Similarly, digital marketing continues to grow, and so does the quality and presentation of content. Visual marketing has become a popular form of marketing because research has shown that people want to spend less time reading text and more time looking at visual content.
In order to engage people, we must take care of visual elements in the content we provide.
And the first step towards spicing up your content starts with adding relevant images because – “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
This post’s featured image was probably the first thing you noticed before the headline.
Content marketers use featured images to facilitate a conversation around the article’s topic and to attract casual readers to the article.
In turn, this makes a substantial difference in how content is consumed by the masses.
Whenever you collect images online, make sure to read the Terms of Service and Licensing policies of the website before using them.
This article contains a collection of websites with amazing free stock photos.
We reviewed 20 Websites that allows you to download Free high-quality Stock Photos.
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20 Websites To Download Free High-Res Stock Images
1. StockSnap
StockSnap has a large selection of beautiful free stock photos and high resolution images. This is one of websites for downloading free stock images that has a very handy search feature making it easy to browse through the thousands of images available.
In addition, the site tracks views and downloads so you can find the most popular photos available.
StockSnap adds hundreds of images on a daily basis and all photos are released under creative commons public domain – no attribution required.
2. Burst (by Shopify)
Burst is a resource from Shopify that provides free stock photos for entrepreneurs.
Some photos are licensed under Creative Commons CC0 while others fall under Shopify’s own photo license.
Burst was launched to help entrepreneurs make better products, websites, and marketing campaigns.
Most of the pictures are original photos that were taken in-house and are themed around trending business niches — everything from DIY beard oil to Aliexpress LED sneakers. You can also find more general photographs as well.
3. Yayimages
YayImages provides more than 13 million royalty free stock photos, videos, and vectors sourced directly from 18,000 photographers from over 145+ countries.
All YayImages creative images have a Royalty Free (extended) license. This makes it easy for you since you can use the images an unlimited number of times for almost any purpose without having to pay extra.
The rights granted are non-transferable and personal to you or your company.
Once you have purchased an image, there is no time limitation on when you can use the image. It is yours forever and always available in your download history.
Subscribe to get unlimited access to Images and Footage starting at $9.
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4. Pexels
If you are looking for high-quality free stock photos – then Pexels is another option for you.
They have a vast library sorted under different categories to help you find an image under any niche.
All the images are free to download and use for both personal and commercial purposes. Attribution is not required but encouraged.
You are also able to modify or customize the pictures once downloaded (however, you are not allowed to sell and profit from them).
In addition, they also list sponsored photos from other vendors that you can sort and purchase.
Recently they have started including free stock videos (the library is definitely smaller than that available at Pixabay but it’s growing).
5. UnSplash
Behind Instagram and Tumblr – UnSplash is the 3rd largest photography website in the world.
You will be able to search and find over 1.2 Million photos on just about anything here.
UnSplash allows photographers to upload their pictures and images to the website, which is then curated by their team of editors. So far, over 150000 photographers have submitted their photos to the websites.
The pictures are 100% free to download and can be used for just about anything – blog posts, social media, advertising, etc.
They encourage you to provide credit when you use their pictures (however it is not mandatory).
In addition, UnSplash has also released its API that developers & other software can use to populate their apps and websites with photos from the UnSplash database.
6. Freestocks
Initially started by 3 photographers as a side-hustle to share their work online – Freestocks.org has since then grown to a library of over 2000+ high-quality and hi-res stock photos.
You will be able to search and sort under a few different categories (animals, architecture, fashion, nature, technology, people,etc.)
Though the library is smaller than others we have mentioned so far – you can find certain images that are unique to this site.
All stock images are free and licensed under Creative Commons, and you can use them for both personal and commercial purposes. Attribution is not required, but strongly encouraged.
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7. Gratisography
If you are looking for Free Stock Photos that are beyond the stereotypical stock photos of people at office meetings and at their desks (you know the Vince Vaughn type!) – then you might enjoy the collection at Gratisography.
Created by photographer and designer Ryan McGuire – this website specializes in providing stock images that are creative, fun, and artistic (out of the traditional).
The site has around 500 unique images and stock photos.
All the stock images on the site are free to use for both personal and commercial use. Attribution is not required but encouraged.
8. StockVault
Curated with the help of submissions from photographers and artists – StockVault has a library of over 130000+ stock images that have been downloaded over 24 Million times.
The website has an extensive catalog collection which makes it easy for you to search and sort. All the images are free to download and use for personal use only. No commercial use is allowed.
Even though the images are free – the terms of usage vary for each image.
Some are licensed under Creative Commons (and require no attribution) while others need permission from the original contributor. You will be able to find the respective licenses under each image.
9. Reshot
All the images on Reshot are handpicked and curated by their team, and it has a large collection of hi-resolution photographs.
All the images are free to use for both personal and commercial purposes, and no attribution is required.
One of the unique features of this website is its “Image Packs” feature.
To save you time – the site has curated a few images within a specific niche (about 10 to 20 images at a time), and you are able to download the entire list in one shot.
All you need to download the entire pack is to send out a single tweet.
10. Fancycrave
High-quality travel photos are hard to find – even on all the websites that we have mentioned so far.
If you have a travel and lifestyle website and feel that way – don’t worry Fancycrave has got you covered.
Initially started by Igor Ovsyannykov as a place to share his travel photos, the website has now grown to a library of over 2000+ images from exotic locations around the world.
All the images are professionally edited using Adobe Lightroom before they are uploaded to the site, to ensure the quality.
All the images are Free Stock Photos to use under Creative commons. No attribution is required though encouraged.
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11. SplitShire
SplitShire was created by independent graphic designer Daniel Nanescu. He uploaded the initial 100 photos. Since then he has added over 1000+ photos and these stock images have been downloaded over 2 Million times. So you can imagine that the quality of the stock photos is top-notch.
You can use the free stock photos form SplitShire in any form or medium you choose (your blog posts, social media, advertising, book covers, etc) and they are available for free for both personal and commercial use.
12. Kaboompics
If you either have a lifestyle blog or an interior design blog – then Kaboompics might be the destination for you.
Created by photographer & web designer Karolina Grabowska – the site has over 12000+ hi-quality stock images, which have been downloaded over 14 Million times (so you know for sure that the quality of these images is top-notch).
All the stock photos on the site can be downloaded, modified and used for both personal and commercial projects. No attribution is required, however, it is encouraged.
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13. PicJumbo
Created by photographer & online entrepreneur Viktor Hanacek – PicJumbo has close to 3000+ unique photos.
Almost all the photos are created by Viktor himself – to ensure that they are genuine and unique.
The stock images Free Stock Photos to use for both personal and commercial purposes, and no attribution is required.
The site also has an optional paid membership option, and its benefit is that they will send you their latest collection of 50+ stock images each and every month.
14. PikWizard
Owned and Operated by software company DesignWizard – this is another website that has a large collection (over 1 Million) of free stock images and free stock videos.
You are able to use all the images from PikWizard for free on your website, social media, videos, ebooks, etc. No attribution is required but encouraged.
There is also a direct integration with DesignWizard – where you are able to edit the images for free using their software.
15. StokPic
A relatively new website – StokPic was started by photographer Ed Gregory not so long ago.
You will be able to browse and find numerous stock images on the website.
All images are Free Stock Photos to use for both personal and commercial use. No attribution is required, though encouraged.
You also have an option to subscribe to their newsletter – when and where Ed will curate 10 new photos every couple of weeks and share them with you via email.
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16. PicXClicX
Created by independent photographer Jill Levenhagen – PicXClicX is a great option if you are looking for stock photos that don’t look generic.
Many of the images are “portrait-type” format, and they will come in handy if you want images that are Pinterest-worthy.
All images are free to use for personal use only. However, attribution is required for each image.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to provide attribution or want to use it commercially – then you can purchase a lifetime non-attribution license for a nominal $10 (you are then free to use them as you feel fit).
17. MMT
Launched in 2014 by a product designer, Jeffrey Betts – MMT is a great resource for high-quality stock images.
All stock photos and images from MMT are Free Stock Photos to use for personal and commercial use, and no attribution is required.
The unique thing about MMT is that you are able to adjust, modify or resize the photos before your download for your own use.
This saves you an additional step if you are using another software/ website for resizing, and comes in very handy for your social media posts.
18. Vecteezy
Vecteezy has over a million free stock photos and a curation team that manually reviews every image submitted to the site. Their search is powerful – you can filter the images results by color, orientation, style, number of people, age of people, and more.
Vecteezy requires attribution but includes signed model and property releases for every free photo. This protects you (and your projects) from legal risks.
19. Life of Pix
Life of Pix offers a huge collection of copyright-free Free Stock Photos of high resolution. They keep their site updated with new pictures every week.
You can discover a fine collection of images under the features section. Life of Pix also nominates its photographers as the Photographer of the Week and highlights the top 10 photographies on its website and social networks.
20. Moose
Maybe you are not looking for the traditional Vince Vaughn type images – but you want something much cleaner and unique – then a niche website such as Moose would interest you.
Created by the design team at Icons8 – Moose has a collection of 90000+ collages (pictures of people) in their catalog.
They are free to use for personal and commercial use – however, attribution is required all the time.
Alternatively, they do have a premium version where you don’t have to provide attribution by purchasing a premium subscription at a cost of $20 per month.
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CONCLUSION
It’s all there for you, all right?
Stock photography resources are growing in number, as you can see. It has become easier than ever for designers, marketers, and bloggers to find images they need. Say goodbye to cheesy stock photos!
Here is a list of twenty websites where you can find royalty-free stock images.
You can make your blog posts and social media posts more engaging by using these resources.
Bookmark this post, and whenever you are in need of high-quality and royalty free stock photos – come here and check this list.