Every blogger out there knows the hardship of acquiring free stock photos for websites. You’ve seen a great image you want to use but it’s going to cost. Or similar, you already have an image in mind but you’re not exactly a Photoshop or Illustrator pro.
So, what’s a blogger to do?
Shutterstock is often the go to site when ‘no attribution’ is required. You pay for the rights and the image is yours to use as you wish. However, the paid route isn’t exactly cost effective.
Many of us have spent hours looking through the big stock websites, only to find it’s $10 dollars for a favourite image. Want that in high resolution? Then be prepared to pay a lot more.
Paid stock image websites, although sold on the premise of affordable images, quickly devour your budget (if you have one) and leave you with very little to show.
I personally find re-used images incredibly boring to see. I’m referring to images that have been used multiple times across a website or blog. It leaves me feeling unenthused to say the least.
Saying that, it can be quite hard to navigate your way through the web and scout for images which are free. When I say free, I mean free of charge, free for commercial use, and no attribution required. I’ve been on many a website, lured by the promise of free images and then asked for my credit card details *face palm*.
For all of you lovely bloggers who find themselves in need of a free image, here are 21 websites offering you just that.
22 Sites With Free Stock Photos For Commercial Use
1. Pikwizard
If you are looking for free images to use without attribution, then this site is gold.
This website currently has over 60,000 free images, with over 20,000 of those images being exclusive to Pikwizard.
New images are added to the library daily, with the aim of achieving 1 million images – that’s a lot of free images for your website or blogs!
Better yet, this site features a lot of pictures with people which tends to be rare in free stock photo sites.
2. Pexels
Pexels is a great website for high resolution images. Their completely free stock photos are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero License. Every photo is tagged and searchable, making it very easy to find the image you are looking for.
“We help millions of designers, writers, artists, programmers and other creators to get access to beautiful photos that they can use freely which empowers them to create amazing products, designs, stories, websites, apps, art and other work. We call it: ‘Empowering Creators.'”
They have over 30,000 free stock photos, with at least 3,000 new photos being added each month. All their images are handpicked and uploaded by their users as well as being sourced from other like minded image sites.
3. Pixabay
Pixabay is another great site where you can find and share images free of copyrights. All images are released under the Creative Commons license and you can copy, modify and distribute images without asking for permission.
Images can be used for commercial purposes however Pixabay image URL’s do not work on external sites so you will need to download and upload them to your server.
4. Unsplash
If you’re not using Unsplash then you will be now. Why use this website? The owners of the website put it beautifully…
“Free (do whatever you want) high-resolution photos.”
5. Realistic Shots
Realistic Shots is a free stock photo website. Their quality, high resolution images are free for personal and commercial use. New free stock photos are added every week and you can filter photos choosing the following categories: Architecture, Nature, People, Travel and Technology.
6. Jay Mantri
Choose this website for free, high quality images you can use anywhere.
“Free pics. Do anything (CCO). Make magic.”
7. MMT
MMT provides free photos for commercial use. They offer quality photos for your website, theme, template, projects, print materials, social posts and more. New photos are added each week, with all images having a Creative Commons License.
Jeffery Betts, the founder of MMT:
“I launched MMT in 2014 to share my love of photography with the world. Over the years I’ve taken countless photos and wanted to post some of those photos to use for free and give back to the online community.
The content spans many categories, including nature, city scenes, workspaces, and macro photography. These photos can be freely downloaded, used, and redistributed for both personal and commercial purposes.”
8. Foodies Feed
Need free food pictures? Foodies Feed is an excellent resource providing free, realistic food images in high resolution. All images are available to download for your blog posts, articles, websites, templates, mobile apps and backgrounds.
Tip: Don’t use website when hungry.
9. ISO Republic
ISO Republic provides free stock photos for creative professionals. The website was founded in 2014 by Photographer, Tom Eversley. Since its launch it has published over 1,000 free images with many photos being added on a daily basis.
If you are looking for high quality images then this website is a goldmine. It is frequently used by Designers, Developers, Bloggers, Marketers and Social Media teams.
Images are high-resolution and free to use on commercial and person creative projects. For their full conditions of use place see their terms and conditions page.
10.Travel Coffee Book
This website is perfect if you have a travel blog or website.
“Sharing beautiful travel moments. All photos are listed under cc0.
That means you can do whatever you want with them.”
11. Public Domain Archive
Public Domain Archive has everything you need for your creative projects. New free stock photos are added every single week.
12. Kaboompics
Kaboompics is a royalty-free service for stock images. It is a popular source of free images for websites specialising in lifestyle and interior design as well as being popular amongst specialised bloggers.
“My name is Karolina – I’m a coffee addict who spends her time creating digital images. I’m also a photographer, a graphic designer and a website creator. I’m here to help you visualize your world, your business, and your ideas for life.”
13. Snapwire Snaps Tumblr
Snapwire Snaps offers a Tumblr page featuring license and commission photos from 200,000 of the world’s most talented Photographers. They upload 7 authentic hand picked images every 7 days. Images are free and licensed under CC0 1. 0 .
14. Magedeleine
Beautiful hand picked free photos that are categorised and tagged . You can also filter images choosing either “CC0- Public Domain” or “Attribution Required”.
15. Free Nature Stock
Updated daily, this website offers royalty free nature stock photos. The website was created by Adrian Pelletier and all images are licensed under the Creative Commons licence. This means the images are free to use however you want – even in commercial work.
No permission is required and according to Pelletier,
“I personally capture each photo (usually on a Canon 6D) and maintain this entire project. Please consider buying me a coffee as a small thank you.”
16. Life of Pix
A free stock photography website with images being uploaded everyday.
17. Libreshot
Looking for original and natural looking photos? Libreshot provides free stock images for commercial use, licensed with CC0 – Public Domain. No attribution is required.
18. Gratisography
Gratisography should be your go to site for free high resolution images that are free of copyright restrictions. All photos can be used for both personal and commercial projects
Images are added weekly and are photographed by the very talented Ryan McGuire.
19. Burst
Powered by Shopify, Burst is a free stock photo site that provides images under the Creative Commons zero license. You are welcome to use images for any purpose – perfect if you are looking for free images for commercial use.
“We built this site to empower designers, developers, bloggers and entrepreneurs to create stunning websites and marketing campaigns. You can use these pictures for absolutely anything — hero images on your blog or online store, backgrounds for school projects, shots for social media campaigns, client work, and beyond.”
You can add your logo or brand to images to make them your own. Add text, filters and edit the stock photos how you see fit.
20. Stokpic
Started by humble Photographer Ed Gregory, Stokpic provides photos for commercial and personal use. Free photos in full hi resolution – what’s the catch?
As it turns out, there isn’t one. Quite simply,
“Not everyone has hundreds of dollars for Stock Photos.”
Gregory had a lot of unused photos sitting on his hardrives so he decided to put a project together. What started out as a little weekend project, turned into a very successful free stock photo site.
Better yet,
“All the money the site earns from advertising gets returned back to the art world by funding photographers.”
Rules of The Game
You Can:
- Use images as part of a Website or Mobile App
- Use images for Print Marketing Marerials
- Use images as placeholders for Bloggers or Websites
- Use images as part of a Template for sell
- Use images in personal and commercial works
- Use images in Advertisement
You Can’t:
- Sell an image as it is
21. Cupcake
All photos Cupcake are licensed under the Creative Commons license. They are free (do what ever you want) photos. No costs involved.
You can also copy, modify and distribute images for commercial purposes, all without asking for permission.
22. Negative Space
NegativeSpace provides beautiful stock images under a CC0 license. They are completely free for personal and commercial projects.
“NegativeSpace is about creating communities: A community of photographers who want to share their work. And a community of online visitors who want to use their beautiful, free high-resolution images without any restrictions.”
Each of the high quality Photographers featured on the site, have been taken by photographers from the NegativeSpace community. From Abstract images to Animals and Architecture, this website offers a wide range of categories.
Get Creative With Free Images For Download
Now you have a list of 21 websites with free stock photos, the next image hunt will be that little bit easier.
Share this article with your blogging pals, they are sure to be thankful.
Know of a website that’s not included in our list? Add it in the comments below.
Don’t forget to visit our blog for more digital marketing tips.
