“Hey, Verena, where can I get high quality free stock photos for my site?”
Cynthia dropped me a line after I completed her new website.
“Are there any places online where I can find quality free stock photos?” she asked.
I build websites for a living, and yes, I have a list of websites up my sleeve that offer high quality photos – for FREE.
I pointed Cynthia to the sites and she told me I had just saved her life.
In this post, I’ll reveal the list of free stock photo websites that I’ve compiled over the years.
Most of the photographs in the sites are free from copyright restrictions.
You can do whatever you want with them, even for commercial purposes.
1. Stocksnap
Stocksnap is my first pick. They add hundreds of images weekly and all photos are released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) which means that you can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free – including for commercial purposes – without asking permission from or providing attribution to the photographer or illustrator or web site.
2. Splitshire
This site is my 2nd pick. Huffington Post, CNN, Books Covers, Magazines and thousands of websites/blogs use their photos. You may do whatever you want with the photos. For those looking for a larger number of photos, just pay $20 and you’ll be able to download 500+ photos to your hard drive right away. That’s a real time-saver!
3. Unsplash
Unsplash is my 3rd pick. They release 10 high-resolution photos every 10 days. All photos that are published on Unsplash are licensed under CC0.
4. Pexels
All photos on Pexels are licensed under CC0. Every month, at least 600 new high resolution photos are added. I use this site a lot for my projects. Most of the photos here are just awesome!
5. Gratisography
All pictures on Gratisography are photographed by New York visual artist Ryan McGuire and free of copyright restrictions. Ryan adds new pictures on the site weekly. You can use them on your personal and commercial projects. The pictures don’t require any attribution.
6. MMT
MMT is run by Jeffrey Betts, a user interface and experienced designer. All photos are listed under CC0. That means you can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
7. Picography
All photos on Picography are provided free of charge and under the CC0 licence. Just as they have stated on their site: “use them however you like”.
8. Stokpic
This site is run by professional photographer Ed Gregory. You can do anything with the hi-res (high resolution) photos here apart from selling or redistributing them. All photos are under the CC0 license, meaning they are public domain and anyone can use them for any reason they please.
9. Bucketlistly
Bucketlistly offers a free CC0 collection of travel photos that anyone can use. If you need images for a traveling theme, this is a great site for you. They have categorised high-res images by country.
10. Negative Space
This site adds beautiful hi-res photos every week. All the free stock photos are distributed under the CC0 license.
11. Picjumbo
Picjumbo is a free stock photo site created by professional photographer Viktor Hanacek. It all started when a stock photo site he submitted his photos to didn’t want his photos due to “lack of quality”. Two years later, people have downloaded more than two and a half million images from his site. All photos here are free for commercial use.
12. Snapwiresnaps
They offer 7 free photos every week. The quality of the photos is never short of awesome. All photos are listed under the CC0 license.
13. Pixabay
It’s not just photos, there are free illustrations and videos here that you can use for your projects. All images and videos on Pixabay are released free of limitation or requirement under the CC0 license.
14. UHD Wallpapers
Lots of creative commons and public domain CC0 images here.
15. Jaymantri
Mike, a filmmaker from LA, and his friend Jay run this site. Just like what they say on their homepage: “free pics, do anything (CC0) and magic, magic”. Do whatever you want with the photos.
16. Iso Republic
Since its launching, Tom Eversley has published over 500 free images on his site – with more being added every week. All listed images are high-resolution and free for you to use on your commercial and personal creative projects.
17. Startup Stock Photos
Eric Bailey and Josh Krakauer run this site. All pictures are published under the CC0 license. Take’em, these things are free!
Conclusion
These free stock photos websites have become a blessing for web designers and bloggers.
These sites have been so useful for my work and the best part is- they’re free.
Use them for your projects and have fun!
By the way, if you come across any sites that are not listed here on this post, just share below 😉
Wow, Verena. Your list has given me the freedom to light up my posts with visual magic. Now I can relax and write my first series without worrying about where to find the images. Thank You, girl. You made my day.
– Annie McGuire
Annie, glad you like it.
Thanks Verena. Great list of free sites. Bookmarked this post 🙂
Thanks Douglas, I’m a fan of those sites and use them a lot for my projects.
Thanks for sharing. Great List!
You’re welcome, Junid. I tried to make this a go-to resource that people could use when they decide to look for free high quality photos.
A big surprise package from Verena. These are wonderful sites with beautiful photos. My blog posts will be more interesting now that I have access to great images.
Thank you very much
You’re right Olu. These are great sites with very high quality stock photos. Use them for your sites and have fun 😉
I really like them! Great resource that will help me to add more high quality images to my blog. Thanks Verena!
You are welcome, Brown.
Thank you Verena,
This is an awesome gift…in so many ways…! *:D big grin
You’re awesome yourself!
Nile
Nile, glad you like them.
Awesome post! Adding high quality photos to blog is always a difficult task, not anymore. Thanks dear.
Indeed, it used to cost some money to buy high quality photos. I’m glad this post helps you.
They are amazing-thanks so much for sharing
Glad you like them, Brian.
Hi Verena, thank you for the helpful post, there are a lot of inspiration there. Check out my site http://libreshot.com (CC0 licensed)
Martin, thanks for sharing your site here.
I love your stuff, and thank you for the list of tools to create visual content. I’ll save that.
Sounds good, Jolia.
Hi Verena,
Great resources. You’ve mentioned many resources I didn’t know about. Thank you.
Images are vital for any Social Media strategy!
Glad you like them, Raul. I’ve been using a lot of photos from Stocksnap, Splitshire and Unsplash for my projects. Love those amazing photos!
Truly, creating your own graphic images is quite difficult nowadays, so we need FREE stock images.
When I need a graphic, I always use Flickr to get high quality stock images for my blog article. Now, after reading this article, I have more options than before.
Awesome!
Amazing list of free stock photo sites Verena………Thank you for this post. I had to tweet about this.
Verena, this is a fantastic list of sites. Thank you for sharing these resources. So helpful to all my personal and client projects.
I just wish I had seen these sites 5 years back back. You’re right, they’re so helpful 😉
Thanks Verena, for your open approach to sharing valuable information. Much appreciated!