Images are known to increase time on site, engagement, shares, repins, retweets and likes. They are super important, things just seem naked without them. And not in a good way.
With people becoming more visual and the competition a lot stiffer, I needed to find stock image websites for every occasion.
Why you should include images in your marketing
- In an analysis of over 1 million articles, BuzzSumo found that articles with an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images. – Buzzsumo
- 74% of social media marketers use visual assets in their social media marketing, ahead of blogs (68%) and videos (60%). – Social Media Examiner
- Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images. Bufferapp
- Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images. – Buzzsumo
After countless hours analyzing more than 200 image websites to find the best website for images, I came out with this list and stock photography site comparison (get it sent to you here). But my research was pretty deep, as well as looking for a solution that would help my writers create better articles, I found an immense number of gems.
I ended up having a massive spreadsheet like below
Things I found out:
- There are really cool photo search engines
- You can create a good stream of autonomous income selling images
- There are tons of websites for each category
- There are websites that have great videos too
- Some websites are hideous and should be taken off the internet
- You can earn a ton of links for SEO if you do try
Full list of stock image sites
| Name | About the website |
|---|---|
| dreamstime | A huge collection of stock images from 300,000+ talented photographers. The have free or paid, all these images can suit any blogger, but mostly paid |
| Zenfolio | A website that licences and sells your photos |
| photodune.net | Royalty-free images, from close-ups to still life, panoramic shots, and illustrations. |
| Free images | Pretty nice images, but ties into other platforms that are not really free |
| photospin | The original source for stock photos, illustrations, fonts, vector art and illustrations by subscription. |
| Photo Case | Photocase is a passionately curated stock photography agency. We offer hand-picked photos with a modern feel for prices that fit any budget. |
| 123rf.com | A royalty-free stock site that offers over more than 60,000 high quality images for professionals and businesses of all sizes. They also provide vectors, footage, and audio. |
| alamy | A leading stock collection with over 101 million images, vectors and videos that’s suited for any business. |
| gettyimages | A world leader for premium photos, which includes iStock and Thinkstock |
| istockphoto.com | Millions of high-quality images contributed by some of the greatest artists, designers, and photographers. Istock offers royalty-free images, but has some of the best images on the web for sale. |
| fotolia.com | A massive resource with over 68 million images and a diverse variety of images that professionals, marketers, and bloggers can use for their site or marketing campaigns. |
| shutterstock | Shutterstock is packed with over 100 million high-res images chosen to call for attention and trigger emotions. They charge for these royalty-free images, but this guarantees you'll have the most unique images. |
| crestock | Royalty free images and vectors |
| stocksy.com | Awesome and nice royalty-free image source for beautiful and professional pictures. |
Long list hey? I went through them all, like 3 times. It took hours and hours and hours. But I found some really cool things, so it was worth it.
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Best Paid Stock Image Websites
| Name | Site Description |
|---|---|
| stockvault.net | Thousands of real images/photos and artwork that tells a unique story. Perfect for blogs geared towards storytelling. - Over 110.000 free stock photos, textures and graphics for your next project. No attribution required. |
| mattonstock.com | A photo gallery of over 13 million royalty free images. One of the best collections on the internet |
| blendimages.com | Really natural images with authentic life experiences. |
| stock-image-point.com | Premium photos powered by Shutterstock |
| bigstockphoto.com | The biggests marketplace for quality stock images with over 43 million royalty-free photos which can be used for practically anything - marketing, blog posts, site background. |
| 123rf.com | A royalty-free stock site that offers over more than 60,000 high quality images for professionals and businesses of all sizes. They also provide vectors, footage, and audio. |
| getrefe.com | Best place to buy royalty-free, high-quality, natural looking stock photos. |
| rawpixel.com | Authenticity and creativity is what they promise. Have a nice collection of images |
| photocase.com | Photocase is a passionately curated stock photography agency. We offer hand-picked photos with a modern feel for prices that fit any budget. |
| dreamstime.com | A huge collection of stock images from 300,000+ talented photographers. The have free or paid, all these images can suit any blogger, but mostly paid |
| thinkstockphotos.com | Download royalty-free images, high resolution stock photos, vector art and illustrations fromThinkstock . High quality, affordable stock photography |
| alamy.com | A leading stock collection with over 101 million images, vectors and videos that’s suited for any business. |
| stock.adobe.com | Adobe stock contributors choose the most inspiring images to showcase on Stock.adobe. These are world-class royalty free images. |
| creativemarket.com | Buy and sell handcrafted, mousemade design content like vector patterns, icons, photoshop brushes, fonts and more at Creative Market. |
| photofolio.co.uk | Photofolio is a stock photography portfolio that features thousands of royalty-free stock photos that talented photographers contribute. |
| stockunlimited.com | Search high quality vector graphics, clipart, icons and photos for free. Get unlimited royalty free content downloads. |
| zenfolio.com | A website that licences and sells your photos |
| crestock.com | Royalty free images and vectors |
Best Travel Stock Image Websites
| Name | Site Description |
|---|---|
| skitterphoto.com | Great for serious entrepreneurs, and travel/lifestyle bloggers. |
| cepolina.com | Old photo stock site with travel and nature images. |
| isorepublic.com | They have more than 1000 images, nice landscapes with people in them. |
| stocksy.com | Awesome and nice royalty-free image source for beautiful and professional pictures. |
| cupcake.nilssonlee.se | Personal images taken by Jonas Nilsson Lee. Most images are for travel and nature. |
| negativespace.co | A curation of high-quality images leaning more towards the festive side, they cover unique categories: black & white, sport, street, and abstract stock images. |
| kaboompics.com | Perfect if you're looking for photos related to a specific holiday. |
| travelcoffeebook.com | Sharing beautiful travel moments. All photos are listed under cc0. That means you can do whatever you want with them. Subscribe here or download all images! |
| photos.bucketlistly.com | A free creative common collection of over 5000+ travel photos from all over the world anyone can use. |
| librestock.com | Provides images from 47 free stock sites, especially those revolving around travel, nature, landscapes, anything outdoorsy. |
| magdeleine.co | Nice images for travel & lifestyle bloggers who want the pictures to tell a story |
| moveast.me | Travel Photos photos taken by Joao Pacheco |
| photoeverywhere.co.uk | 1000s of free travel and tourism stock images, instant image download and use on your blog, website or printed material |
| photocollections.io | Exotic travel images that'd go well with travel magazines, startup journeys, and travel blogs. |
| pickupimage.com | Pickupimage is a photo portfolios for travelers and creative artists. Contributors here upload over thousands of images they take on their voyages. |
| picography.co | Images portraying street life and various cultures. A lot of great choices for travel bloggers and news sources. |
| ravelcoffeebook.com | Travel photos that’s perfect for a travel blogger in need of photos from all across the world. |
| jaymantri.com | Most shots of scenery from travels. One of the best travel stock photos sites that exist. |
| albumarium.com | Great place to find images if you're seeking nature, travel, and people pictures. |
| TourPhotos.com | A cool photography platform dedicated to tourism and activity companies |
Best Free Image Websites
| Name | Site Description |
|---|---|
| goodstock.photos | Offering free trending photos for bloggers and marketers. |
| freeimages.co.uk | Huge collection of images from all over covering a variety of topics |
| stocksnap.io | Huge collection of free stock images that are carefully hand-selected by the Stocksnap team. You'll find images from every industry, which are geared for professional bloggers. |
| getrefe.tumblr.com | Unique images you won't find elsewhere on the web. Great image source for food bloggers, lifestyle bloggers, and entrepreneurs. |
| raumrot.com | A collection of hundreds of images |
| resplashed.com | Stock images and photos for inspiration and storytelling. |
| streetwill.co | Great quality free vintage photos to use as you want, taken from offices, mountains, kitchens, streets. |
| imgur.com | Imgur is pretty famous and has come great images |
| pixabay.com | They have 750,000 free photos, illustrations, and vectors and videos from all industries. |
| commons.wikimedia.org | Over 35 million free, usable images, with a more special technical merit. Images here are best used as a reference tool for teaching and explaining concepts. |
| openphoto.net | Stock photos with vibrant colors, high-quality resolution, and a unique perspective. |
| picjumbo.com | This is their description "Most beautiful free stock photos on the internet? Check it on your own. New free images in high resolution every day!" |
| picography.co | Free images to use however you like |
| search.creativecommons.org | Offers convenient access to search services provided by other independents |
| stockunlimited.com | A subscription-based stock site offering beautiful visuals for businesses and creative artists. Unlimited downloads of stock images, icons, backgrounds, textures, etc at an affordable price. |
| sitebuilderreport.com/stock-up | Instantly search across 26 free stock photo websites in one place. Free doesn't have to mean hard to find. |
| stokpic.com | Free Stock Photos For commercial Use. Download Free Photos In High Resolution. Free photos for websites, free photos for blogs. |
| thestocks.im | A collection of photos from some of the best websites including unsplash |
| realisticshots.com | Free stock photos (high resolution) for personal and commercial use. 7 new photos every week. |
| photopin.com | A free tool that helps bloggers and designers find beautiful photos with Creative Commons licensing. |
| cepolina.com | Old photo stock site with travel and nature images. |
You don’t have money to spend, broke, a start-up, frugal (like me), or maybe you just like saving money.
I get it…
I used to struggle to find stock images or at least nice stock images that didn’t cost an arm and a leg.
That’s why I analyzed over 200 stock image websites and built this list of the best free ones – for myself and my writers.
I thought I would post it here for anyone looking for a comparison of free image websites. All of them had some pros and cons. There were definitely some clear winners.
Stocksnap Review
Stock snap has a collection of free stock images that are carefully hand-selected by their team. You’ll find images from every industry, which are geared for professional bloggers. It’s a great place for anyone to find images
Tookapic Review
Tookapic has a great variety of images that don’t look like typical stock images. It’s used by big brands and I can see why, they have some really awesome images.
Photopin Review
Photopin is not really a stock image website but its more a tool that helps bloggers and designers find free stock images with Creative Commons licensing.
Flickr Review
Flikr is one of the oldest places to find great images. It has a huge collection of images and one of my favorite places to find stock images.
And the best free stock images go to….
Pixabay
Pixabay has over 750,000 free photos, illustrations, and vectors, and videos from all industries. It is one of the best places to find free stock images for your blog or website.
Sometimes free images just don’t cut it, if you can’t find what you looking for maybe try a paid stock image provider.
Best places to sell stock photos
There are a ton of sites that you can make money on, and even more for you to get photos from. No excuses! Your posts deserve nice images and you have hundreds of awesome photo sites to get them from.
“A picture is worth a thousand words” and a lot more views. Go get ’em.
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