10 Best Stock Image Websites You Should Try [Free and Paid]

Nearly every website manager and online marketer have a go-to stock image resource. Whether it’s for creating your ecommerce store, a blog, social media or a brochure website, there are times when you’ll need that perfect, professional image that you can only find in a stock image library.

Obviously, using your own images is the ideal solution, but more often than not, this just isn’t possible, and a nice high-resolution stock image with the perfect lighting is just what is required.

However, there are stock images, and then there are stock images. In fact, it’s a good idea to have a few different stock image destinations in mind, depending on the type of imagery you’re looking for.

Let’s take a look at ten that should be on your radar.

Let’s kick off our adventure with some popular free stock photo sites.

Best five free stock photo websites.

• Unsplash
• BucketListy
• FoodiesFeed
• New Old Stock
• Pexels

Unsplash

Website: https://unsplash.com/

Unsplash may just be our favourite stock image resource for a variety of reasons. While it might not cater so well to the majority of serviced-based brochure sites and retail online stores, if you’re looking for something artistic and well-shot for a blog article, Unsplash may be the best place to find it.

The website has an impressive collection of images, ranging from natural shots and landscapes animals, people and technology. The website is also very easy to navigate and find what you’re looking for, with more than 50 thousand images being added regularly.

If you’re on a strict budget, Unsplash is going to be your friend. Images are completely free for you to use as you, please. In fact, the website was one of the pioneers in offering images to users completely free of charge and without permission. Unsplash is definitely worth a look.

BucketListly

Website: https://www.bucketlistly.blog/photos

BuckeyListly is the resource for copyright-free travel images. More than 5000 gorgeous, high-resolution images from all over the world are available here and free for anybody to use for commercial or personal use. Whether you be after images of nature, wildlife, portraits or urban environments, BuckeyListly has you covered.

Obviously, travel bloggers frequently utilise this resource, but there are many images here that can be used creatively on websites and social media too.

FoodiesFeed

Website: https://www.foodiesfeed.com/

If you’re looking for realistic images of food to use on your website, social media, your blog or wherever else commercial, FoodiesFeed is the place to find it.

Here you can browse through thousands of free high-resolution images of the foods we all love! You’ll be surprised at the sheer variety of foods beautifully captured by professional photographers and made available here. If it’s a food you can think of, chances are there’s a beautiful image of it on FoodiesFeed.

Thousands of food bloggers rely on this resource and if you find that you do need a nice image of a particular food, definitely keep this one in mind.

New Old Stock

Website: https://nos.twnsnd.co/

New Old Stock hosts the largest collection of vintage stock photographs from public archives. This kind of photography obviously isn’t appropriate for all websites and blogs, but there is certainly a time and place where images from the old days can help you capture the right tone, whether they be used in mockup templates and landing pages, as social media posts or in your blog.

Even if you’re not necessarily after vintage images, we’d still highly recommend exploring New Old Stock, as it’s very interesting indeed.

Pexels

Website: https://www.pexels.com/

Pexels’ library contains high-resolution and compositionally-sharp media, making it a valuable resource for web designers and content creators. It offers a vast library of photography stills and video clips that are free for any user. This free and super easy-to-navigate platform is owned by a popular graphic design platform, Canva. There is a dedicated section with the most popular searches that you can use to figure out the most popular search terms on Pexels.

Again if you have a budget to invest in premium stock photography sites, you have many other options left as well.

Top five premium stock image websites

• Shutterstock
• Getty Images
• Vecteezy
• iStock
• Dreamstime

Shutterstock

Website: https://www.shutterstock.com/

Shutterstock is ideal for any creatives from website developers to YouTubers to musicians, as this website is dedicated to selling images, video, music, editorial, API, and whatnot! So, in case you are looking for subscription-based stock images, Shutterstock could be your best bet.

It offers several pricing options that provide the most flexibility in buying images. Shutterstock has a massive collection with more than 424 million stock images of excellent quality and comprehensive licensing terms.

Getty Images

Website: https://www.gettyimages.com.au/

Getty Images is popular for the highest quality collections of top-class stock photography. Photographers, videographers and illustrators who are best in their field are the ones behind every content. This is definitely a trusted platform you can look up to get exclusive images that are on the high-end spectrum.

Getty Images offers several pre-paid package options, including an enterprise option. And the packs include royalty-free photos, videos, illustrations, vectors and editorial images.

The platform maintains a premium partnership with the world’s top brands across the globe, including BBC studios, Sony pictures, UFFA, Dove etc.

Vecteezy

Website: https://www.vecteezy.com/

Vecteezy is another premium site with millions of stock photos, vectors and videos. So no matter whether you need one resource or a thousand, Vecteezy has got an option for you. From nature to lifestyles to travels to textures, find the best creative images by category with worry-free licensing for personal and commercial use.

It comes with a free subscription option alongside a monthly and yearly plan. With a subscription plan, you can access Vecteezy’s special features like an online editor, bundles or a pay-as-you-go option.

iStock

Website: https://www.istockphoto.com/

iStock is one of the oldest stock media providers with an impressively large stock photo library of exclusive images. Another best place for creatives of all kinds, backed up by Getty Images. If you are seeking royalty-free images that are both cost-effective and high quality, consider iStock as a good source to start your hunt.

Alongside the huge selection, its good filter option and the straightforward licensing condition make navigation easy and hassle-free. In addition, it offers affordable pricing plans as well.

Dreamstime

Website: https://www.dreamstime.com/

For decades, Dreamstime has been a reliable supplier of royalty-free stock images at affordable prices. Establishes in 2000, Dreamstime now has 27 million users, including world known brands like Coca-Cola, Samsung, HP, IKEA and many more.

The high-quality and professionally produced stock photos come with a wide array of categories and themes that covers an extensive range of subjects. Offering millions of commercial and media files, Dreamstime is a perfect fit for any large or small project.

Wrapping up

There are a large number of stock image websites, and if you’re frequently online and marketing your online store, it’s wise to have a few handy. Website owners often spend big bucks purchasing royalty-free images; just remember that chances are you can find the image you’re looking for completely free of charge!