Not all website or blog visitors love reading endless amount of texts all the time. Adding relevant photos break up the chunks of texts and add interest to your content.
Aside from your own product photos, you can easily find and download photos and images from free stock photo websites. Most of these sites have a huge database of good quality photos that suit all possible niches.
Free stock photos are photos or images that are licensed for specific use. While some sites allow you to download and use stock photos for free, others require a fee for the rights to use photos/images while the owner still holds the copyright.
Stock Photo Licenses
The most common advice you’ve probably already heard from other bloggers is to use only Creative Commons and Public Domain photos for your blog posts. While it sounds safer to use photos in these categories, you need to be aware that:
- finding photos anywhere on the internet DOES NOT mean they are in the public domain
- there are several types of Creative Commons licenses with specific restrictions, and checking them should be a top priority before downloading a photo/image
Remember: If the photo you’d like to use is under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, for example, the attribution is specified on the license page.
However, there’s always a possibility that you need to look for other photos or images that may not fall under the Creative Commons or Public Domain categories. These types of stock photo licenses are the most common in various stock photo sites:
1: Royalty Free
Royalty free or RF is deemed the most popular and most cost-effective type of license for stock photos. This license allows you to pay once and use the photo/image multiple times without paying (extra) for royalty fees.
However, RF photos/images are non-exclusive, so anyone can buy and use them. Royalty free license for photos/images is also considered most lenient when it comes to both commercial and non-commercial acceptable usage.
2: Rights Managed
Rights managed or RM license provides exclusive, time-restricted use of stock photos/images. This means, the licensee can use a photo for a specific period of time as indicated in the license.
RM license only allows photos/images to be used for a specific project and they are paid for on a “per use” basis.
3: Extended License
Extended license, also known as enhanced license, allows an extended use of the photo/image which was originally purchased usually with a RF (royalty free) license.
Extended uses of photos/images may include increasing the number of copies, for resale purposes (e.g. print-on-demand, t-shirt prints, calendars, greeting cards, etc.), or for other means of distribution and usage.
Make sure to check the allowances and restrictions of extended/enhanced license on each stock photo site you’ll visit because these conditions vary.
4: Custom Free Licenses
There are some stock photo sites that offer free downloads, but you need to take a look at their own custom licenses which pertain to ‘free stock photos’ on their site. This means they have a different set of guidelines, restrictions, and ways to attribute their photographers or contributors.
Make sure to check these licenses first before signing up and/or downloading free photos from their sites. If the site looks and feels dodgy, it’s best to look someplace else.
Photo Attribution
Take note that free stock photos have still have certain restrictions and specific guidelines for usage such as giving attribution to the photographer or the person who legally owns them.
In order for you to avoid a costly mistake of using photos from just any website, it is best to search from stock photo sites and learn about their restrictions and attribution requirements before finally downloading them.
Photo attributions can be provided through a standard photo credit using any of these formats:
- photo/image by photographer/copyright owner
- image title by photographer/copyright owner
Ideally, the attribution should be placed under the photo and the photo/image or image title should be directly linked to image page where you can download and see the details of the photo.
The name of the photographer or copyright owner should be linked to his/her profile page.
Example 1: Attribution used “via (stock photo site) by (username)”
Example 2: Attribution used “image (stock photo site) by (username)”
Checking the photo’s license, for instance if it’s under Creative Commons, you’ll find a specific instruction on how to properly attribute the photographer or rightful owner.
Ultimate List of Free Stock Photo Sites
We’ve compiled this ultimate list to show you that there are numerous stock photo sites on the web. While we try to search for the ‘free’ stock photo sites, there are still those that require payment for their premium photos or images.
This list provides an overview of what you can expect on each site. But make sure to browse through these sites and check the details of their license agreements.
Albumarium
Albumarium is a great resource for high-resolution stock photos. It has more close-up images of nature, animals, and people, as well as a mix of vintage and modern styles. You can search or browse the site by categorized albums to see each of their collection.
Sort the resulting images by most liked, newest, and type of license (any license, commercial).
License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 (CC-BY)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Ancestry Images
Ancestry Images has a collection of free image archives of historical prints, artefact photos, and maps. The site can be a bit confusing because the owner is also promoting another stock photo website which sells ancestral images and maps just like in his ‘free’ collection.
If you want to only search on Ancestry Images, it’s best to use the search feature if you want to look for specific images under certain categories – topographical prints, antique maps, natural history, etc.
License: Free to use for non-commercial purposes, requires attribution (link back to site)
Sign-up to download?: No
Upgrade Options: Yes – need to contact the site owner if you wish to use the images/prints for commercial use
Animal Animals / Earth Scenes
Animals Animals/Earth Scenes is a stock photo site that signifies a huge selection of bizarre and various images. The homepage lists a variety of animal categorized by birds, mammals, primates, and rodents.
Click on the common names of animals to take you to the collection of photos. You may also scroll down the homepage to see some random photos of animals.
License: Creative Commons (CC-BY and CC-BY-SA)
Sign-up to download?: No
Upgrade Options: N/A
BigFoto
Most of Big Foto’s collections of images are contributions of various amateur photographers who’d love to see their works on various websites and other work. Photos on this site are great for travel-related niches as they largely feature various regions, as well as theme photos.
You can download any photo for free and use commercially or non-commercially such as for desktop wallpaper, website themes, print work, and others. The site only requires you to provide attribution via ‘link back’.
License: Free to Use
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Can We Image
Can We Image is a search site for photos that extracts and displays results from Wikimedia Commons. Search results are directly linked to the photo/image resource page where you can find detailed descriptions of the photo, EXIF and Meta data (if available), license, and others.
Don’t be alarmed if you land on a blank homepage initially – it’s built that way and it functions like a search engine, to put it simply.
Use the search box on the homepage to find the image/photo you need and make sure to tick the check box that says “only show public domain results?“
License: Public Domain, GFDL, etc.
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Stockvault
Stockvault is a stock photo site that features a myriad of car photos indexed and organised by brand. You can simply click on any link on the homepage to open the collection without signing up. Upon finding the image you need on this site, make sure to click on the image to see the details.
License: Creative Commons (CC-BY and CC-BY-SA)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
CLKER
Clker is an online clip art and photo sharing service which allows users (18 years old and up) to share their works under public domain license. You can download any of the free photos or clip art without signing up, and you can use them for commercial purposes.
License: Public Domain Dedication (CC0 1.0)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
CompFight
Compfight is an image search engine that extracts photos from Flickr. It uses Flickr API to locate photos/images based on your search specifications.
Use Compfight’s search box and filtering tool to help you find the right images for your blog. You can filter images by choosing Creative Commons license as an option.
License: Creative Commons, Commercial (filter according to preference)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Creative Commons
You can use Creative Commons search page in filtering images with Creative Commons licenses either via Flickr, Google Images, and Pixabay. The results page varies and it’s advisable to check the details of the photo you choose to ensure its license and restrictions.
License: Creative Commons
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
- Google Images – The standard image results page on Google is pulled up when this option is chosen via Creative Commons search. It shows that the images are filtered with “Labelled for reuse with modifications”.
Source: Google Image
- Flickr – Creative Commons images on Flickr can be downloaded without signing in/up. And there are always variations on the type of CC licenses per photo, so make sure to check the image/photo page and details of the license.
Source: flickr.com
Creativity103
Creativity103 is a free stock image library of thousands of abstract backgrounds, designs ideas, and textures. You can use photos for inspiration or cut-and-paste them onto your own work.
All images are free to download and use, but you must provide proper attribution to the site if you wish to us them commercially. Redistribution for reuse of images is prohibited.
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Death to the Stock Photo
Death to the Stock Photo provides a free monthly pack of 10 photos within a specific category, delivered straight to your inbox. The aim of this site is to send users an assortment of options which can be used commercially for blog posts, mock-ups, and social media.
Make sure to check their official and ‘plain English’ version of their own license to know more about their specific restrictions.
License: “Plain English” License
Upgrade Options: Yes ($10/month)
Sign-up to download?: Yes
Dreamstime
Dreamstime offers searchable and regularly updated free stock photos for both non-commercial and commercial usage, which are under Limited Royalty Free Licenses. To be able to download free stock photos, you must first sign up for a free account. Make sure to check their license page to know more about the limitations and restrictions for free photos.
License: Limited Royalty Free Licenses (RF-LL)
Upgrade Options: Yes
Sign-up to download?: Yes
Every Stock Photo
Every Stock Photo is a search site for free stock photos which are under various types of free licenses. The site’s search result displays organized-per-licensed photos which include free licenses, public domain, creative commons, and commercial (for royalty free photos from a partner site).
Ideally, you should only choose photos from the first three categories in order to download free photos. Make sure to check the photo’s resource page for license and restriction details.
License: Creative Commons, GNU, public domain, and custom free licenses
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Foter
Foter is a photo search site that extracts results from Flickr and other Creative Commons image sites. Simply search for the photo you need based on your niche and use them for blogs, websites, forums, and other online media types.
Foter also provides a WordPress plugin that’s easy to integrate with this blogging platform. For a blog post, you can grab the convenient embed code – with necessary CC attribution – and insert into your blog.
License: Creative Commons Licenses
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Free Digital Photos
Free Digital Photos provides high quality images produced by professional stock photographers and illustrators. The site allows you to download free and premium stock photos and illustrations which can be used for websites, ads, newspapers, e-books, and other business, personal, or educational purposes.
Royalty free images of larger sizes can be bought at reasonable prices.
License: Royalty Free, Attribution for free photos
Upgrade Options: Yes
Sign-up to download?: No
Free Images
Free Images (formerly Stock.xchng) offers 350,000 quality stock photos by thousands of photography and design contributors who make up their community. They offer free stock photos and digital illustrations for both non-commercial and commercial use.
You can use any stock photo or illustration for blogs, website design, inspiration, as desktop wallpaper and many others.
License: Royalty Free, Non-exclusive, Non-transferable license
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: Yes
Free Images-UK
Free Images-UK offer high quality stock photos for a variety of uses. You can download images for free and for use on websites, print materials, illustrations, and creative design.
Free Images is also a sister site of Free Images Live. Both sites require attribution for stock photos you download and use from their collection.
License: Creative Commons licenses
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Free Photos Bank
FreePhotoBank is a stock photo site with a collection of high-resolution photos that suit a wide variety of niches. Photos are easy to download and can be used for both non-commercial and commercial projects. The site requires attribution for downloaded and used photos. Use the search tool or their index of categories to easily find what you need.
License: Free to use with Attribution/Credit
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
FreeMediaGoo
Free Media Goo is a growing library of free stock photos which you can download and use in online publications, TV, media print, film, and other types of media, both for non-commercial and commercial purposes.
If you’re looking for textures and backgrounds, this site could be for you. But with the limited number of subjects and photos on-hand, you might find this site not very helpful unlike others.
License: Royalty Free, No Obligations
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
FreePixels
FreePixels offers free high resolution stock photos for use on both non-commercial and commercial design projects. Photos used on magazines, newspaper, other types of publication, design element, product, or promotional materials may appear, sold, or distributed without limits.
Make sure to check the site’s terms of use page to know more about the limits and restrictions of their current license.
License: Non-exclusive, Non-transferable license
Upgrade Options: No
Sign-up to download?: No
Free Range Stock
Free Range Stock offers extensive archives high-resolution free stock photos for both non-commercial and commercial usage. You need to sign up for free in order to download photos from the site.
As per the site’s license page, they would like to get attribution for photos used, though not required. Redistribution of photos and other restrictions apply, so make sure to check their license page.
License: EULA (end-user license agreement), Attribution to site and/or photographer (accepted but not required) – see license page for details
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: Yes
From Old Books
From Old Books is an excellent resource of rare, vintage scanned images from old story books. Although all images are royalty free and under public domain, these images all have watermarks on them.
You can download small to large-sized image scans, but cannot redistribute them without permission. But you can purchase web-sized images without watermarks ($7) and high-resolution print for commercial use (starting at $50).
License: Public Domain, Royalty Free requiring attribution
Upgrade Options: Yes
Sign-up to download?: No
Getrefe on Tumblr
Getrefe is a free mobile stock photo library created by the owner-photographer named Tomas Laurinavicius. The subjects vary from food, to locations, to nature and attractions. Although there’s no indication of a license or attribution required, it’s best to provide credit to the site and/or to the photographer as courtesy to the free photo you’ll use.
License: N/A (Free to use – no license indicated)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Gratisography
Gratisography is a free stock photo library of high-resolution photos which you can download and use for non-commercial and commercial projects. The owner adds weekly photos and they’re all free of copyright restrictions.
If you sell and blog about quirky and fun products, Gratisography is a good place to start searching for photos. However, they also have other themes and subjects that are great for non-so funny blog posts.
License: Creative Commons 0 (CC0) for no copyright
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Image Finder
Image Finder is a clean and straightforward search site for free stock photos from Flickr. The homepage shows a search box, random tags, and links to their social media networks. Upon clicking on your desired photo, you’ll find the download page with three options (in sizes) – small, medium, and original. You can copy and paste the link for attribution inside the box labelled “Put this image in your blog:“.
License: Creative Commons
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Jaymantri
Jaymantri is a great source of royalty free, high-resolution photos you can use for anything. The directory is updated every Thursday with seven new photos. You can download any photo you need for almost any type of project, online or offline.
License: Public Domain Dedication (CC0)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Kave Wall New Media
Kave Wall New Media is a Canadian web and graphic design company which that also provides free stock photos. Their free stock photos are smaller in size, but of good quality. You can go their index of categorised photos and images for easy download and use for both non-commercial and commercial purposes. Attribution and link to the site and license are required.
License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic (CC-BY 2.5)
Upgrade Options: Yes
Sign-up to download?: No
Life of Pix
Life of Pix is owned by Leeroy Advertising Agency in Montreal which provides free high resolution photos under the public domain. You can download and use their photos for both non-commercial and commercial use. New photos are added weekly courtesy of Leeroy’s network of photographers. Browse through their gallery to find the right photos for your blog posts.
License: Public Domain Dedication (CC0 1.0 Universal)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Little Visuals
Little Visuals offers high resolution free stock photos under the public domain. You can sign up to their newsletter to get seven high resolution images right in your inbox every seven days. You’ll see on their homepage a button for downloading the previous packs of images, but you can also individually download any image you prefer.
License: Public Domain Dedication (CC0 1.0 Universal)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Magdeleine
Magdeleine is a free stock photo site of various contributors and they add high resolution photos daily under public domain and creative commons licenses. You can browse photos according to license or by category for a more convenient view and download. If you’ll view photos by category, make sure to check their licenses for proper attribution on your blog.
License: Public Domain Dedication, Creative Commons (various)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Morgue File
Morgue File offers free stock photos contributed by photographers and artists. You can use them for almost any creative project, but it is prohibited to use them as a stand-alone on your website/blog. You can download and use the photos even without attribution as the site does not require it.
License: N/A (Free to use – no license indicated)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
New Old Stock
New Old Stock is a collection of free photos from the public archives which are free of know copyright restrictions. If you need vintage photos for your blog posts, this is the site to visit and you won’t be disappointed. Although attribution is not required, it’s always better to provide one as courtesy to the contributors and site owner.
License: Public Domain (“no known copyright restrictions“)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Open Clipart
Open Clipart is a community of designers who product royalty-free images for use in both commercial and non-commercial projects. The community believes that clipart should be offered with as little restrictions as possible in order for their work to spread far and wide.
You can download and use as much as you want from Open Clipart since their work are under the public domain. Though not required, it’s best to provide proper attribution to the site as a ‘thank you’ for using their images on your blog posts.
License: Public Domain Dedication (CC0 1.0 Universal)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Open Photo
Since 1998, Open Photo’s creator and contributors have been building up their collection of stock photos for other users to download. You can use the free stock photos for almost any project imaginable. Use the categories and browse through the gallery to quickly find the photos you need for your blog posts.
License: Creative Commons (varies from image to image)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
PDPhoto
PDPhoto is a repository of Public Domain photos created and uploaded by its owner. Although there are photos under copyright, free stock photos under the public domain category are arranged accordingly.
High resolution photos are also available for purchase. Take note of the site owner’s notes and comments on the photos when downloading in order be sure that you’re getting free stock photos under the right license. If you need to clarify the photos you want to download, it’s best to contact the owner.
License: Public Domain (majority of the photos)
Upgrade Options: Yes
Sign-up to download?: No
Photo Everywhere
Photo Everywhere is a collection is thousands of free travel and tourism stock photos which can be easily downloaded and used on blogs/websites, printed materials, software, games, demos, interactive presentations, CD/DVD cover artwork, and others. When using free stock photos from this site, proper attribution is required based on their Creative Commons license.
License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic (CC-BY 2.5)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Photober
Photober is a free stock photos site that allows you to download and use photos for personal or commercial use. They also allow reuse and reuse with modification for commercial purposes; but redistribution and selling are prohibited. Attribution is required for using their photos on your blog posts or any type of media.
License: User License
Upgrade Options: Yes
Sign-up to download?: No
Photogen
Photogen is a free stock photo site that offers high resolution photos for graphic and web design, and all other personal and commercial purposes. Their high-re JPEG images are ready for use and can be edited using Gimp or Photoshop. Check out their terms of use to see limits and restrictions.
License: see Terms of Use
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Photos Public Domain
Photos Public Domain is a free stock photo and clipart site under the public domain license. You are free to download and use any photo or clipart image for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. The site mentions that model releases were not obtained from people in the photos and identifiable brand names or logos should be used with great care especially for commercial purposes.
License: Public Domain
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
PicJumbo
Picjumbo is a free stock photo resource which you can go to for both commercial and non-commercial projects. They offer a variety of images for reuse. You can search the site by using their category menus since it lacks a search tool.
License: N/A (Free to use – no license indicated)
Upgrade Options: Yes
Sign-up to download?: No
Pickup Image
Pickup Image is a large collection of free stock photos and clipart images from various contributors. All works are under the public domain and you can download and use them any way you want – for non-commercial and commercial purposes.
You need to sign up for an account to be able to download photos and clipart images. Many of the photos are of various locations which are great for travel, tours, and destinations niche.
Don’t click on the categories at the footer when you see them because they don’t pull out any results; probably because of the poor tagging they’ve used for the photos and clipart images. Just stick with the category tags within the header or try using the search box (but this method pulls out varying results instead of specific photos using a keyword).
License: Public Domain
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: Yes
Picography
Picography is a source of high resolution, royalty free photos which you can use for blog posts and other non-commercial and commercial purposes. The site is owned and maintained by Hidden Depth – a web design company based in Ireland. You will find the collection quite limited, but contributors are adding more photos each month. Check this site every now and then for newly added photos.
License: N/A (Free to use – no license indicated)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Pixabay
Pixabay offers free stock photos that are copyright-free, under Public Domain. You can download, modify, distribute and use the images for both non-commercial and commercial purposes. Take note that depicted content may have trademark protection, privacy or publicity rights.
Attribution is not required, but as courtesy, it’s best to provide one on the photo you’ll use from the site.
License: Public Domain Dedication
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: Yes
Public Domain Image
Public Domain Image is a royalty free stock photo site that offers copyright-free images. All photos are within public domain and can be used for personal and commercial purposes. Photos are of high quality and have no restrictions for usage. Attribution is not required but greatly appreciated.
License: Public Domain Certification
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Public Domain Pictures
Public Domain Pictures is a repository of free stock images under the public domain. You can download high resolution photos for non-commercial use. Photos with brand names and people in them should be used with care specifically for commercial use. A link back is required if you’ll redistribute the image online.
License: Public Domain Dedication
Upgrade Options: Yes
Sign-up to download?: No
RGB Stock
RGB Stock is a free stock image site by graphic artists and photographers. You can use the images on blog posts as long as the image owner is credited. You cannot sell the images as per the site’s terms. If you need to use the images commercially such as on greeting cards, wallpaper, or templates it’s best to contact the image owners.
License: Non-exclusive, Non-transferable license
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: Yes
SplitShire
SplitShire offers copyright-free photos by photographer and web designer Daniel Hanescu. You can download and use the photos for personal and commercial use. When downloading the photo, you’ll see where the photos can be used and the very few restrictions.
Attribution and sharing of the site’s link are not required but highly appreciated.
License: Copyright Free
Upgrade Options: Yes
Sign-up to download?: No
Startup Stock Photos
Startup Stock Photos provides high resolution photos that are great for starting companies. You can download and use their stock photos for promotional, personal and commercial purposes. The photos are quite limited in number and theme, but if you need photos with laptops, gadgets, and office feel, this is a good place to check out.
License: Creative Commons
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
StockVault
Stockvault is a free stock photo sharing site where photographers, designers and students can upload their work and for others to use for free. Images can be downloaded without registration and can be used for personal and non-commercial purposes.
License: N/A (Free to use – no license indicated)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Stokpic
Stokpic is a free stock photo source that provides high quality images you can use in any creative project, whether personal or commercial. Browse through their categorized list of high resolution photos for your blog post and don’t forget to provide attribution for the photos you use.
License: Public Domain Dedication (CC0 1.0 Universal)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
Unsplash
Unsplash provides free high resolution stock photos onsite and via email subscription which delivers ten photos every ten days into your inbox. You can use the photos anyway you want – copy, modify, distribute, and use commercially without asking permission.
License: Public Domain Dedication (CC0 1.0 Universal)
Upgrade Options: N/A
Sign-up to download?: No
