Top Platforms for Free Stock Images: Don’t think about the price when looking for free stock photo sites. Instead, think about the quality and unique styles that you won’t find in traditional stock photography. Uniqueness matters in advertising photography.
Stock photography will weigh down your website with average, cliched, boring, yet accessible. It looks horrible.
Yet, “big market” photography that is high end can be expensive, and the licenses can be confusing. We still suggest sites like Getty or Adobe for print or building websites for Fortune 500 companies where licensing can get contentious.
However, the best photos for small to mid-sized companies are definitely in the free photo arena. You can find excellent quality from good to even professional photographers looking more for exposure than paychecks.
So in this article, we have curated a list of the top 5 platforms for free stock images. Scroll now!
Why use stock images?
Stock photos are royalty-free images that one can use on any social media platform without gaining permission from the original content creator.
They’re becoming increasingly popular for social media marketing. Hundreds, if not thousands, of creative stock photographers share their work through official stock photography sites.
One can use stock photos when they have hit a creative block, do not have time to shoot photos, or just want to spice up their feed with some fresh content.
Also Read: Picsel Review
Top 6 Platforms for Free stock images
1. Flicker
Flickr is one of the most favourable places for saleable photography. While it can be a hit or miss, quality photographers post photographs that can be used royalty-free, making it one of the Top Platforms for Free stock images
The photographs on Flickr tend to be original. They do need either sharpening or cropping, so we nearly always search “Commercial Use & Mods Allowed” so we can trim or cut the image. (“Mods” mean you’re modifying the idea.)
You can find treasures on Flickr that you would not find on other “stock photography” websites, even paid sites. Photos on Flickr lean to be more personal, more unique and have angles and subject views that can’t be found on commercial stock photography sites.
2. Pexels
Photos on Pexels are more akin to stock photos but free. It’s a quality photo-sharing site, but it has an unbiased, overly posed quality that stock photography websites often have.
Pexels’ pictures have good photography qualities (composition, lighting, subject). Still, you’re getting the unsold seconds from paid stock photography websites.
3. Simplified
One of the featured names in the best free stock photo websites list has been Simplified! However, with Simplified, you can access copyright-free images without paying a penny and use them. The platform lets you find the ideal free stock photos for every task. Simplified’s design tools will enable you to create stunning content for your brand in seconds.
You can import images straight from Simplified’s library, counting as many as you need into your design. You can then edit and customize them as per your brand needs or the social platform you’re posting on – it really is that simple!
4. Canva
Canva provides an excellent design tool for web editing. As a side service, it also offers free and paid stock photography.
I’m not going to feature their photos here, as Canva’s photos are from Pexels and other free photo sites.
Canva doesn’t have the volume of images from other sites, so choices are limited.
What makes Canva good is that they seem to curate the overly staged photos. Thus, you are left with better quality photography from Pexels and Pixabay that is still free.
5. Pixabay
Whenever we talk about web photography, people always suggest Pixabay. Obviously, it’s got an excellent market share and name recognition.
It is another of the free stock photo sites that may be helpful to you. Not only does it offer you a large selection of quality images, but also free vectors and illustrations. Vector images are especially useful because they can be easily animated and manipulated. You can scale them up and down to any size, depending on the assets you need for your marketing.
See Also: Cost to hire Freelance Website Designer
6. PicJumbo
Run by a 24-year-old photographer, PicJumbo is a royalty-free photo community with a vast selection of free images. Additionally, you can subscribe to PicJumbo’s newsletter and have new stock photos sent directly to your inbox. You don’t even need a membership! You can also switch to a dark mode on this site.
However, if you want to access more content, you’ll need to upgrade your membership to access at least 50+ extra photos each month. When searching, you’ll also need to use specific keywords, as the website doesn’t use categories.
