Let’s be clear – we don’t recommend stock photography for every project that you need a photograph for. Modern day, internet-savvy users are pretty good at telling whether your photographs are original or not, and having good quality, original photographs can make a massive difference to the visual appeal of your website.
That said, you can’t always get original photographs – you may not have the time or the budget. If that’s the case, free stock photography sites are your best friends – and we’ve got a list of our favorite seven to share with you.
1. Pexels
Pexels has hundreds of thousands of photos, but it actually takes the #1 spot on our list because the images they have are just that good. Their photos are especially useful for business and tech-y settings.
Quality: Very High | No attribution required.
2. Pixabay
Pixabay is a directory of free, public domain photographs, vectors and drawings. They have a huge selection of visual materials and a precise search tool to help you find the photo your are looking for.
Quality: Very High | No attribution required
3. Unsplash
Really, these guys compete for the top spot. What limits them is that they only put out 10 photos every 10 days and their “search” tool isn’t the sharpest. That said, if you find the photo you’re looking for on Unsplash, you’ve basically struck gold.
Quality: Very High | No attribution required
4. Pikwizard
Pikwizard has close to 100,000 high-quality images, with 20,000 of these completely exclusive to the site. What makes Pikwizard stand out however is its high-quality images of people, which are few and far between on the best stock photography websites. There is no attribution required on the images and Pikwizard also features an excellent graphic design tool, Design Wizard
Quality: Very High | No attribution required
5. StockSnap
Stocksnap adds hundreds of new images weekly and they also have a powerful search tool to help you quickly find keyword specific photos.
Quality: High | No attribution required
6. Freepik
Freepik offers free stock photos and graphics resources. More than 700k pictures are free and 2M are premium, and besides that, they have exclusive content that grows daily.
Freepik has a powerful search engine that will help find you high-quality photos, vector images, illustrations and PSD files to make your work easier.
Quality: High | Attribution not required on premium members
7. Wikimedia Commons
This is Wikipedia’s online repository for the photos they use. Translation: there is a photo for almost anything.
Quality: Mostly High, can vary. | Attribution occasionally required