Stock Photos reviews by real, verified users. Find unbiased ratings on user satisfaction, features, and price based on the most reviews available anywhere.
Best Stock Photos Websites for Small Businesses
Top 10 Stock Photos Websites for Small Businesses
- Shutterstock
- Adobe Stock
- Burst by Shopify
- PixaBay
- Yay Images
- Unsplash
- Pexels
- iStock
- Flaticon
- JumpStory
Shutterstock is a leading global provider of high-quality licensed photographs, vectors, illustrations, videos and music to businesses, marketing agencies and media organizations around the world. Working with its growing community of over 1 million contributors, Shutterstock adds hundreds of thousands of creative assets each week, and currently has more than 330 million images, 50 million editorial images and 18 million video clips available. Shutterstock’s brands also include Bigstock, a valu
Preview watermarked images inside your designs first. Then license, access and manage them directly within Photoshop CC, InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, and other Adobe desktop apps.
Free stock photos for websites and commercial use. Burst is a free stock photo platform that is powered by Shopify.
Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.
Yay Images hails from Norway as one of the first microstock agencies, providing high-quality licensed stock media since 2008. Featuring a collection of 11M photographs, 1.2M vectors/graphics, and 200K videos for businesses, startups, marketing agencies, and media organizations around the world. With a growing contributor base of over 18,000 global photographers, Yay Images adds hundreds of thousands of new photos and videos every month.
Unsplash is a marketplace for high resolution images.
High-resolution photo marketplace.
Getty Images is one of the most trusted and esteemed sources of visual content in the world, with over 405 million assets including photos, videos, and music. The Getty Images website serves creative, business and media customers in nearly every country in the world and is the first-place people turn to discover, purchase and share powerful visual content from the world’s best photographers and videographers. Getty Images works with over 330,000 contributors and hundreds of image partners to pro
Flaticon is a database of free vector icons directly to Photoshop.A tool that converts icons into web fonts.
JumpStory – Images with Impact No cliché-looking images. We keep it REAL! With JumpStory you get: Fast search, smart background-removal tool, image editor, AI TextMatch & unlimited downloads for just 25 USD/month. Free features on JumpStory: • 25 million authentic & high-performing photos, videos, vectors, illustrations & icons • Unlimited downloads for commercial purposes (copyright: CC0 and similar) • Time-saving AI-Text-Match • Image editor • Image archive • Automatic backgroun
Depositphotos is a global marketplace for stock photographs, vector images and video.
Stunning photos and stories, event announcements, latest news, and much more from within the Flickr community.
123RF has helped a wide clientele of individuals and businesses tell their stories using creative imagery, sounds and motion contributed by talents from around the world.
Crello is an online tool for easily creating videos and graphic designs, for social media, print, or any other web-based graphics by using a huge collection of already designed templates and video/photo content. Start with one of 25,000 pre-loaded modern templates, add your texts, images, and brand elements. Upload your own photos, videos or use free stock images, backgrounds, and clipart. With Crello anyone can become a creator with no special training.
Find millions of awesome royalty-free stock photos and vectors. Affordable high-res stock photography.
Download free high-resolution images for personal and commercial use. picjumbo is free stock photo site created in 2013 by designer & photographer Viktor Hanacek. It all started when all of the regular stock photo sites rejected his photos for "lack of quality".
Learn More About Stock Photos Websites
What You Should Know About Stock Photo Websites
Stock photo websites help businesses quickly and easily retrieve images without needing a photographer or designer. These images are available to download for free or for a fee, and businesses can use any of the images commercially. However, before a business starts using stock photos, it should be aware of the crediting and licensing rules stated on the website to avoid infringement penalties.
In addition to the ease of access, stock photo websites also often have a large library of images, making it simple for businesses to locate the image they need in a short amount of time. Users can simply type a keyword related to what they are looking for within the search bar and sift through the available images that the website has to offer. For granular, specific searches, it’s advised that a business chooses a stock photo website with a particularly large image repository as opposed to a smaller one, which is less likely to offer distinct image ideas.
Key Benefits of Stock Photo Websites
- Online repository of a variety of images
- Organized images by tags or keywords
- Simple download and payment process
Why Use Stock Photo Websites?
From published content to marketing campaigns to a business’ own website, stock photos are used everywhere and have plenty of use cases. For businesses that do not employ a photographer, a curated collection of images is beneficial. Stock photo websites save a business both time and money. Since these websites are free to search, businesses save time by avoiding the process of hiring a photographer or a designer to create an image. In addition, buying a stock photo is often less expensive than these options.
Who Uses Stock Photo Websites?
Stock photo websites are widely used in every industry, but some professionals may benefit from these websites more than others:
Content creators — Writers and other content creators who publish written work may use stock photos to help make their work visually compelling. Newspapers, magazines, and blogs all benefit from having a stock photo as a visual element to the written piece.
Marketing and branding departments — Stock photos may be used in email marketing campaigns, slideshows, or other types of marketing campaigns. Similar to the use for content creators, stock photos help make marketing campaigns visually inviting.
Kinds of Stock Photo Websites
There are two types of stock photo websites: premium and free. Businesses should consider the pros and cons of both when choosing where to find and download images.
Premium — Premium stock photo websites have photos that have a payment requirement. In some cases, payment can be administered through a subscription service through the stock photo website, which often allows a specific amount of downloads per month. In most cases, the website requires users to purchase specific photos separately. Premium stock photo websites may also offer free images alongside premium images. Images, especially high-definition images, may be pricey. However, premium libraries tend to have a larger number of good quality images compared to free websites.
Free — Royalty-free stock photo websites do not require payment for the photos within its library. Photos are free to download and distribute and do not require the user to credit the artist. While this option is ideal for businesses on a tight budget, these websites may not have as large of a library as a premium option.
Stock Photo Websites Features
While stock photo websites don’t have a robust number of features, they do offer strong baseline benefits that help users find and download images.
Search — Stock photo websites allow users to locate content within their repository of images via search bar. By using keywords, tags, or a general idea of an image, stock photo websites help users locate the exact image they are looking for.
Image download — In most cases, these websites require the user to create an account on the website to download any image, illustration, or other offering. By doing so, images are free to download at the press of a button, depending on the requirements of the website. Some common requirements include payment or artist crediting.
Tagging — Users have the ability to narrow down their search using tags, typically organized by the artists or the website for visibility.
Saved collections — Businesses that choose to not use file storage and sharing software or another image storing tool can use a stock photo website’s own collection tool. Many websites offer ways for users to save images they like or plan on using again to ensure the image doesn’t get lost.
Trending searches — Users can see trending searches to understand what is popular. Choosing more popular images can increase content engagement.
Potential Issues with Stock Photo Websites for Businesses
Intellectual property issues — Intellectual property laws are known to be a bit complicated and situational. While most stock photo websites are clear about their licensing and crediting requirements, any business should tread carefully when using stock photos for commercial purposes. Any business using stock photos should be aware of legal restrictions and infringements that apply to identifiable people, trademarked products, or exposed personal property information within photos. To avoid legal issues, businesses should simply ensure their photos are obtained legally and credited as necessary.
Lack of relevant photos — Some businesses may require photos that are hyperspecific to a niche topic that the stock photo website may not have. It’s best to keep searches as broad as possible when looking for photos. If the issue is persistent, businesses should resort to a stock photo website that has a larger repository of images for a broader selection.
