In a perfect world, we would take all our own photos for our website or blog. Yet, not everyone has the budget do this initially. Listed below are eight of the best free stock photo sites for you to use in 2019.

In the review, I have outlined whether you need to credit the owner of the image (attribution) and if it’s easy to search images on the website.

When browsing these sites you will see the terms “Creative Commons Zero” (CC0) and also “attribution“.  Not sure what this means?  Here’s the definition by the Creative Commons organisation.

“The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighbouring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.”

This means the pictures are completely free to use for any legal purpose.

Attribution means giving credit to the owner.

In any case, be sure to check each website’s license page for specific details.

Eight of the best free stock photo sites

1. Pixabay

2. Pexels

Pexels was co-founded in 2014. Currently, they have hundreds of thousands of images.

They source their photos from their community of photographers as well as from sources like Pixabay, Gratisography, and many more.

Searchable? Yes, you can browse images by category or photographer.  You can also see which photographer has had the most downloads.

Attribution? Not required.

3. Unsplash

This was definitely one of my favourite free stock photography sites before I started taking my own images. They have an amazing collection of landscape and travel shots as well as architectural delights.

Searchable? You can search the photos by category or collection.

Attribution? No, all photos published on Unsplash are licensed under Creative Commons Zero.

4. StockSnap

StockSnap offers beautiful, high-quality stock photos for free. If you enter your email, you’ll get the most popular images sent to your inbox.

Searchable? Yes.  You can search for photos by date, what’s trending, most views, downloads, and favourites.

Attribution? Not required. All their images fall under a single, simple CC0 license that lets you do what you want with all their photos.

5. Picjumbo

Pic jumbo is a free stock photography site created by designer & photographer Viktor Hanacek in 2013. To date, there have been over 3 million downloads of the images from his site.

Searchable? Yes.  You can search by categories and tags.

Attribution? Credit is not required but appreciated.  Photo redistribution is not allowed unless you pay for membership on Viktor’s site.

6. Burst (by Shopify)

Burst is a free stock photo platform that is powered by Shopify. Their image library includes thousands of high-resolution, royalty free images. The stock photos are free to use on any online store platform or e-commerce marketplace. 

Searchable? Yes.  You can search by categories.

Attribution? All their photos are free for commercial use with no attribution required; you can read more about this on their license page.

7. Stokpic

Stokpic has high-quality stock photography. The categories include food and drinks, animals, backgrounds, architecture, and more.

Searchable? Yes. You can search by category and keyword.

Attribution? Not required (but appreciated)

8. Kaboompics

Kaboompics is run by Karolina – a photographer, graphic designer and website creator. There are over 12,000 images on her site. All photos on Kaboompics can be used for free for commercial and non-commercial use.

Searchable? Yes. You can search by category and keyword. You can also choose what orientation you prefer – landscape or portrait.

Attribution? Not required (but appreciated)

So there you have eight amazingly free stock photo sites for you to use for your business or brand.

What are your favourite sites for sourcing free stock photos? Let me know in the comments section below.

To read “Five Ways to Use Stock Photography”, click here.

If you have specific product/stock photography needs, let’s chat.

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