15 FREE stock photography websites for high quality images
Looking for high quality free stock photography websites? Explore this list of our favourite open source, creative commons and free stock images websites.
Looking for free stock photography websites? There’s a stigma around stock photography but sometimes you just need to purchase a stock photo that does the trick. And sometimes you can’t really afford to purchase images or there’s no business 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?
Well fret not because as the internet matures, more and more people are realising the value of open source, creative commons, and free stock photography websites to source high quality images for their content, so I thought I’d go on an adventure to find 15 free stock photography websites that offer up FREE, creative commons or open source stock photography for all of us to benefit from.
So without further hesitation let’s get in to it!
1. Pexels
Pexels “collects” stock photos from other free stock photography websites but also has its own photographers that contribute to the website. What sets Pexels apart from other free stock photography websites is the quality of the images. They appear to only feature the highest quality stock photos that are available and all for free. In my opinion Pexels has risen through the ranks over the last five years and become the crown champion of free stock photography websites.
Image: “Pexels website screenshot”, Copyright Pexels (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit Pexels (opens in a new tab)
2. Pixabay
There was a time where Pixabay was my go to website among all other free stock photography websites. Since then Pexels have taken that crown but I’ve got absolutely no qualms in saying this is absolutely my favourite free stock photography website when I’m looking for free stock illustrations, vector files and free stock video files. Pixabay’s main strength is the guaranteed CC0 license that just provides the peace of mind that whatever you find is truly free and doesn’t require attribution. However, I strongly encourage attribution to photographers for their hard work!
Image: “Pixabay website screenshot”, Copyright Pixabay (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit Pixabay (opens in a new tab)
3. 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 (opens in a new tab)” area of the site. When it comes to free stock photo websites Unsplash is right up there as a resource you’ll want to check out!
Image: “Unsplash website screenshot”, Copyright Unsplash (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit Unsplash (opens in a new tab)
4. Adobe Stock FREE
In 2020 Adobe made a drastic decision to join the ranks of free stock photography websites and make more than 70,000 stock photos and other assets such as illustrations and videos free for personal and business use. The collection is incredible and definitely one of the best resources for people looking for super high quality FREE stock photography to use on their websites or in their content.
Image: “Adobe Stock website screenshot”, Copyright Adobe Stock (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit Adobe Stock FREE (opens in a new tab)
5. Pikwizard
Pikwizard is a free stock photo website with a library of thousands of high quality free stock images. Images are licensed individually under either creative commons zero (CC0) or a slightly more complicated license which still allows you rights to use the image for free, but the author retains the copyright. This shouldn’t make any difference to you in reality but it’s worth paying attention to the full license agreement which can be found on the Pikwizard free stock photography website.
Image: “PikWizard website screenshot”, Copyright PikWizard (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit Pikwizard (opens in a new tab)
6. LibreStock
LibreStock is a search engine for other free stock photography websites 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.
Image: “LibreStock website screenshot”, Copyright LibreStock (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit LibreStock (opens in a new tab)
7. Gratisography
Gratisography is a free stock photography website which provides free high-resolution stock photos you can use on your personal and commercial projects. All pictures are by photographer Ryan McGuire (opens in a new tab) and free of copyright restrictions (opens in a new tab). What’s more? Well, Ryan promises new awesome stock photos will be added weekly and there’s not many free stock photography websites that offer that!
Image: “Gratisography website screenshot”, Copyright Gratisography (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit Gratisography (opens in a new tab)
8. Freerange Stock
Freerange Stock describe themselves as: “Good photos. Totally free.” The model is simple: Freerange Stock provide a free stock photography website, photographers provide the photography and the ad revenue generated from the site gets shared amongst the creaters. This means that you get free photography whilst the photographers gets paid from ad revenue. This is quite a unique offering among all of the free stock photography websites.
Image: “Freerange Stock website screenshot”, Copyright Freerange Stock (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit Freerange Stock (opens in a new tab)
9. Negative Space
Negative Space is another CC0 images only stock photography 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 free stock photo website to source images you want to add copy to.
Image: “Negative Space website screenshot”, Copyright Negative Space (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit Negative Space (opens in a new tab)
10. New Old Stock
Recapture history. New Old Stock source free vintage stock photos from public archives which are free of known copyright restrictions. Working on a project that needs a vintage stock photo? This is definitely the free stock photo website to go. This is the only site from this collection of free stock photography websites that offers this unique and focused approach.
Image: “New Old Stock website screenshot”, Copyright New Old Stock (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit New Old Stock (opens in a new tab)
11. Burst (Shopify Stock)
Burst is a free stock photography and royalty free images website that has been acquired by Shopify and it features lots of ecommerce focused images which can be freely used without attribution provided you’re not a stock photography provider yourself! The license (opens in a new tab) is a “some rights reserved” license which is very permissive but encourages attribution if possible.
Image: “Burst by Shopify website screenshot”, Copyright Burst by Shopify (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit Burst (opens in a new tab)
12. 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? There aren’t many free stock photography websites that also offer video so make the most of it while you’re there!
Image: “SplitShire website screenshot”, Copyright SplitShire (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit SplitShire (opens in a new tab)
13. StockSnap.io
StockSnap is another of our selection of free stock photography websites with a massive collection of high-res CC0 stock images with some great search, sort, and filter options. StockSnap is an example of a free stock photo website where you’ll find images that don’t appear that often on other websites.
Image: “StockSnap.io website screenshot”, Copyright StockSnap.io (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit StockSnap.io (opens in a new tab)
14. Stockvault
Stockvault is another user to user free stock photo website which boasts new photos, textures and illustrations every day. This is another of the free stock photo websites which is lesser-known and therefore contains images you won’t find in many other places on the internet.
Image: “Stockvault website screenshot”, Copyright Stockvault (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit Stockvault (opens in a new tab)
15. 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 behind it. There are over 350,000 free stock photos available for commercial use. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Image: “Morguefile website screenshot”, Copyright Morguefile (opens in a new tab), used under fair dealing for review (opens in a new tab).
Visit Morguefile (opens in a new tab)
Go forth and raid these free stock photography websites
I hope you find this collection of 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! We’ve updated the list for 2024 to make sure that these are still relevant, working, and the perfect free stock photo websites to surf, get inspired, and download from.
