Dreamstime Review
Here is a look at the royalty free stock image provider Dreamstime, they are very well established and one of the biggest in the industry. But how good are they really?
Here is a breakdown of different aspects of the service including cost, service and coupons/promotional codes to answer the question.
Website: Dreamstime.com
Region Specific: No, available to people around the world.
How To Use The Site: First you have to create a free account which doesn’t take long at all, then you need to choose a credit package or subscription plan. Then simply navigate around the site by searching for what you want, choose a download option and there you go, the picture is instantly yours to use.
Cost: You can choose either a monthly subscription plan where you are allowed to download a certain amount of images per month, or you can just pay for a set amount of credits in one package, the cost starts from $6.99 for the smallest package all the way up to $3,739.99 for the largest monthly subscription!
Payments: They accept paypal and credit card.
Coupons: As far as I’m aware they very rarely (if ever) offer out a Dreamstime coupon or promotional code giving money off images.
Opinion: The quality of the images is brilliant, they have quite a strict acceptance policy which means pictures must be of a good standard. The value for money is brilliant, with packages starting from only a few dollars. Getting around the site and using it’s features is also very simple and the speed of the website is good considering the amount of files on it! All-in-all a very good service.
Rating: 9/10
TIPS: The more credits you buy the cheaper it works out per image, so if you are a regular user you are better to buy in bulk. Also; the website has such a huge catalog of pictures make sure you do lots of searches as there is nearly always the perfect image for what you want.
Prices and details correct at time of publishing, check website for latest prices.
Still have a question about this company? You can ask them in the comments area below and someone should be able to help you out.
About Author: Chris
I've been a full-time webmaster since 2007 and currently write for various blogs, in my writing I regularly use stock photos and that is how I became involved in the industry.
Stay far away from DT. I’ve spent the last 15 days trialing their service and here’s what I found.
– Their support is unhelpful and only check their email once per day.
– Their submission process is cumbersome and instructions inconsistent.
– You have no ability to delete or control uploaded photos. Once uploaded it’s stuck and support will NOT work with you to delete or replace images.
– Some of their reviewers even insult submitters. I had one guy call a lingerie photo “Porn” and rejected it.
– They offer a phone number to call for help, but in 5 days no one ever answered it.
– You can not delete or remove your account, photos, model releases, etc… Their canned answer to everything in the forums is “email support” but support says you must do it from your own profile page, however, there is no button to do most of the things they say.
It’s surprising to me that they are still in business at all. They are most likely being carried financially by the few long-term contributors. I expect to see them fall into the ditch with most other mismanaged microstocks.
Hi Lance,
Dreamstime are one of the largest and most successful stock photo companies. There pricing structure makes it very good for buyers so as a photographer it is worthwhile being involved with them.
No doubt they are not perfect, but I expect they check their emails more then once per day, it is hard for you to say something like that and prove it. You are able to delete photos via your Members Area. As for their reviewers, it will be similar at other companies, it is the individual ‘opinions’ after all. Everybody sees things differently.
I highly doubt the company will ‘fall into the ditch’ given they have been around for a long-time and continue to grow. With a huge database of happy contributors and happy buyers they show no sign of going anywhere.
Thanks for sharing your negative experience though. They are obviously not perfect and hopefully can improve their service further.