Stock photography is the supply of photographs, which are often licensed for specific uses. It is used to fulfill the needs of creative assignments instead of hiring a photographer, often for a lower cost. If you have been searching for stock images on the internet, there are many sites offering them, but almost all of them offer these photos at a price. And if at all stock images comes free, they might be watermarked.
But you can still find stock images on many sites offering them for free. So here is a list of best websites offering stock photos for free. Although these sites are offering free photos, some of them might require an attribution. So make sure you read the terms on the website before using them. These photos will be licensed under Creative commons licence.
Here are two common licenses you might encounter:
- Creative Commons zero means that you can use the photos both commercially and personal use, without asking permission.
- Creative Commons with attribution means that you can use the photo in any way you want, as long as you credit the creator of the photo. You will need to mention the photographers name and/or link to the website.
1. Stock Snap:
Stock Snap is a useful website offering free high quality stock photos. You can also upload photos. The site offers hundreds of them and new photos are added weekly. You can also browse the collection or search for particular type.
2. SplitShire:
SplitShire is created by graphic designer and photographer and offers delicious free stock photos for personal & commercial use.
3. Death to the Stock Photo:
Death to the Stock Photo offers good collection of personal and commercial use photos every month. You can simply sign up for the email list and photos are curated and delivered to your inbox.
4. Gratisograhy:
Gratisography offers free high resolution pictures which you can use on your personal and commercial projects. Easily download the images with the option available and new pictures are added weekly.
5. IM Free:
IM Free is another great website which offers curated photos for free and commercial usage. You can find templates, buttons, icons and more as well. The stock images are well-organized and grouped by category.
6. PicJumbo:
PicJumbo offers totally free photos for your commercial & personal works. New photos are added frequently into different categories like abstract, animals, architecture etc.
7. Picography:
Picography offers free hi-resolution photos for personal and commercial use. You can also search photos on the site and has the option to submit your own collection.
8. Unsplash
Unsplash is yet another useful site offering free high-resolution photos. The site is updated with 10 new photos every 10 days.
9. SuperFamous:
Superfamous is the Los Angeles-based studio of Dutch interaction designer Folkert Gorter and his photography is available under the conditions of a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. This means that you can use the work for your own purposes including commercial use as long as credit is provided.
10. Jay Mantri:
Jay Mantri is a designer and offers this awesome collection of photos for free and new photos (7 of them) are updated every Thursday.
11. Life of Pix:
Life of Pix offers free high resolution photos without any copyright restrictions. Images available can be used for personal and commercial purpose and new photos are added weekly.
12. Magdeleine:
Magdeleine offers free high resolution images for free. The photos are beautifully sorted into categories and you can even find photos based on the colors.
13. Raumrot:
Raumrot offers free stock photos for your commercial and personal works. All available hi-res/hi-quality pictures you can use on personal and commercial projects.
14. Public Domain Archive:
Public Domain Archive is a collection of non-copyrighted images that are free to use both for personal and commercial purposes. The site has uploads weekly and you can check the images in variety of categories. Many of the images on this site are curated from other sites on this list.
