Best Websites to Get Royalty Free Stock Photos From!
This page is the most important on our website. It showcases what are some of the best places online to get royalty free stock photos quickly and easily. When looking for a provider don’t just jump straight in. The majority of people will use the same website time and time again, so you want to be pleased with the service. Top quality photographs are a must, a good quantity available is also important. And also how easy they are to access.
Once you find what you are after. Remember to also stay on the right side of the licenses. Although they are being given away for free it doesn’t just mean you can do what you want. You will sometimes have to credit the copyright owner, other times you will have to notify the owner that you are using it. And sometimes there is a limitation on how many times it can be used. Make sure you stay the right side of the law.
5 of the best places to get quality images
The images from this website are certainly the best quality out of all the sites listed here. To start downloading you need to first create a free account. Then login and click the ‘Free Images’ grey button near the top. Using the search function to find what you want. Easy to use, and a growing number of pics available. View example gallery.
Nice easy website to use. Lots of pictures available, although a reasonable percentage aren’t very usable. The categorisation system is terribly poor so rely on the search function, however even that chucks up dodgy results. You need to create a free account to start downloading the images.
Over 65,000 public domain photos, illustrations and vectors “licensed” under the Creative Commons CC0 deed. All of the images in their database are manually approved, which results in a very high standard of quality. Nice simple site to use with a search box at the top to locate what you are after. They also have a forum and a blog if you wish to get involved in the community.
You need to create a free account in order to download files. But once done it is a simple case of signing in and grabbing what you would like to use. Nice lightbox feature, lots of images completely different to those on other sites. Check the ‘New’ section for the latest uploads to appreciate the good quality.
A fairly young site compared to the others but the collection is growing at a very good pace. Simple to use and loads quickly as well. No account is required, locate the image you want and hit the ‘download’ button. Option to also signup for a monthly fee to get bonus content and other benefits.
Other places
As you will know, the web is huge. And there are other places you can find files to download. However this page would end up massive. Here are a few words of caution on how you go about your hunting if the above businesses can’t meet your needs.
One thing to NOT DO is simply go to Google Images, do a quick search, and then take what you want. You are unlikely to know the copyright situation. And you could end up using something you have no legal right to, and this can lead to all sorts of trouble.
Questions and answers
Here is a question and answer section to hopefully help some frequently asked questions we have received over the years.
Can I use images I download over and over again?
It depends on what type of licensing the picture has. “Rights Managed” consists of photos that are licensed for a specific use, duration or size. Any such restrictions will be lined out in the license. To use these again, you would need to pay additional royalties.
For those that are “Royalty Free,” you can use them repeatedly after paying one fee. These are not in the public domain or free to use. You simply don’t have to pay royalties with these after purchasing the license, no matter how many times you use them.
No matter what sort of rights you hold, the photographer always owns the copyright, so credit should always be given when possible.
Can I use them for commercial use?
This would be an issue you would need to take up with the photographer or copyright owner if it isn’t lined out in the license. The majority are available for commercial use. That’s the beauty of them! However, some “Rights Managed” licenses will be more specific on how their photos can be used.
Where can I use what I download?
They are ideal for using in things such as web design, in blog post content, leaflets to promote your business, video stills and even as avatars. Be careful if you want to alter files to suit you. Sometimes you aren’t allow to.
Author: Chris Satchwell
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.
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I especially like that you explain clearly you can’t just take any picture you find on the web or through Google Images and paste it in your blog posts. I hear a lot of people doing just that and, as a content creator, it bugs me to no end. No one wants someone stealing their work. Thanks for the four great alternatives! I’ve used Stockexchange in the past, but will definitely check out the other sites.
Thank you for mentioning Dreamstime. I hadn’t come across that one before, and I agree that it is definitely better than the others. One thing I’ve found with many stock photo sites is that the search function doesn’t return the best results all the time. I suppose that’s because the pic submitters label their work with all sorts of things to try to get more attention.
I’m really glad you pointed out that last site. I haven’t heart of it before now, but it is perhaps the easiest and most user-friendly of all of them. There are some really great graphics and photos on there too. I’ve already found 4 to use on my blog, and possibly one for an ebook cover.
These aren’t free! What a rip off!
How can you say these aren’t free. Every websites has thousands, in fact, tens of thousands of free photos to use. You need to check them again!