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Shutterstock and Beyond: Exploring the Best in Stock Photography

Prices start at $0.25 USD per image for the subscription plan and $0.15 USD per credit for the credit pack option. Pond5 has a wide variety of high-quality royalty free imagery and stock video footage. IStockphoto has a wide variety of high-quality royalty free media and stock video footage. I particularly like the massive collection of outdoor images and people centric photos and I download their images and videos for both personal and commercial purposes. Founded in Munich in 2003 as a threesome with seven photographers on board, WestEnd61 now has 1,000 photographers supplying creatives with superior-quality images.

I decided to compile this list of the top Shutterstock alternatives you can use for royalty free stock images and stock video in your projects. Available on-demand, you can buy these unique stock photos for between $14 and $42 according to size, and get them even cheaper using credit packs in bulk purchases. This is a distinctive offer in stock photography, and one worth knowing –and using– if you’re looking for rare, artsy and modern photos. With over 300 million stock photos, 360° images, vectors and videos, you’ll stand a high chance of finding what you’re looking for. Alamy also offers a no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee within 30 days of purchasing any image. In this article, we highlight the very best stock photo sites available today in terms of quality and price.

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Both offer good quality images and a range of payment options, including subscriptions and credit packs. The main difference between them is that Shutterstock’s library is larger – although BigStock does have over 121 million royalty-free photos, vectors and illustrations, so it is not small. Also, its free trial offer comes with 35 free images, by far the most generous on our list. Stock photo sites are websites that offer a large collection of royalty-free or rights-managed images, videos and illustrations.

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It describes itself as “an art-forward, royalty-free stock photo + video agency that makes discovering unique, beautifully authentic imagery effortless.” Royalty-free licensing starts at $15. Stock libraries can often be a good solution, and while they had a reputation in the past for cheesy, low-rent images, that’s certainly not the case anymore. Whether you’re talking about small, medium or large stock photography sites, the quality is typically very high these days. There’s a lot more diversity in terms of the people featured too.

Best stock photo site for editorial

Unsplash is one of the best free shutterstock alternatives. IStock is a cheaper alternative to Shutterstock, with prices starting at $0.33 per credit. However, Shutterstock offers a wider selection of stock images and stock videos. Adobe Stock is a huge library of stock photos, illustrations, graphics, icons, video clips, audio clips, templates and more, available to license and use in your creative projects royalty-free. You pay either by subscription or by purchasing credit packs. Death to Stock is a website that was created in 2013 as a way to provide photographers and creatives with high-quality stock photos for their projects.

  • With their diverse array of skills, talents, and abilities, they form the powerhouse behind our trend research and visual productions, infusing them with raw energy and creativity.
  • The main search bar even allows you to filter your query down by factors like media type, orientation, color, and minimum dimensions.
  • In other words, much like Unsplash, the images that Photocase offers don’t look like stock photography.
  • Like iStock, Shutterstock offers a free image per week, as well as a free vector illustration too.

In other words, much like Unsplash, the images that Photocase offers don’t look like stock photography. These are the best stock photo sites for quality and value. The perfect image can solidify your design, article, ad, or other creative. Whatever your need, there are many resources for free stock photos out there. Bigstockphoto offers both subscription plans and credit packs.

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There are sites out there, like Death to Stock Photo, that provides such images, but their curated collections can be somewhat limited. Shutterstock and Getty Images are both great stock photo agencies. I might give Getty Images the edge due to the fact that there are over a million royalty free images and they hire paid professional photographers with stunning images captured. Envato Elements has a wide variety of high-quality royalty free stock images and stock video footage.

On their site, the team talks about how many stock photo sites depict unrealistic representations. Nappy is a free stock photo site on a mission to “provide beautiful, high-res photos of black and brown people to startups, brands, agencies, and everyone else.” The photographer, Vicktor, also offers unique paid packages for bloggers, designers, and agencies (starting at $10/month). Vecteezy is a category leader in freemium imagery, and its mission is to simplify the creative process by providing safe, legal creative assets to everyone. The company is also one of the fastest-growing stock photo marketplaces, according to TrustPilot and G2.

Unsplash

Cisco, a poster child of the dot-com era, was valued at a multiple of more than 150 times forward earnings when the stock hit its peak in March 2000. In this context, neither Nvidia nor the broader market are near the valuation levels seen during the internet bubble. However, Nvidia’s recent earnings and sales multiple expansion suggests a disconnect between the share price and performance of the underlying business. AI stocks have spiked, and valuations have stretched, but at least some fundamental support is behind the craze. These are divided into two main categories, Essentials and Signature.

death to stock photo alternative

The best free stock photo sites, in particular, are notorious for this. Your power to make a visual impact through marketing is pretty much at an all-time high. Digital consumers peruse social media and the best websites, specifically looking for things that stand out and capture their attention. Built around the USP that their domain could provide unique visual content, they free stock photos for designers soon began to stand out. There were downsides, however, and not everyone was impressed with their collection of images available for commercial use, especially since it wasn’t regularly being updated with new photos. By comparison, during the peak of the dot-com bubble in 2000, Nasdaq 100 stocks traded at an absurd trailing P/E of 200, more than six times today’s level.

of the Best Free Stock Photo Sites to Use in 2024

Moose is a stock photos library with images created by the Icons8 team. It features images of hundreds of different categories, including people, animals, nature, technology, and more. CreateHER Stock is a stock photography site that features authentic images of Black women created by founder Neosha Gardner. Priced at $10 per month, there is a collection of “freebies” that includes more than 185 images. All of its photos are shared without copyright restrictions, meaning you’re free to use them however you please.

death to stock photo alternative

Like the images, the video content contains no copyright restrictions and can be easily downloaded on its Vimeo account. From office culture photos to informative images highlighting a professional atmosphere, Jopwell has really leaned into the commercial aspect of stock imagery. Karolina, a web designer from Poland, is the creative eye behind this awesome resource for high-quality photos. From fashion to food to landscapes, her images cover a variety of different scenarios. Due to the excellent search bar, the pricing, and the huge variety of the image library, I think Envato Elements is the best Shutterstock alternative out there.

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There are a number of free stock photo sites that offer high-quality images. For commercial projects, I tend to use paid sites like Shutterstock or iStockPhoto. Founded in 1995, Getty is the OG of modern stock libraries and boasts a collection of over 200 million assets, including photographs, videos, and music tracks. It offers a range of licensing options for its assets, which can be used for various creative and editorial purposes.

death to stock photo alternative