Searching for the best free stock photo sites for commercial editing purposes? There are so many sites to choose, each with its own license and rules. Some people might not have the time or patience to spend hours to find the best site for their projects, fortunately, we’re here to help.
Photography is always a vital part of the internet; with more and more people making their own websites and trying to be content creators, the need for free images increases. Not everyone can afford to pay for the right of images to use on the internet. One picture can cost a fortune, and what if you need 100 pictures? This is why free stock photos are important. But the struggle doesn’t stop there, finding the best place to get stock photos and finding the right stock photos can be very challenging. And there is also one more problem, license.
Many of these free images are not bound by copyright restrictions or licensed under Creative Common’s public domain dedication. That means you can copy, modify, and distribute, even for commercial purposes and without asking for permission. However, some licenses require you to give attribution to the artist or original owner. It’s important to know what the licenses entail on each website and learn the best way to use these images.
Here is our list of some of the best free stock photo sites.
14 Best Sites To Download Free Stock Photos For your project
The following is a list of sites that allow you to download unlimited free stock photos. The sites below help you to get images in HD and even 4K quality. Please pay attention to the license and policies of each provider so that in the future you are not worried about copyright.
1 Freepik
Freepik is fast becoming the go-to place for creatives to get hold of free-to-use, quality-checked stock images, vector designs, illustrations, mockups, and even stock videos, all provided by its fast-growing community of contributors. The website is built around the user, delivering on a fluid journey to finding the right image for their projects, no matter how specific.
Furthermore, Freepik also has a new AI image generation feature, allowing users to create lifelike images through description alone. Upgrading your membership to premium will gain you access to premium resources, an unlimited download cap, and no need for attribution.
2. Depositphotos
Depositphotos is a platform for selling or buying images, vectors, and other content. One of the largest photobanks, the collection includes more than 200 million images by hand-selected authors. Also features a large collection of free images.
Works in 192 countries around the world.
Suitable for:
- Photographers who want to sell their work.
- Buyers – web designers, graphic designers, etc.
- Journalists and bloggers
You can quickly find your desired content through an easy search and thematic collections. This can be high-quality stock photos, vector graphics, editorial files, video footage, clipart, illustrative graphics, sounds, and much more.
With Depositphotos you can download free photos and pictures, implement your ideas in creative projects and create quality content.
3. Pexels
Pexels
Pexels offers high-quality stock photos that are completely free and licensed under CC0. The website is really nice to look at, it’s so easy to find the right pictures here. All images are organized; they’re all nicely tagged, searchable and also easy to be discovered through their Discover pages. There is also a trending section to see which images most people use. You can register an account for free and contribute by uploading images that you own.
4. Burst
Burst is a free stock photo platform
Burst is designed to supply free stock photos for entrepreneurs. Some images here are licensed under CC0 and others are licensed under Shopify’s photo license. If you’re an entrepreneur trying to make better products, websites, and marketing campaigns, Burst might be your best free stock photo site.
Most of the photos you can find here are original photos they took and are themed around trending business niches. They have a lot of business niches covered here, even niches that you’ve never heard of before – DIY beard oil, Aliexpress LED sneakers, underwater sport, etc. They also have those here if you’re looking for some generic photos.
5. Pixabay
Pixabay
In Pixabay you can find a huge collection of free stock photos, videos, vectors and art illustrations. All the photos here are released under Pixabay’s own license. The license allows you to use everything in the website without asking for permission and giving credit even for commercial purposes, making it one of the best free stock photos sites. A search bar in the middle of the homepage makes it easier for you to look for specific free photos. You can specify the kind of free item you’re looking for from the dropdown menu. Pixabay claims to have over 1 million high-quality stock images and videos.
6. Gratisography
Gratisography
Gratisography is a website that offers free high-quality pictures that you can use on your personal and commercial projects. Their collection is updated constantly, weekly to be precise and everything is free of copyright restrictions. Also, all the photos are captured by Ryan McGuire of Bells Design. You can use the search bar or browse the categories sub-menu to look for the photos that you want.
7. Picography
Best Free Stock Photos Sites
Picography has a lot of amazing free stock photos taken by Dave Meier and many other photographers. All the photos on the website are released under Picography’s own license, which allows you to use, copy, edit or share, use it for personal or commercial purposes without asking for permission or giving credit to anyone. Therefore, they encourage people to give credit to the original creator.
8. Picjumbo
Beautiful free stock photos
Picjumbo is a collection of free photos intended for commercial or personal purposes. New pictures are added daily, and from a wide variety of categories including abstract, fashion, nature, technology, and many more. Once you get on the homepage, you’ll be greeted by many categories and sub-menus. There is also a search bar to make it easier for you to find specific photos. The large collection alone puts Picjumbo on our list of best free stock photos sites.
9. SkitterPhoto
SkitterPhoto
SkitterPhoto has a wide variety of free stock photos and are released under CC0. All pictures are owned and created by Skitterphoto’s owners. Anyone can use all photos for any purposes, including commercial. The website is very simple and easy to use, use the search bar to find your pictures.
10. Little Visuals
Little Visuals
Little Visuals is now a place to remember the site’s owner, Nic. He passed away a while ago, but his pictures remain in his memory. All photos here have been published under CC0 license for public domain dedication. Obviously, there will be no new pictures uploaded, but a sizeable number of photos is already available.
11. Jay Mantri
Jay Mantri
Jay Mantri has a lot of photos with a wide variety of themes. Every photo is released under CC0, anyone can use, edit, share. The collection is pretty big since 7 new photos are released every Thursday. Whatever photos you like, you can download them for free here.
12. ISO Republic
ISO Republic Image
ISO Republic has a huge collection of free images with a wide range of variety. New pictures are added every day and everything is released under CC0 license. Besides photos, ISO Republic has videos too. The search is button has a drop-down menu that you can use to find specific pictures. You see every category that the photos fall under, there are in total of 18 categories for all pictures. ISO Republic is suitable for everyone, that’s why we think it’s one of the best free stock photos sites and deserves to be on our list. Enjoy free High-Resolution CC0 photos and videos for your graphic design purposes.
13. StockSnap.io
Stocksnap.io
StockSnap.io has a large collection of free stock photos. Every photo is high quality and released under CC0 public domain license, no attribution required. The site has a very smart search bar for you to look for specific pictures. It’s easy to find the pictures you need among thousands of other pictures. Additionally, StockSnap.io tracks the number of views and downloads on each photo; you can find out which photos are the most popular. The collection keeps getting bigger and bigger, with new hundreds of new photos added on a daily basis.
14. Unsplash
unsplash
Unsplash is a very popular site for free stock photos. It offers a huge collection of free high-quality photos. Many people have considered Unsplash to be the best source for stock photos. Anyone can contribute to the collection and the Unsplash team to create each new submission before adding them to their collection.
New photos are always added to be featured on their homepage if they think it’s good enough. Lastly, all photos are released under Unsplash license for free. So, there you have it, our list of free stock photos sites that you can find.
