Free, yet quality stock photos are hard to come by. If you have tried searching for free stock photos on the internet, you know what I’m talking about. A substantial portion of the stock photo market is not free, and is dominated by organizations like Shutterstock and Fotolia. It is an expensive proposition for many businesses. Hence, most people fall back upon free solutions.
However, the problem with free stock photos is that they are pretty shoddy and appear downright cheesy most of the time. Most of them are low-resolution photos and using them might prove to be detrimental for your business. However, without any alternative solution, many businesses still use them.
The truth is, high-quality stock photos do not necessarily come with a price-tag if you look in the right places. Here’s a list of 10 websites where you can get free stock photos for your marketing needs:
Pexels
Pexels was started by Bruno and Ingo Joseph in 2014. This website has over 25,000 stock photos. And, guess what? All of them are free. They are easy to search for and discover. Most of the images are high quality photographs that are suitable for all sort of displays. All of the images are either user submissions or hand-picked from other free sources like Unsplash, Gratisography, Little Visuals etc. So, when it comes to quality, Pexels run a tight ship.
For licensing details click here.
Unsplash
Founded in 2013, Unsplash started out as a Tumblr blog. However, it has now become one of the industry leaders in the free stock photo market. Millions of designers, marketers, and bloggers around the world use Unsplash to meet their requirements. There’s absolutely zero cheesy content and if you are looking for breathtaking shots, look no further. Every 10 days, Unsplash adds 10 photos and they are bound to impress you.
For licensing details click here.
Picjumbo
Victor Hanacek is a 22-year photographer from Czech Republic who started Picjumbo in 2013. Facing rejection from popular stock photo websites, this young photographer decided to take matter in his own hands.
Now this website is used by millions of people worldwide for campaigns and websites. The goal that drives this website is the creation of the best possible images for people all over the world.
It is easy to navigate and discover high-resolution photographs covering all sorts of niches. The website also features a premium membership plan for paid packages apart from the usual free images.
For more details on licensing, redistribution, premium plan click here.
Pixabay
Pixabay was founded in 2010 in Germany by Hans Braxmeier and Simon Steinberger. It is a photo sharing website that houses over 750,000 free photographs and over 3000 videos.
It is home to quality images and Pixabay’s team checks each and every photo manually to avoid any legal issues in the future. Over 32,000 active members contribute daily to Pixabay’s ever-growing vault of images.
For details on licensing, click here.
Freeimages
Freeimages was launched in 2001 with the sole purpose of providing a cost-effective solution to expensive stock photographs. Since its inception it has grown rapidly and has over 2.5 million users with more than 400,000 photographs. You can access all these images without having to spend a single dime. From projects to campaigns, Freeimages has you covered. It is searchable so that helps you save a lot of time.
For licensing details, click here.
Negative Space
Negative Space offers around 20 brand new photographs every week. You can use these photos in whichever way you want and has no copyright restrictions like most free image sharing websites. It cover almost all facets of life, and it is easy to search so you will have no trouble looking for images in this website.
For licensing details, click here.
Kaboompics
Kaboompics was started by a Polish photographer, Karolina to help people find high-resolution yet free images for their projects. It has a nice collection of unique images that cater to bloggers, website owners, marketers and freelancers. Even though there is no formal requirement for attribution but you can include the link of the photograph back to her site ensuring that it keeps growing.
Click here to know more about the terms of the website.
Freerange
Freerange believes that free stock photos too can be high-quality images. Most images are either captured by a talented in-house photographers or contributed via the Freerange community. All the images go through a stringent process of quality control where they are corrected and optimized for the public. A lot of work goes into every image so that users can find them useful for their purposes.
For licensing details, click here.
FancyCrave
Igor Ovsyannykov started FancyCrave in 2015 where he decided to give away photographs of his travels for free. His aim is to provide users with original, unique and emotionally-driven images in the world of cheesy stock photos. He publishes two high-resolution images every day for personal and commercial use. There are no copyright restrictions whatsoever, and if you are on the lookout for fresh and vibrant photographs, this is the place where you need to be.
To know more about the terms and conditions of the website, click here.
Gratisography
If you want unique, striking images then Gratisography might just be what you are looking for. It is a brilliant website. Ryan McGuire is an artist and web designer who is the brains behind it. It is maintained and run by him, and he clicks all the photographs himself. The photographs require no attribution at all.
For licensing details, click here.
Now that you know about these 10 wonderful websites, you can happily bid goodbye to your image woes.
Even though most of these websites use the terms of a Creative Commons Zero license (meaning you can use the photograph in whichever way you want, without seeking any sort of formal permission), you should still check out the licensing pages of every website for more details.