them as yours.
6. SplitShire
SplitShire is not one of the sites where you can find millions of images, it has a relatively smaller library, however, once you take a look at it you will see that the quality of the photos narrows the gap of quantity!
Also, thanks to its detailed and specialized categories, you can find what you are looking for in no time! You can use any image from this site for commercial purposes as well.
7. Life of Pix
Canadian marketing agency LEEROY created Life of Pix by getting submissions from photographers. It is an amazing website, however, if you are looking for a specific thing, using Life of Pix may not be a great option. On the other hand, if you are looking for the final piece of your work but are not sure what it is, and need some inspiration, you should check out Life of Pix.
Also, all of their images are in the Public Domain which means you can use any of them as you wish!
8. Picspree
With its unusual categories, and its ability to provide great photos of quality under each of the categories, Picspree is one of the greatest websites for stock photography as well. Here you can find subcategories like seasonal, special occasions, travel destinations, and so much more!
Even though they are free, you need to check out the license of the site as there are some restrictions on your usage.
9. Picjumbo
Viktor Hanacek, a stock photographer, created Picjumbo for commercial and personal use. Thanks to his awesome personal collection, you can find great photos in all kinds of themes you could wish.
If you are willing to pay some amount, I strongly recommend you to take a look at the premium plans of Picjumbo as well!
10. Reshot
As the creators also say, Reshot is a website by designers, for designers. It has an enormous handmade library and very original works of art inside!
What Reshot offers is not limited to stock photos, you can find amazing icons and illustrations here as well, and the greatest part is they are all completely free and royalty-free!
We hope this list will guide you on your journey of completing your work with the perfect images! If you liked this article you can check out our blog for more content like this!
