Stock photography and stock photography websites area a necessary evil. Sometimes you just need to purchase a stock photo that does the trick. And sometimes you can't really afford to even purchase one or there's no value in doing so. Perhaps like us you write a lot of blog content and want to keep your writing visually appealing without taking out a loan to pay for all that photography?
You need not fret because as the internet matures, more and more people are realising the value of open source and creative commons technology and content, so I thought I'd go on an adventure to find 15 stock photo websites that offer up FREE, creative commons or open source stock photos for all of us to benefit from.
So without further hesitation let's get in to it!
1. FindA.Photo
This powerful image search engine allows you to search through thousands of free (CC0 licensed) stock photos from 10 different stock photo websites. You can even browse by colour or keywords.
2. Freerange Stock
Freerange Stock describe themselves as: "Good photos. Totally free." The model is simple: Freerange Stock provide the platform, photographers provide the photography and the ad revenue from the site gets shared. This means that you get free photography whilst the photographers still get paid!
3. Gratisography
Gratisography is a stock photo website which provides free high-resolution stock photos you can use on your personal and commercial projects.
All pictures are by photographer Ryan McGuire and free of copyright restrictions. What's more? Well Ryan promises new awesome stock photos will be added weekly! What's not to love?!
4. Libre Stock
Libre Stock is another stock photography websites search engine which boasts the ability to be able to search the best 47 free stock photo websites in one place! This is a great place to go if you need to search for something quite specific as you'll have more chance of finding that perfect stock photo.
5. Morguefile
Morguefile is a website whose positioning statement is: "free images for creatives, by creatives" and what could be simpler than that? This open source mentality is akin to how Drupal developers work so we love the ethos. There are over 350,000 free stock photos available for commercial use. Sounds good doesn't it!
6. Negative Space
Negative Space is another CC0 images only website. What truly sets Negative Space apart though is the search capabilities. Browse by category, keyword, colour and copy space position. Now that's some serious search power if you're looking for that perfect stock photo to add copy to.
7. New Old Stock
Recapture history. New Old Stock source vintage photography from public archives which are free of known copyright restrictions. Working on a project that needs a vintage stock photo? This is definitely the place to go.
8. Pexels
Pexels also "collects" stock photography from other sites and acts as a search engine for free imagery but what sets Pexels apart from the other free stock photo search engines are the "discovery tools". Probably not the best (but still good) for finding a specific image but great if you want to sift through photos of "flowers that are red" and so on.
9. Pixabay
I've got absolutely no qualms in saying this is absolutely my favourite free stock photography website. Why? Well, there's just something about 860,000 guaranteed CC0 images and illustrations that does it for me. I know I can come here, pretty much always find the image I require and then use it without copyright headaches or attribution concerns.
10. SplitShire
SplitShire has a fantastic collection of free stock photos for commercial use and some great tools to discover and browse them as well. The whole website is slick and enjoyable to use. Anything else that's good about it? Sure. How about free stock video as well. You're welcome!
11. Stock Snap
Another massive collection of high-res CC0 stock images with some great sort and filter options.
12. Stock Up
A slightly more refined search engine which boasts a modest 14,837 free stock photos across 28 websites. What sets Stock Up apart are the roster of clients who they claim use them which includes: Product Hunt, The Huffington Post, Forbes and The Next Web.
13. Stockvault
Another user to user free stock photo website which boasts new photos, textures and illustrations every day.
14. Unsplash
Unsplash is another site which is jam packed with what they call: "Free (do whatever you want) high-resolution stock photos". The interface is dead simple and you could easily kill several hours knocking around the "collections" area of the site.
15. Visual Hunt
Visual Hunt are another search engine and probably the most wide-reaching and comprehensive search engine of the lot. Boasting 354,191,553 Creative Commons Photos and 116,892 CC0 - 100% Free High Quality Stock Photos, you're probably going to find what you're looking for but when you find your stock image you'll need to double check the licenses to see if there are any terms attached to the image's usage.
Go forth an spread imagery
I hope you find these free stock photo websites useful. It has certainly aided us to document them in one place so that we can come back to it again and again.
If you enjoyed the article, or have any more site suggestions please do reach out to us and let us know!
