The internet is full of pictures. Whether it’s simple photos, icons, infographics, illustrations, or animated images – the visual assets make the online world look vibrant and fascinating.
Whether you are a content marketer, designer, or blogger, you need to capture your audience’s attention using visuals. As the online world relies so much on images, the competition is pretty intense. And to lead the pack, you have to find the most unique and excellent visual content.
For this purpose, getting original photos captured for your project is an ideal solution. However, that can be an expensive and time-consuming task. But don’t worry if you have some budget constraints. You can get some really awesome images from various stock photo sites.
In this article, we will cover some of the best paid and free websites to acquire stock images.
Paid Stock Photo Websites
Paid stock photo websites offer a range of visual assets at varying costs. The images you download from a paid website are licensed, which means you don’t have to worry about any copyright conflicts. The pictures will also be more unique compared to those obtained from free stock photos websites.
Let’s have a look at some really fantastic paid stock photo sites:
Shutterstock has one of the biggest curations of stock photos, illustrations, vector images, videos, music, etc. This website houses around 360 million images that boast high-quality for professional use.
Why choose Shutterstock?
- You can get the latest and most trendy images in their Curated Collections section.
- The platform has pay-as-you-go plans for users with limited finances.
- Shutterstock Editor has several great editing templates and tools for those who want to edit the pictures.
If you are looking for some extraordinary and creative images, iStock has got you covered. With its massive collection of stock images and photographs, you can buy the best ones to use for commercial and non-commercial projects.
Why choose iStock?
- The content on this platform is backed under a royalty-free license. This means you can use the images as many times as possible after paying the one-time fee.
- iStock also gives away free content every month and week to its users, along with promotions to get discounts.
- The paid stock images website allows you to add your own creativity to the images with its online editor.
The list of paid stock images websites cannot be complete without the mention of Alamy. The website covers more than 145 million really fascinating photos, vector images, and videos.
Why choose Alamy?
- This stock photos site owes its diverse visual content to more than 60,000 photographers and 600 agencies around the globe.
- Every day, around 100,000 new stock images are contributed to Alamy that you can buy starting from $19.99.
Dreamstime is another excellent paid stock photos website that has around 170 million “dreamy” images in its database. A number of talented artists and photographers from around the world contribute to this site every day.
Why choose Dreamstime?
- In addition to paid content, the website also offers a 15 image free trial to its users.
- This website is a one-stop shop for designers who can get many visual assets like icons, clipart, logos, etc., and win their design game!
Stockphotos is a great stock images site that curates as much as 7 million legally safe and versatile visual assets. You can find vector images, illustrations, and fonts with reasonable price tags on this platform.
Why choose Stockphotos?
- The content on the website is well-organized under sections like Business, Illustrations, Lifestyle, Nature, and more. This makes navigating the website easy.
- You can come across some really great discounted deals on this website, which are easy on your wallet.
Free Stock Photos Websites
A limited budget should never stop anyone from being creative, whether a blog or an online business website. This is why free stock photos sites are an excellent option for fantastic imagery.
However, keep in mind the images from these sites may not be 100% safe for commercial purposes. The sites we are covering have better-policing policies and verification procedures as compared to other free photo sites out there.
Pexels is one of the best stock photos sites that offer the most artistic and amazing visual content to everyone, and that too, for free! The image stock on this platform is well-curated and easily accessible thanks to the user-friendly search filters.
Why choose Pexels?
- Navigating through the website is pretty easy as it has categorized images under different themes. This makes it easy for users to find the content they are looking for.
- If you are a web designer, you can design interface mockups on Pexels using a wide range of cool templates available on the website for this purpose.
When you browse Pikwizard, you wouldn’t believe you can get such fantastic content for free. The pictures on this platform are sectioned under different subjects, scenarios, and situations. In short, Pikwizard is a true “pic wizard!”
Why choose Pikwizard?
- The cityscape content found on this website is downright the best you could ever come across.
- The editing tool on Pikwizard offers you a chance to sprinkle your creativity onto the pictures.
- Although this repository website offers free content, you could also get your hands on some exclusive stuff that will only cost you a couple of dollars.
With as many as 300,000 beautiful images, Unsplash is a great website for artistic content to upscale your visual game. And, the best part is it wouldn’t cost you a penny.
Why choose Unsplash?
- Unsplash boasts an excellent and user-friendly search interface, making it easy for users to search for relevant images.
- Only the most high-quality and extraordinary submissions make it to the platform’s homepage. This tells us a lot about the website’s reliability and the editors’ effort to give you the best visual assets possible.
Gratisography boasts the quirkiest display of high-quality stock photographs for free. This website takes pride in offering the most novel and un-cliche visual content for everyone.
Why choose Gratisography?
- Ryan McGuire is the owner and creator of all the images on this website. All the photos reflect captivating surrealism and exude his photographic intelligence.
- For a free website, the photographs are great, and you don’t have to credit the creator if you use them. But, we still think it’s courteous to give them a mention where you can.
Pixabay is home to millions of excellent-quality free stock images. If you are looking for some great promotional or marketing content, you should definitely check this website!
Why choose Pixabay?
- The SafeSearch feature allows a safe search experience without stumbling on any explicit findings in your search results.
- Their Editor’s Choice section is full of the best picks and the most fascinating pictures.
There are many other stock photo sites with amazing content. Still, you have to be careful because not all of them offer licensed images or a curated library of high-quality assets. With these websites, you can rest assured that you are getting the best stuff from reliable sources.
If you run a website, own a blog, or run Facebook ads for your online store, you are definitely going to need some great visual content. The above collection offers you an array of choices and makes it easy to find the right visuals for your needs.
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