Lets face it. Most stock photography websites suck (big style!) as we know as fastprint. The major players (e.g.
iStockPhoto, ShutterStock etc) love nothing more than charging over the odds for often-mediocre photography. Or even worse, signing you up to some flimsy, overpriced subscription plan that you won’t use again. Ever. But what about the smaller, free stock photography sites?
If, like us, you’re likely to leap from a cliff if you have to deal with one more photo of an unrealistically joyful office meeting, take a look at the sites below.
Sign up to
Little Visuals and get 7 free high-resolution images sent directly to your inbox every week (i.e. one for every day of the week).
Creative Commons Zero (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
Life of Pix is packed with 300+ high-resolution images, all of which are lovingly hand-made by the
Leeroy Advertising Agency in Montreal.
Creative Commons Zero (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
StockSnap.io contains thousands of beautiful high-resolution photos, with hundreds more being added each week. All photos are searchable.
Creative Commons Zero (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
Superfamous Studios is home to the Dutch interaction designer, Folkert Gorter. There are hundreds of stunning free stock photos and also, access to his design archive.
Creative Commons Attribution (view): You’re free to copy or redistribute the material in any format you like, plus you can also remix, transform and build upon the material if you so desire.
You can use it for personal and commercial use, but attribution MUST be given.
Unsplash is the go-to place for beautiful, high-resolution stock imagery. Ten new photos are added to the site every ten days, so you can be sure you’ve got a fresh supply of stock photography.
Creative Commons Zero (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
New Old Stock describes itself as “vintage photos from the public archives”.
If you’re looking for stunning, vintage, black and white photography, New Old Stock is the place to go.
No Known Copyright Exists (view): All photos are believed to be copyright-free and in the public domain.
Magdeleine provides a high-resolution photo, free of charge, every day of the week. All photos are handpicked by
Magdeleine.
Creative Commons Zero (some photos) (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
Creative Commons Attribution (some photos) (view): You’re free to copy or redistribute the material in any format you like, plus you can also remix, transform and build upon the material if you so desire.
You can use it for personal and commercial use, but attribution MUST be given.
Picography is a small but growing stock photography website with around 80 high-resolution currently available for download. Photos are added on a regular basis, so make sure to keep checking back.
Creative Commons Zero (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
Jay Mantri adds seven new photos to the site every Thursday. Many are nature-related but so if you’re seeking some awesome imagery of landscapes, Jay is your guy.
Creative Commons Zero (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
ISO Republic offers high-quality, free stock photos for creative people. There are numerous categories to choose from including Architecture, People, Nature and Textures.
You can contribute your own photos (if you so desire).
Creative Commons Zero (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
Stokpic offers, “totally free photos for personal and commercial use”. Sign up for free and get ten new photos sent directly to your inbox every two weeks.
Alternative, there are hundreds of incredible photos already available on the site itself.
Creative Commons Zero (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
Jakub, 23 from Prague is a food photography enthusiast and founder of the Foodie’s Feed website. He takes beautiful photos of all types of food, all of which are free to download and use on his website.
Copyright (taken from the site) (view): You can use the photos anywhere you desire for both personal and commercial purpose, same for edits of the photos (they are free to edit). Selling and re-selling is strongly prohibited; you can’t sell and resell them on your website, in stocks, printed nor anywhere else.
No attribution required (although it is much appreciated).
Death to the Stock Photo sends free stock photos directly to your inbox every month. In the words of the site owners (Allie and David): “we aim to be just like coffee for the modern creative”.
All photos are free, but there is a premium option available for $10/month.
Copyright (taken from the site) (view): Free for commercial use, your blog posts, social accounts and mock-ups. You can view a more in-depth version of the licence here.
Created by
Ryan McGuire, Gratisography offers free high-resolution images for personal and commercial projects.
Ryan adds new photos to the site on a weekly basis.
Creative Commons Zero (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
PicJumbo was founded by Viktor, a website designer who wanted to offer his own photos in full quality as stock photos online.
Photos are divided up into many categories including: Abstract, Business, Technology, Wedding, Nature, Food and many more.
Copyright (taken from website) (view): You can use the photos for web design, sliders, apps, backgrounds or templates to sell. You are not limited. Attribution is greatly appreciated but not required.
Getrefe offers free, real life photos from their Tumblr account. You can purchase many more stock photos from their full website, but we think there’s a few hidden gems on the Tumblr.
Copyright: Unknown
IM Free contains thousands of stock photos spread across a tonne of different categories. There’s Business, Icons, Sports & Fitness, Objects & Items, Nature and many others.
All photos are searchable.
Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike (view): You’re free to copy or redistribute the material in any format you like, plus you can also remix, transform and build upon the material if you so desire.
You can use it for personal and commercial use, but attribution MUST be given. You must also share any remixed, transformed or built-upon version of the photo under the same licence as the original.
Picture Frog offers around a hundred free stock photos and counting. Most are nature/wildlife/animal-related.
Copyright (taken from website) (view): you can use the photos for HTML/PSD templates, as placeholders in templates or articles, as photo print on any t-shirts or in a presentation.
You can use the photos commercially and can distribute PDF files with photos included in the design.
You cannot resell the photos or publish to other free stock photography websites. Attribution is appreciated, but not required.
The Public Domain Archive provides 100% free stock photos every week. There are thousands of photos, all obtained from the public domain.
Creative Commons Zero (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
Snapwire adds seven snaps every seven days, all of which are available to download completely free of charge.
The style and subject matter of the photos varies greatly, as there are numerous contributors to the site.
Creative Commons Zero (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
JéShoots is the personal website of Jan Vasek. He founded the website because a) he likes to take photos, and b) he feels that it’s a shame some photos aren’t free.
It’s a relatively small collection currently, but growing all the time.
Creative Commons Zero (view): You’re free to copy, modify or distribute any photos on the site for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
Raumrot offers free, handpicked stock photos that you can use both personally and commercially.
All photos are high-resolution and currently, there are 500+ photos available to download.
Creative Commons Attribution (view): You’re free to copy or redistribute the material in any format you like, plus you can also remix, transform and build upon the material if you so desire.
You can use it for personal and commercial use, but attribution MUST be given.
The Pattern Library isn’t a stock photo website, it’s a pattern library (surprisingly).
It’s a collection of collections from the most talented designers, all of which are available to use freely in your designs.
P.S. The website is fantastically well designed. Give it a go.
Copyright: Unknown (assumed free to use both personally and commercially).
That’s it, folks!
Have we missed any?
If so, let us know in the comments below and if it’s EPIC, we’ll add it to the list.