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Regardless if you own an online business, are a freelancer or run a blog, high-quality images are an absolute necessary. The reason? They can generate more clicks and boost engagement on your social channels. This probably has to do with the fact the 90% of all information that is transmitted to the brain is visual, while visuals are processed 60,000 times more faster in the brain than text.
That’s all well and good. But, where exactly can you find these images without getting in any sort of copyright trouble?
Your best best is to search for royalty-free images online.
But, first, let’s go over some basic royalty-free terms.
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Royalty-Free: This allows you to use intellectual property without having to pay royalties or license fees.
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Creative Commons: You can use these images for free since the artist has waived their rights to their work. However, always review the terms before publishing these images.
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Public Domain: If any image was created in the United States prior to 1923 then they’re part of the public domain. This means that you’re allowed to copy, modify, or distribute these images without permission.
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Attribution: You can use these images as long as you give credit to the author.
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Commercial Use: You’re permitted to use royalty-free images for any type of business venture.
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Membership: You must sign-up to the site in order to use the royalty-free images. Some sites will charge you for membership.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here are 101 websites to find amazing royalty-free images.
StockSnap.io has large selection of high resolution images and is updated daily. You can easily search for the images that are relevant to your site, but since it track your downloads, this process becomes a whole lot easier. Every image falls under the Creative Commons CC0 license so you can copy, modify, and distribute any photo on the site as you like.
Powered by Shopify, Burst also offers images that fall under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, which again, means that you’re welcome to use the photos for any purpose for free.
Dreamstime requires you to sign up for an account, but don’t worry it’s free. It’s easily searchable, contains around 60 million images, and is updated frequently.
All photos published on Unsplash are licensed under Creative Commons Zero . However, signing up for a free account will deliver personalized images to your inbox.
If there’s an image that has been released under Creative Commons CC0, then you can find it on Pixabay. These images are high resolution and you don’t have to sign up for a membership.
The high resolution pictures found on Gratisography have been captured by Ryan McGuire of Bells Design. The images are free of copyright restrictions and new pics are added weekly.
While Free Digital Photos offers, well, free images with attribution, they’re only in smaller dimensions. If you want larger images, or remove attribution, you’ll have to purchase the image at a reasonable price.
Free Images contains a large searchable gallery of more than 350,000 stock photos. If there’s one complaint it’s the fact that downloading a photo requires a lengthy signup process. However, membership is free.
Pexels offers thousands of searchable high-quality images that are licensed under CC0 with new images being added each month. No membership is required.
With AllTheFreeStock you can find free stock images, videos, music, and icons in one convenient location. These pieces of content are licensed under CC0 and you don’t need to register.
Negative Space offers 20 new photos every week, which are released under Creative Commons CC0. All images are searchable and can be sorted by category, copy space, and even color.
Latvian photographers Igor Trepeshchenok and Roman Drits launched Barn Images in 2015. Images are added daily and are free for to use as long as they’re attributed.
Adobe offers thousands of stunning images, videos, and graphics from contributing creatives. However, you’re going to need to sign up for a membership that’s going to set you back $35.99 per month.
Free Range Stock offers access to free high-quality, high-resolution stock photos from in-house photographers, as long as you register for free.
Freestock is another site that provides a wide range of high quality photos that have been released under Creative Commons CC0.
Free Photos Bank has an impressive collection of free photos that you can download without signing up for a membership. However, images can not be modified and you must credit the photographer.
With a staggering 125 million royalty-free images, video clips, and music tracks, Shutterstock is one of the leading resources for royalty-free images. But, you’re going to have to pay for access to these images. An annual plan will set you back $199 per month.
As a registered user you have access to both free and paid images. On the downside, the selection isn’t has extensive as other royalty-free image websites.
The beautiful images found on Picography have been submitted by Dave Meier and other talented photographers. These images are released under Creative Commons CC0.
Getty is one of the most well-known site for high-quality premium images. Thankfully, they now have an Embed Viewer feature that allows for free downloads if you’re a non-commercial website or blog.
Bigfoto describes themselves as the royalty-free photo agency. There’s no login and the photos can be used however you like. Thanks to it’s community of amateur photographers, the gallery is continually increasing.
Im Free offers royalty-free images from multiple sources, although, attribution is required.
MMT Stock is a collection of high resolution photos, mainly of computers, workspaces, and nature, from by Jeffrey Betts. All of his photos are released under Creative Commons CC0.
This website offers both free and premium stock photos from featured photographers. Double check the license requirements for each photo before using them for your business.
Compfight is a photo search engine where you can easily locate free and premium images.
Started by Michael Connors in 1996, Morguefile is one of the oldest free image websites on the internet. You can access these images after completing a short registration and you are required to credit the photographer when possible.
SkitterPhoto offers a wide variety of authentic and free stock photos that have been created by the site’s owners. All images are released under Creative Commons CC0. This is a great site for photographers.
A large number of Creative Commons high-quality photos that are ideal for commercial projects,
After launching in 2004, this site became one of the the Web’s foremost royalty-free stock image communities. It was acquired by Shutterstock in 2010, but remains a popular option thanks to containing around 47 million stock images, videos, and vectors. Monthly plans start at $79/month.
Public Domain Pictures is a repository for those searching for a variety of free public domain images. There is brief signup requirement and a premium download can be an option if you need larger pictures.
Life of Pix is a resource that was created by the LEEROY creative agency. It offers free high-resolution photos with no copyright restrictions. And, new images are added weekly.
All images on LibreShot have been taken by a single photographer and are free to use commercially since they are licensed under Creative Commons CC0. Attribution isn’t required either.
Each and every image on Cupcake has been licensed under the Creative Commons license CC0 – which means that they can used for free of cost. You’re also permitted to copy, update, distribute, and complete the work, without having permission.
Stockvault is a stock photo sharing website where photographers, designers, and students can share their photographs, graphics, and image files with each other. Registration isn’t required and new content is added daily.
The owner of this site, a young man named Nic, passed away suddenly in 2013. Unfortunately, this means that there are no new updates. In Nic’s memory, however, all images that have been posted have been released under the creative commons license public domain dedication. His loved ones do ask that you make a small donation to Hand on Heart Charity.
Rawpixel is one of the world’s leading creator of stock images where you connect with creative to share ideas, collaborate, and inspire each other . All images are free to use, but they do ask that you donate to Hope for Children.
Death to Stock Photo sends you free monthly photos for commercial use, blog posts, social accounts, and mockups after you register. Since they use their own license you should double-check the terms before use.
Created by photographers and graphic artists, you’ll need to register in order to access the pleothorthra of images found on this site.
Since this site focuses on realistic, high resolution food pictures for free, it’s only suitable for those in the food industry.
This site contains photos are from all around the world. The images come with a royalty-free license, and they are allows to used on commercial projects.
After dealing with the challenges of finding high-quality and free images, web designer and developer Joshua John started this site to help business owners who are in the same boat.
Ancestry Images is a free image archive that contains historical prints, maps, and artifact photos.
Picjumbo contains a collection of free photos from a variety of categories ranging from technology, nature, and fashion that can be used either for your commercial or personal works. New photos are added daily.
This site shares images from a variety of sources, so it’s important to check the photo’s attribution requirements before using.
Owned and managed by Vibrant Software, this site has become a popular portal for the stock photography community.
Another site offering royalty-free images from a variety of categories, like architecture, health, holidays, and travel. There’s no registration required, but double check the attribution requirements.
Here you can find vintage photos from the public archives. This means that they’re free of any known copyright restrictions.
StokPic offers free stock photos for commercial use. The only rule? Redistribution is not allowed.
After registering, you can access this curated collection of astonishing royalty-free stock images.
FreeMediaGoo provides royalty-free and cost-free media for commercial print, film, TV, and Internet use. While there’s no login requirement, the inventory isn’t as deep as other sites mentioned in this list.
Jay Mantri publishes 7 new photos every Thursday under the Creative Commons CC0 license.
Members can access this site’s free library, but it mainly focuses on premium images.
Photographer Daniel Nanescu allows businesses to use his incredibly high resolution images without registering or attribution.
While not known as photo source, marketing platform Hubspot does offer stock photo packages if you give them your email address.
You can find a variety of high quality free stock photos from Kaboom Pics in categories like abstract, city/architecture, fashion, food, or landscapes. Just know that these images can cannot be sold or redistributed.
As it’s name implies, here you can find free and unrestricted stock photos.
What makes Snapwire Snaps unique is that it’s photographers accept requests from businesses, which means that you’ll receive customized images for your company, instead of stock photos.
Despite the fact the iStock has a confusing signup process, it is free though, a new batch of free stock images are added weekly.
Here you can find original photography by Daria. Since these pics are released under the creative commons CC0 you can use them for blog posts or landing pages.
Visual Hunt is a stock search engine that crawls millions of Creative Commons images from sites like Flickr.
With close to 70,000 stock photos, Tookapic is an excellent resource for business owners. What makes it stand out, however, is that you can create a daily image journal to keep tabs of the pics that you want to use. Membership is required.
Pickupimage mainly contains free stock images of nature- and outdoor-related scenes that can be used however you want.
Created by Dutch interaction designer Folkert Gorter, the pictures on this site are under the Creative Commons license.
Moveeast contains stunning photos from locations like Istanbul and Kathmandu with no registration or attribution.
Wikimedia Commons is a large database of some 22 million usable media files. Anyone can use and contribute to the database and the images are organized to near perfection. On the flipside, the classifications isn’t all that clear – unless you’re a frequent Wikipedia user.
DryIcons has thousands of unique icons, icon sets, vector graphics, and web templates, for with their Free License. If you’re unable to use the Works with the Free License, the site also offers two affordable licensing options.
With Magdeleine you can search for high-resolution images through a keyword search, as will as by color, categories, or license without registering. Just review the license before use.
Here you can find a collection of photos from around the world. While the images are free to use, they do appreciate website attribution.
While registration is required, all images found on the site are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.
Thanks to having millions of stock photos, Foter one of the largest royalty-free collections online. As an added bonus, there’s also a WordPress plugin so that you can easily embed photos directly on your blog. All images here are Creative Commons, but they do require attribution.
This isn’t a photo sharing site. Instead, this is a collection of royalty-free cartoon characters that would be perfect for social media, blog posts, banners, and flyers. The images do not require accreditation or are watermarked.
Goodstock is project headed by Steven Good. Everyday Steven offers a new photo that any business can use for free. No strings attached.
PhotoPin provides an interface where you can quickly locate millions of Creative Commons photos from Flickr.
Provided from social media marketing company Sculpt, Startup Stock Photos offer business stock photos without copyright restrictions. However, they would enjoy a link to their website.
Every photo at PhotoRack is free to use for both individual and business venture. You can download all images in a category in a ZIP file if you want to save some time constantly searching for photos that are relevant to your business.
TinEye is a reverse image search engine that can discover where an image originated from, how it’s being used, if there are modified versions available, or if there is a higher resolution version.
This is basically a photo search engine that provides access to search services from other organizations like Flickr and Google.
Unprofound was a project launched in 2001 by a good samaritan named Jim. It contains photographs taken by Jim and other photographers that can be used without restriction. Jim would like to know where the images are being used though.
Wylio is a handy all-in-one picture finder, re-sizer, and attribution builder that was designed with bloggers in mind. Users are able to resize up to 5 free images per month.80. GetRefeGetRefe offers free high-quality imagery for bloggers and freelancer. However, agencies and professional may have to pay $5 per photo or sign up for the $10 monthly curated pack.
The photos found on TwicePix are licensed under a Creative commons license so you’re able to copy, share, and transfer the images for free of cost.
Cepolina is one of the most popular stock free image websites online. However, it’s mainly designed for those involved with travel and nature. The 20000 images are available in five different formats; thumbnail 64X48, mobile phone wallpaper 150X113, small screen 640X480, medium screen 1024X1068, and wider screen 1280X960.
If you want to use any of the 61 million images, vectors, graphics, illustrations, and video clips on Fotolia then you’re going to have to pay for them. But, they are royalty-free, reasonably priced, and would be ideal for websites, brochures, reports, and slides.
If you’re in the travel industry then you should definitely check out Bucketlistly. Here you can find hi-res quality stock images that can be easily shared and embedded.
While membership isn’t required to use and share these quality images, you should double check the copyright privileges.
500px is one of the leading image communities online where you can search its marketplace for inspiring photos. Monthly plans start at a low $4.99 per month.
Pablo is a part of Buffer where you can find background templates to create inspirational quotes or memorable one-liners.
Another website where you can find royalty-free images and backgrounds without having to worry about cost or subscription.
Free, high quality images where you don’t have to be concerned about permission and attribution.
Once you’re registered, you have access to millions of free vector and images for your website, banner, or magazine. Freepik adds hundreds of free vectors daily. You will have to attribute these images.
Photober provides free high-resolution stock images in a wide variety of categories without registering, but you will need to attribute the images.
If the name didn’t give-it-away, this site only contains free images of animals.
If you need a vehicle image for your business, then look no further.
With more than 132,000 photos, that are managed into around 183 sections and 3640 categories, FreeFoto.com should have whatever you’re looking for. The photos are free, but you will need to provide your email address and link back to the site.
A Digital Dreamer contains rich images without registering or giving credit.
Free original and high-quality images that can be used your website, social media, or blog posts.
An easy to explore site with a solid collection of royalty-free images. You do have to sign-up though.
Creativity 103 has been around since 2001 and offers free backgrounds, textures, and art pieces. No registration is required either.
Free and creative images that are, as you guessed, more natural looking than stock photos. The site adds 7 new fresh pictures per week.
Established all the way back in 1990 by Michael Jastremski, OpenPhoto is a sharing platform that provides free images since they’re under the terms of the Creative Commons License.
Another website that offers thousands of free, original images for your business without having to register.
Can’t find what you need?
You can always create your own images from sites like Canva, PicMonkey, or Easel.ly.
