25 Websites with Free Photos for your Creative Business
Plus, why you want to make sure you can actually use them.
Please note this article may contain affiliate links. This means I would earn a small commission if you purchase a product I suggest, at no additional cost to you. To learn more visit my Terms & Conditions.
Full disclosure, I wrote this blog post in 2015 and never published it. I wasn’t sure if it would still be relevant or not. Funnily enough, I had dinner with someone who has been a professional speaker for the last few years, and he mentioned he once used a picture of David Bowie on his blog without proper authorization. It ended up costing him over $1000. In comparison to how bad it could have been, he knew he got off easy. This conversation made me realize how reliant this article still is. I have updated it a bit, but I do reference a post from 2013 which was part of the original version of this article.
If you're newly starting to build your website or blog, you may be considering for the first time which photos you are going to use on your website. Taking professional photos is the number one suggestion I give my clients; however, not everyone has the resources for a professional photographer. The good news? You can find a lot of photo options online to use on your website. There are some things you need to consider when choosing photos and some mistakes you need to avoid.
Mistakes & Misconceptions
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The photo is on Google, Instagram, or Pinterest and you save it to use it on your website.
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You aren't making any money from your blog right now, so it doesn't matter if you use photos you find randomly on the internet.
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You are making money from your website but the photos are not being used for a product, just for a random post.
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You have a disclaimer somewhere on the website or blog saying that you don't own the photos.
It does not matter where you found the photo, whether or not you're profiting from using the photo (either directly or indirectly), or if you acknowledge the fact that it is not your photo. Any photo found on social media or Google Image should not be used on your professional website or blog.
Why shouldn't you use these photos?
That is someone’s work
You are stealing someone’s work. Using someone else's photo without permission is stealing. No matter how you look at it, whether it was intentional or not, you're stealing someone else's creative work. They put time and effort into creating this photo and if you don't know for sure that they would want you to be using it do not use it. It's just that simple. Outside of hopefully feeling bad for stealing from someone, getting caught doing this can be a PR and social media disaster.
Even large companies have made mistakes in this area. DKNY fell under some major scrutiny in 2013 after getting caught using a photographer's photos in one of their window displays without permission. Read more about it here.
You could get sued
Is that heading dramatic enough for you?
It looks incredibly bad if you get caught using someone else's photo without their permission. Best case scenario you look like someone who doesn't do their research correctly or is thoughtless about their business. Worst case scenario, you get sued. Take a read about the experience The Content Factory had with copyright infringement.
Copyright trolls exist
I believe the expression is “don’t feed the trolls”?
There are some lawyers and companies who make their money by searching the Internet for cases of copyright infringement (legitimate and in some cases not legitimate). Once they find people who have broken copyright law they sue them for a large amount money. The key in this is they sue for an amount of money that the defendant is most likely going to just pay the settlement instead of going to court due to the high cost associated with court. Not only are you risking being sued by someone who is just legitimately upset about their work being stolen, if you get sued it's probably going to be by someone who makes her money doing this. Don't help them make money off of you.
The solution for website photos if you have a tight budget.
The good news is there are plenty of photos that you can use online. The trick is finding the proper resources. Many creative people work hard to create photos and resources that you are free to use.
What is commercial use?
If your social media, website, or blog make you money, I would suggest only using photos that are free for commercial use. When searching for a photo be sure to confirm that the usage rights for the photo are not for personal use but for commercial use. I tend to define commercial use as used for a purpose that will directly or indirectly make you money.
What photos can you use?
Public domain
Public domain photos are essentially free of copyright. This can be because of age, the copyright was forfeited, or other reasons. The easiest way to look at public domain is that no one owns or controls the content.
Creative Commons
Creative Commons allows it works to be shared and built upon. Instead of all rights reserved CC0 is “No rights reserved”.
“CC0 enables scientists, educators, artists and other creators and owners of copyright- or database-protected content to waive those interests in their works and thereby place them as completely as possible in the public domain, so that others may freely build upon, enhance and reuse the works for any purposes without restriction under copyright or database law.”
Read more about CC0 at the creative commons website.
Free with Attribution
The provider is allowing you to use their content, only if you attribute the source to them. This often requires you to link to the original source of the photo.
25 Free Stock Photo websites you can use for your business.
Over the last 7+ years of working as a designer I’ve created a list of resources for myself to use when I have a client with a tight budget.
Please reference it whenever you're looking for photos to use and I’d love it if you’d Pin it or share it with other business owners you think would find it beneficial! I've included links to my favorite royalty-free, and creative Commons photo resources. I have also included only websites that do not require attribution for the photos (as of the writing of this article).
Oh, and one last thing. Make sure to take a look at the usage rights of the websites I suggest. Just in case their policies have changed since I created the list. Enjoy!
1) Pexels
Photos on Pexels are beautiful, especially when it comes to free stock photos. There's a search bar at the top of the website that makes it easy to find what you were looking for. Their category filters make photo searching much easier. These photos are usually high quality. I find compared to some other free photo sites their selection is a little bit limited but, the photos you do find are really great.
An added bonus is Pexel videos. The best free stock video footage I've been able to find.
2) Pixabay
Pixabay’s Photo resource library seems to be growing and improving. The ability to search through photos is what makes this website great. I find sometimes you have to spend a bit more time sifting through their photo results. However, the large amounts of photos is great when you're looking for something fairly specific or in a category that's not covered by some of the other Photo resources. Pixabay also has some free vectors and illustrations but the level of quality in these varies.
3) Burst
Burst is powered by Shopify and they offer some amazing free photo options. They focus on commerce and business photos. My favorite feature of the website is the Trending business ideas section of the website. If you’re starting an online store the supplier info, marketing tips, business model insights and free high-resolution images in each of the 20 sections are a huge bonus!
4) Death to the stock photo
The way that Death to the Stock Photo is set up is a little different than in the past. They used to email out free photo bundles. Now they offer free photo packs on their website that you can download and they also offer a free 14 day trial of their premium resource library.
I downloaded the above photos from their “Craft” photo pack on their website and they are large, high quality photos that could be used for a variety of projects!
5) Gratisography
This might not be the resource you go to if you have a very conservative corporate client you are finding photos for, however if you're looking for unique and fun photos this is the place to look. I especially love the whimsical photo section of this website.
6) Life of Pix
There are multiple reasons I love the life of pix website. 1) The Life of Pi reference. 2) The fact that it's from an advertising agency in Montréal. 3) The life of vids website 4) The logos for the life of Pix and life of vids websites. Seriously, if you're not looking for photos from there still check out the website to see their awesome logos.
The only negative I can think of is the search function on this website isn't amazing or at least seems to offer limited options compared to other free websites.
Also, check out LifeOfVids for free video resources!
7) Refe
Refe has 3 options for customers to choose from. You can download free high quality photos, sign up for a $10 curated monthly pack of photos, or buy their $5 curated photos for professionals. The One thing I found a little annoying initially was that you had to go through a checkout process to download your free photos. You don't get access to your photos quite as quickly as some of the other websites on the slightest. However, once you have checked out I created an account it doesn't take too long to get your photos.
8) StockSnap
Stocksnap a great option for bloggers and designers. They have a range of photos but a lot of them are technology or computer-based. When you look at their license it's written in plain English I was very straightforward. My favourite feature there website is the ability to search photos by date, trend, views, downloads, and favourites. They also link to their graphics editor Snappa which appears to be an editor similar to Canva. However, as an avid Adobe fan I can’t speak to the quality of this editor. If anyone has checked it out leave a comment below. I’d love to know more about it.
9) Splitshire
You can download individual photos for free from Splitshare or download their Photo package including over 500 photos and 30 Videos for just for $9.60. This website has a lot of Beautiful photos and their categories menu makes finding what you need easy. There are also some free backgrounds and mockups mixed in with all the fabulous free photos. The websites on this list have many amazing and beautiful photos but Splitshare takes it to another level in my opinion. Just take a look at the floating apples photo, I don't know where I'm going to I just know I NEED to use it somewhere.
10) Picjumbo
Picjumbo research tool and the categories tool to search their photos. There are a lots of great photos to choose from. Outside of the typical free photos you can download they also have a premium membership, Photoshop plug-in, and all in one pack a photo pack
11) Public Domain Archive
The reason they provide public domain images is to allow creatives to discover treasures by other great photographers. Which I think is pretty great. I love the personal touch on their about page you don't see on many similar websites.
12) Start up stock photos
Free photos for startups, bloggers, publishers, websites, designers, developers, creators, and everyone else. Their website doesn't have a search function, which would normally annoy me but because it's so limited to the specific niche I don't feel like I'm wasting my time scrolling through looking at all the photos.
13) Realistic Shots
Realistic Shots promises to upload 7 new photos every week. You can scroll through the photos on their homepage or look at them by category. The categories are Architecture, Nature, People, Travel, and Technology.
14) Unsplash
At great list of free to use photos, you can separate them by featured and new. There is also search bar for finding specific photos. You can look through the photos one by one for a large view, or use a multi view option to look at more photos at once. They add in 10 new photos every 10 days.
15) Foodies Feed
I LOVE the photos on this website. They are high-resolution food and drink photos. Don't spend too much time on this website if you don't have to. It will make you hungry! I hate designing when I'm hungry.
16) Magdeleine
This website contains a search feature on the right. The search allows you to search by a keyword or dominant colour, and breaks up which photos are under CC0 and which require attribution. Make sure you pay attention to which section are looking for photos.
17) Stokpic
Stokpic is an awesome website started by Ed Gregory. He is currently holding a contest and To give 12 photographers $500 to take photos. No Attribution Required of these photos but it is requested. And The list of what is allowed of their photos is quite detailed on their about page. http://stokpic.com/about/ This website has a large database of photos and create options for categories and searching.
18) kaboompics
As of writing this article Kaboompics has over 1000 photos and over 420,000 downloads. The selection and quality of these photos makes this website one of my favourites. The layout and search of photos is great. Photo attribution is not required by Kaboompics but they do greatly appreciate it.
19) Negative Space
Negative Space’s website is very simple, clean, and easy to use. The navigation contains home photos, and license. There's also search feature on the right-hand side. When you look at for license on this website it is just two sentences and very easy to understand. It has a good selection of photos and they have a mailing list which will send you selection of photos directly.
20) Designer Pics
This website has a lot of free and unique photos. The layout is very simple and it has a search function as well as the categories menu. The categories are architecture, Business, concepts, food and drinks, nature, people, Technology, things, uncategorized, and wildlife.
21) Stock Up
An all around go to source. Stock Up indexes over 9000 photos from more than 25 different free stock photo websites. There's a search bar as well as, “most popular” and “newest” photos categories. When you find a photo on Stock Up it brings you directly to the website that the photo is originally from. When you roll over a photo the overlay tells you the usage restrictions on the photo.
22) Good Stock Photos
Stock photos has their photos broken up in multiple categories and have to search bar. They also offer the option to buy photo packs and to be a part of the photo club. Outside of photos, Steven (who runs the website) also has a curated list of resources he uses available on the website.
23) LibreShot
LibreShot has a large list of categories that are listed down the left hand side of the website. The main navigation also has a drop down for categories, a list of the other navigation elements, and a search feature at the top right hand corner. The tag line for LibreShot is “Beautiful photos. Totally free. Public domain license (cc0).” Which is really everything you need to.
24) My Stock Photos
My stock photos is a very simple website with many unique photos. It is about a stripped-down as a stock photo websites can get, while still being functional. There aren't any photo categories but there is a search bar on the top right-hand side of the menu. I find the search bar on this website to be a little bit finicky but the great photos and simplicity make up for this.
25) Creative Market
Powered by Creative Market
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Creative Market offers 6 free goods a week and features all sorts of other great assets. They updated their policies recently so make sure you double-check if you can use the free assets in your project. Otherwise, you may need to purchase an extended license for your project. The cost is very reasonable, though!
I'm glad you made it through my listen of my favorite free stock photo websites. If you know of any other websites you’d like to see mentioned please link to it in the comments!