On-demand image packs, however, cost more, running from $2.99 to $14.00 per image. The Extended Licenses come with a higher price tag, ranging from $63.96 to $89.00 per image. Your buying options include the more affordable subscriptions ($0.22–$4.90/image) or the more flexible on-demand packs ($9.16–$14.50/image).

A reasonable sized collection of quite good photos is available at Stockvault. All images are licensed under a Creative Commons attribution license. Adobe Stock has a library of over 100 million high-resolution images, all of which are integrated into Creative Cloud. For designers and illustrators, finding, purchasing, and using Adobe Stock’s imagery is quick and easy.

Do graphic designers create their own images?

The best way to avoid problems is to buy a license, like a royalty-free license. While we always pick stock photo sites based on the same 5 crucial metrics, we adjust weights according to the category. We also granted extra points for various plugins, add-ons, and tools that make your life as a designer easier. It’s one of the most popular stock photography sites out there, offering the largest collection of royalty-free images, and it’s a well-regarded, trusted platform. Unfortunately, we’ve grown accustomed to seeing cheesy stock images of people in suits shaking hands. Not only are a lot of these stock photos tacky, but they cost a lot of money.

The selection of free vectors and videos is limited, but almost 70,000 photos can be downloaded for free. It was only a matter of time before someone found a way to aggregate free stock photo results and monetize the concept somehow, and that’s what Everystockphoto does. There are a huge number of pictures indexed on this site, numbering in the millions. For example, there’s over 67,000 results for the search term “clouds”. You can search free stock photos from Morguefile, Freerange Stock, Photoxpress, Flickr, stock.xchn, NASA, Wikimedia Commons and more, in a single site. They have good sorting and filtering options to help you find the perfect photo, but not heaps of search options, though.

Best Free Stock Photo Websites

Picography stands out for its advanced search filters, which help you find the perfect image you’ve been searching for. Another positive is that all photos are Creative Commons Zero licensed, which stock images for designers means they’re free for personal and commercial use with no attribution. The photos available on Picography are high quality, making them great for marketing and advertising professionals.

Graphic designers may also work with photographers or illustrators directly, commissioning them to create bespoke images for their projects. This usually results in unique, tailor-made visuals that perfectly match the designer’s vision. These photos cover a broad range of subjects such as landscapes, people, events, and concepts, among others. In conclusion, for designers, developers, and video creators who require a multitude of assets on a budget, Envato Elements is an ideal choice. The unlimited plan offers significant savings compared to pay-per-download options.

Discover popular Stock categories and themes

Their admirable goal is to provide stock photography for both commercial and non-commercial use, for free. They give away their collections with the hope that they are useful and enjoyed. A small team of in-house professional photographers supplies the photos in the site. In this guide, discover a list of the best websites for premium stock photos and free stock photos alike. Plus, get a breakdown of the licensing options for each platform, so you know which photos you can use worry-free.

With over 300 million licensed images, Shutterstock is the market giant when it comes to paid stock photos. In addition to photographs, you can purchase vectors, editorial pieces, sound effects, music, 3D models, backgrounds, and other creative assets. The Shutterstock platform also has an API that companies can integrate with their tools and apps. And there are options for all budgets — premium stock photos are more affordable than you might imagine.

New Old Stock

In graphic design, stock photos can be used as backgrounds, to complement text, to set a mood or theme, or even to convey complex ideas. They can be modified or edited to better fit the specific needs of a project, such as being cropped, having their colors altered, or being combined with other images or graphical elements. On the other hand, we included Envato Elements due to the breadth of content combined with unlimited downloads at a low fixed fee, making it a great budget option.

The site was founded in 2011 by Ryan McGuire, and most of the photos on the site were taken by Ryan. Burst is a free photo website created by Shopify, the leading e-commerce platform. Although Burst was created with Shopify users in mind, anyone can download and use the high-resolution photos. All of the creative content at Pexels has been submitted by a large and growing team of contributors.

Many designers also create their own images or graphics, using software like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or Procreate. This gives them complete control over the look and feel of the image and allows for complete customization, ensuring their designs are truly unique. Another popular option is free image websites like Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay, where you can find images that are free for commercial use under Creative Commons licenses. However, as these are open to anyone, the images may not be as unique as those from paid platforms. Envato Elements is our top choice for budget-conscious designers seeking unlimited downloads.

However, it’s essential to understand that most stock photos come with licensing agreements. These determine how the image can be used, for example, whether it can be used commercially or only for personal projects, how many times it can be reproduced, etc. Designers must respect these licensing agreements to avoid legal issues. A stock photo is a professionally taken photograph that is licensed for specific uses. Regarded as one of the best among stock photo sites, it boasts quick responses via live chat and email responses within one to three business days. If you’re unsure, the 7-day free trial lets you take 10 royalty-free images for a spin.

Built for startups, freelancers & makers who are sick of tacky stock photos. Vecteezy has over a million free stock photos and a curation team that manually reviews every image submitted to the site. Their search is powerful – you can filter the images results by color, orientation, style, number of people, age of people, and more. Unsplash is a popular resource because they have a huge collection and because the photos are, for the most part, high-quality. Most of the photos you’ll find at Unsplash don’t have the stereotypical stock photo look that everyone wants to avoid.

• There are some excellent resources, and there are also some lower-quality images and videos.
• Subscription prices dip as low as $1.44 per image, even for the smallest plans, making it a pocket-friendly alternative to Shutterstock’s $4.90 and Adobe Stock’s $9.99 per image.
• StyleStock offers free feminine stock photography for every woman entrepreneur.
• You can search free stock photos from Morguefile, Freerange Stock, Photoxpress, Flickr, stock.xchn, NASA, Wikimedia Commons and more, in a single site.
• There are also over 200,000 royalty-free illustrations for designers and illustrators to use freely, too.
• Some photos are licensed under Creative Commons CC0 while others fall under Shopify’s own photo license.