The grace of any website or blog depends on its look, and no doubt, pictures or images are an important part of websites’ designs or blog posts. It’s not possible to click the best pictures every time while writing a blog post or designing a website. Therefore, we search for images on the Internet that are royalty-free or free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0.
Before we move ahead, it is important to understand the difference between royalty-free and copyright-free images.
Royalty-free is a type of license commonly used by stock photography websites. When you use a royalty-free image, you pay once (or sometimes not at all) to use the image, but the copyright remains with the original creator or photographer. This means you are granted the right to use the image under certain conditions, but you do not own it. The key benefit is that you do not have to pay ongoing royalties for each use.
On the other hand, copyright-free images are not protected by copyright at all. This means there are no restrictions—you can use, modify, or distribute the image however you like without needing permission or providing credit. These images are typically in the public domain.
There are many websites for searching best royalty-free images online. These websites make it easy to search for royalty-free images with tags. We curated this list of the best royalty-free images online.
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Here is the list of websites to download Royalty-free stock images. These websites help millions of websites, designers, writers, artists, programmers, and other creators to get access to beautiful photos that too, without royalty. The owners of photos on these websites have allowed users to modify, edit, and use their photographs without copyright backlash.
Best Royalty-Free Images Websites
1. Unsplash
Pricing: Free
License: Free for personal and commercial use. No attribution required, but appreciated
Unsplash is one of the best websites to download free stock images to use on your website. You can download images for free of cost. There are more than a million free high-resolution images captured by a community of photographers. There are more than 150K photographers uploading images to use for free of cost. You can use images for both commercial and noncommercial projects. You are free not to give the credit, but it is good if you give credit and encourage the photographer.
2. Pexels
Pricing: Free
License: All photos and videos on Pexels can be used for free, even commercially. No attribution required
Pexels is also one of my favorite websites to download royalty-free stock images. Like Unsplash, anyone can create an account and start sharing photos for other users to use. Downloading photos is free, and one can use photos even in commercial projects. There are millions of free stock photos on Pexel,s and at least 3,000 new high-resolution photos are added every month. All the pictures on Pexels are nicely tagged, and it is easy to search for the desired pictures.
3. Pixabay
Pricing: Free
License: Free for commercial and non-commercial use. No attribution required.
Pixabay is a good source of royalty-free stock images and videos. All the photos available on this platform are free to use for both commercial and non-commercial projects. You are free to give credit or not. The website also offers an API so you can integrate Pixabay into your existing projects or apps.
4. StockSnap.io
Pricing: Free
License: All photos are released under Creative Commons CC0 (public domain). No attribution needed.
Stocksnap is also a good website to explore beautiful free stock photos. The website adds hundreds of free high-resolution images weekly, and all the photos are free from copyright restrictions. Images have been categorized and tagged, so you can easily find photos. There’s also a powerful search to explore more images.
5. Negative Space:
Pricing: Free
License: All photos are under CC0 license, free for personal and commercial use.
Negative Space is also a good website that lets to download images for personal or commercial use. All the high-resolution, beautiful photos are CC0 licensed images. They have different categories for images, so it is really easy to find relevant images for your project. The website welcomes photographers to join and share their work.
6. Picjumbo:
Pricing: Free images available and Premium membership
There are many categories on Picjumbo. You can grab the best image suitable for your project from the available images. There are two types of membership on Picjumbo: one is free and the other is premium. There is an all-in-one Picjumbo Superpack in which you can get more than 1000 pictures for $15.
7. Rawpixel:
Pricing: Free tier (limited selection) and Premium Membership
Rawpixel has the most diverse stock photos. Whether it is a field of Yoga or Technology, you can get your perfect images on Rawpixel. They frequently update their database so that you will always get fresh images. If you want fresh images that can reflect the content of your blog accurately, use Rawpixel.
8. LibreShot:
Pricing: Free
License: All images are free to use for commercial and private purposes. No attribution required.
LibreShot contains free images for commercial and private use. One can use images without any attribution. They have categorized images in their respective fields. You can easily search by keyword or explore by category. So, it is easier to search for the best free images depending on the need.
9. Life of Pix:
Pricing: Free
License: Free for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
This Life of pix website contains a nice collection of royalty-free stock images and videos. Every week, lots of new free high-resolution images and videos are uploaded. These high-resolution files can be downloaded on the VIMEO ACCOUNT of Life of Pix.
10. Gratisography
Pricing: Free
License: Free to use for both commercial and personal projects. No attribution required.
Gratisography claims to have the world’s quirkiest collection of free high-resolution pictures. Here, you will dine creative images completely free to download without copyright restrictions. They don’t have a big collection, but certain images are creative. There are all kinds of images including animal, nature, urban, whimsical, etc.
11. Kaboom Pics
Pricing: Free
License: Free for commercial use. Attribution not required, but appreciated.
Kaboom is also one of the best websites to get breathtaking royalty-free stock photos for business or personal usage. They have hashtags for every image so that one can easily search for the best pics related to his/her work. Along with free photos, they also have free photoshoots related to an upcoming event. You can find photos by category or by color, depending on your needs. Photo attribution is not required but is always appreciated.
12. Freepik
Pricing: Free with attribution, Premium
Freepik is one of the most popular platforms for downloading high-quality vectors, illustrations, icons, PSD files, and stock photos. It is widely used by designers, marketers, and content creators around the world. While the platform offers a large collection of free resources, attribution is required when using them. Freepik also has a Premium plan that unlocks access to exclusive content and removes the need for attribution.
13. Freerange
Pricing: Free (registration required)
License: Free for commercial and non-commercial use. Attribution not required.
Freerange website has high-quality free stock images, textures, and illustrations. All the images on this site are licensed for broad commercial use without attribution.
14. Wikimedia
Pricing: Free
License: Varies by image (public domain or Creative Commons). Attribution may be required.
Wikimedia Commons is one of the biggest sources of royalty-free images as it only accepts free content like images and other media files that are not subject to copyright restrictions.
15. Burst
Pricing: Free
License: Free for personal and commercial use. No attribution required.
Burst has a high definition of public domain images that are free to use for personal or commercial purposes. These photos have tags and categories, which makes it easy to search perfect image for your use.
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16. Vecteezy
Pricing: Free (with attribution) and Paid
Vecteezy is a popular platform that offers free and premium stock vectors, photos, and videos. The site features a wide range of categories and a user-friendly interface to help you quickly find the visuals you need. Free downloads are available, but they require attribution. If you subscribe to the Pro plan, you get access to premium content, higher download limits, and you do not need to give attribution.
17. Reshot
Pricing: Free
Reshot offers a handpicked collection of high-quality, non-stocky images contributed by talented photographers. All images are free to use for both commercial and non-commercial purposes without the need for attribution. The goal of Reshot is to provide unique and authentic visuals that do not feel generic. It is especially useful for startups, freelancers, and creators looking for something fresh and distinctive.
18. Gettyimages
Pricing: Paid
Getty Images is a well-known platform that provides high-quality stock photos, editorial images, illustrations, and videos. It is widely used by news organizations, media outlets, marketers, and large businesses. The platform does not offer free downloads, and all content is licensed for specific uses.
19. Shutterstock
Pricing: Premium Subscription
Shutterstock is one of the largest and most trusted stock photo platforms on the web. It offers millions of high-quality royalty-free photos, vectors, videos, and music tracks. The platform is known for its premium quality and is widely used by businesses, designers, and media professionals. Shutterstock does not offer free downloads, but you can choose between on-demand packs or monthly subscription plans.
20. Adobe Stock
Pricing: Premium Subscription
Adobe Stock is a premium stock photo service by Adobe, fully integrated with Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop and Illustrator. It offers millions of high-quality royalty-free images, templates, videos, and 3D assets. The service is ideal for professional designers who want a seamless workflow. Adobe Stock has both subscription and credit-based plans.
These are some of the best royalty-free images websites we chose for you. You can also share your experience with us, or you can tell us about the website we missed here. 🙂
