So you’re building out your website and you need to add a few captivating images but you’re not sure where to look. Well, I’m here to help you with that today. Adding images is a crucial step in building out your website. Stock images for websites are all over the place, however, you do need to know which ones are free from copyright restrictions and whether or not they require attribution, always read the documentation. I will give you a list of the best free stock images available in no particular order along with my recommendation for the best-paid stock images.
∗As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This post contains affiliate links, if you click through and make a purchase, I may earn a commission. I may also be compensated through other links on this post, and all ‘opinions’ are my own.
Desygner
My new favorite! It’s a one-stop-shop, a simple yet powerful design tool for everyone. Used by businesses of all sizes; Cisco, Sinclair, Woolworths, Walmart, Dominoes, and many more. Choose from millions of 100% royalty-free images, fonts, and pre-made banners. Create stunning content, logos, and Wattpad covers with Desygner, make changes when you see fit, on a computer, tablet, or phone. Import and edit PDF files, and resize in seconds with pre-loaded sizes for social media, display advertising, and print. Desygner combines everything you need to create, share, and print your content fast. Try it FREE!
The best part is, by upgrading to Pro+ or Desygner Business, you get immediate access to up to 125 million Shutterstock images to use as much as you need. The most beautiful stock imagery in the world sits right at your fingertips!
PikWizard
Unsplash
With more than 1.5 million beautiful, high-resolution images to choose from, Unsplash was my go-to choice when looking for free stock photography. You can search for any category and even choose your download size. All of the images published on Unsplash can be used commercially and noncommercially for free. The Unsplash license is much like the CC0 license, except you may not use images for sites that replicate or compete with Unsplash.
You do not have to credit the photographers however, it is greatly appreciated, and doing so provides exposure to the photographer while encouraging them to continue sharing their work. If you choose to credit the photographer, a simple mention of their name and a link to their photo would be more than sufficient.
Pixabay
Another great choice for stunning free stock images. Pixabay has more than 1.8 million royalty-free images, vectors, and illustrations as well as thousands of free stock video clips and footage to choose from. All contents are safe for use under the Pixabay license and you do not need to get permission or credit the artists, although linking back is always appreciated. Pixabay has filter selections, a safe search option, and download size options to help you find perfect high-quality images for your website.
Pexels
Download custom sizes and create amazing websites, apps, designs, and more with Pexels. Choose from photos, videos, and wallpaper, all images on Pexels are high quality and completely free to use under the Pexels license. Like most, attribution is not necessary but appreciated. All the photos are tagged, searchable, and also easy to discover through their discover pages. There are hundreds of thousands of stock photos to choose from and new high-resolution photos are added every day.
Burst
A free stock photo platform powered by Shopify (you don’t have to be a customer to use the photos). Burst has thousands of beautiful high-resolution images that are free to use for just about anything and they are always adding more images. Download high or low-resolution photos depending on your needs. All of their photos are free for commercial use with no attribution required; you can view the license page here.
StockSnap.io
Thousands of beautiful high-quality images that are ever-growing and free to use under a single, simple CC0 license, no attribution is required. Use these photos for personal and commercial use, browse breathtaking high-resolution high-definition wallpaper photos. Search by category or trending and download dazzling photos easily.
Gratisography
The world’s quirkiest collection of high-resolution all free stock images, images that you won’t find anywhere else. Gratisography chooses only unique and interesting pictures, the ones that provide personality. Check out their free photo license and then start searching the different categories and collections.
Skitterphoto
Find, share and show, all images on Skitterphoto are public domain, you are free to use their tagged photos for any purpose. If you would like to express your gratitude to the photographers who upload their photos, they do accept donations.
Pickup Image
Download from a large collection of premium high-resolution images and clipart for free with public domain photos. You can copy, modify and distribute Pickup images even for commercial purposes, choose your image size and quality and try out their photo editor. No attribution is required.
Negative Space
Beautiful high-resolution photos that are completely free under the CC0 license. There is something for everyone with categories like Abstract, Animals, Architecture, Business, Black & White, Colors, Food, Landscapes, Nature, People, Sport, Street, Technology, Transport, and Work.
Life of Pix
Free high-resolution photos for personal and commercial use with no copyright restrictions. New photos are added weekly and although they are partnered with AdobeStock, Life of Pix is still a free stock photography website. Videos, clips, and loops are also available through Life of Vid. All images are donated to the public domain.
Kaboompics
More than 16,000 images and one of the most popular sources of free images for lifestyle, interior design and specialized bloggers in the World. Here you can view the Kaboompics license, which is no different than the CC0 besides the fact that you are not allowed to redistribute. Download original, medium or custom-sized photos made with love.
Picography
One of the top sources for gorgeous, high-resolution, free photos. All of Picography’s photos are CC0 licensed, so you can use any of the free stock photos however you want and no attribution is required. Here are Picography’s Terms.
Picjumbo
*A new favorite of mine. Thousands of very high-resolution images from one of the best free stock photo sites. Viktor Hanacek is the owner and the photographer, he does all of the work himself and his goal is to create the best and most usable free stock images possible. If you love the images, you can click the ‘buy a coffee’ to support Picjumbo. There is also a Premium membership available where you can get super-exclusive access to hundreds of Premium stock photo collections with more than 7,000 stock photos. More are added monthly and perfect stock photos are sent to your inbox every month!
Reshot
Another great site, Reshot has handpicked, non-stocky uniquely free photos. Here you can read the Reshot license. You can also download quick image packs just by spreading the word with a tweet!
And…
Here are some more free stock image sites for you to look into, some are just fun and different while others are specific to things such as clip art, food, and vintage, etc. Clker.com, New Old Stock, Pickspree, FreeStocks.org, Foodiesfeed, Travel Coffee Book, Public Domain Files, Styled Stock, and ISO Republic.
Paid Stock Images
There are also many paid stock images for you to consider. These images are usually the ones you can’t find on any free site and they are usually extremely high-quality. Some images are free within these websites, however, most require a subscription or a paid plan. Here are a few for you to consider: AdobeStock, Dreamstime, IStock, Depositphotos, Canva, Megapixl, and Getty Images. If you’re looking for those hard-to-find images and only want the best of the best, my recommendation is Shutterstock, in my opinion, it is the very best choice, take a look and see all of the amazing things they have to offer.
Conclusion
I’m confident that you will now be able to find just what you’ve been looking for and I hope that you find this list useful. Feel free to use it as a reference anytime, I know I have a hard time remembering the names of some of these websites myself, so this list will be very helpful for me too. If you haven’t started building your website, what are you waiting for? Get started today! Leave your questions and comments below and don’t forget to subscribe to Ditch That Job, It Sucks.
Thanks for visiting!
My favorite out of all of these is Pixabay, which I recently discovered and I always end up finding relative stock images to my articles. I like Unsplash too, which I used prior to using Pixabay. For one of my blogs, which is an NFL uniform history blog, I’ve used Wikipedia commons, since it’s the primary site for that particular niche. But for anyone looking to find excellent images, I’d go with Pixabay and Unsplash, in that order, before anything else.
Hi Todd, thanks for the comments. I agree Pixabay and Unsplash are great choices and usually my go-to. I haven’t used Wikipedia Commons, I will check it out. Have a nice day!
I think it is a great compilation of images since sometimes it is very difficult to find resources that we can use on our websites, they also seem very nice to me, and I am very grateful that you have taken the time to compile them and make them available to us.
I’m glad that you found the article useful, It can be hard to find the right images for your website. Thanks for visiting, have a great day.
Perfect blog post! I agree that as a blog owner, to add pictures, it is essential for your success. And I agree that to find a suitable one, it is not an easy task. I was struggling for a while to find the best, and yet the cheapest possible option. And then I found Unsplash. I think that is just a perfect tool, all bloggers need. Especially if they do not want to pay a lot for pictures. I wasn’t aware of the fact, that you can boost the photographers’ motivation and dedication by giving them their well-deserved credit. Since now, I will try to do it as much as possible. Thank you for your post!
Thank you Julius, you’re very kind. Unsplash seems to be a favorite among most. I use it often. I plan to credit the photographers more myself. Their wonderful talents deserve the acknowledgment. I wish you much success, stay safe.
I had no idea there were so many options! I am just starting my online business and I think i’ll go Pixabay! Thank you so much for writing this article!
You bet Elise, I’m glad to help. I know how hard it can be to find the right images, therefore I’m happy to share what I find. Pixabay is a great choice for free stock images. Best of luck to you in your online business. Stay safe.
When building out a website, one thing that we must take very seriously is our images. Finding stock images for websites will be much easier now that I can refer to your website. Great images keep people coming back to your site as catchy image are very very important…thanks a lot for sharing this awesome article, I know it could really help a lot of people out there,
Yes Juliet, images are key to keeping your visitors interested and entertained. I’m glad that you found the article useful. Stay Safe.
Thank you for this superb article on stock images for our websites. Nice list here Pixabay being your second choice actually feels like my first choice. I think it is the level of comfort I feel when I use it. There are also other great sources and I would like to share this article with some of my friends. Thank you very much.
Hi Benny! Pixabay is a great choice too. Unsplash and Pixabay seem to be the top choices for free stock images. There are many good choices for sure. I’m glad you found the article useful and I’d be honored if you shared it.
I would like to share this great article with some of my friends. Your website is really nice and I learned a lot from this well-detailed article on getting stock images for website creation. These are really great sources but I would have to try each one to know which fits my desired website.
Thank you, I’m glad that you found the article useful. Trying each one out is recommended, I have a few favorites and I use several different ones until I find the exact image that I am looking for. I don’t think I could complete a post without a variety of websites with stock images. More options are always better. Thanks for the comments.
A truly awesome list of free photos sites. I’ve never been able to remember them all so your post made it possible for me to bookmark them for future use. I’ve bookmarked your post as well as there are more photo websites on it that I want to visit. Thanks for such an informative post.
Thank you Lily, It’s good to know that my article was helpful in some way. Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with. Have a great evening.