This article showcases the top websites for downloading royalty-free images, perfect for both personal and commercial endeavors. Design has always relied heavily on photography, but we’ve become accustomed to seeing clichéd stock photos of people in suits shaking hands. Not only are many of these stock photos outdated, but they also come with a hefty price tag. Discover the ultimate list featuring the best platforms and websites offering royalty-free images, pictures, and illustrations for your website, app, or project.
Whether you’re an aspiring photographer seeking inspiration or an emerging entrepreneur looking for stock photography to enhance your website and build your brand, having a collection of stock photography websites at your disposal is always beneficial, regardless of your profession.
That’s why we’ve curated a list of the best websites offering copyright and royalty-free images online, granting you instant access to millions of free stock pictures and photos. These stock image sites complement these free clip art download sites, which you might find helpful when you need something other than photographs.
Websites for Royalty-Free Image Downloads
The following websites either fully embrace or partially feature CC0 images that are part of the public domain. The owners of these images have granted users permission to modify, edit, and utilize their images without encountering copyright issues.
Pixabay Royalty Free Image
Boasting over a million free stock photos, Pixabay stands out as a leading platform for high-quality, free images. All images on Pixabay are available for free under the Creative Commons CCO license. This means you have the freedom to download, modify, distribute, and use them without any cost. Attribution is not required.
Unsplash
Unsplash provides high-resolution photos free of charge. All photos on Unsplash are licensed under Creative Commons Zero, empowering you to use these images as you wish, without seeking permission or providing attribution.
Pexels
Pexels empowers millions globally to craft beautiful products and designs by providing free stock photos. Every image is entirely free under a CC0 license. With a current collection of over 10,000 free stock photos, Pexels adds 10 new high-quality photos daily.
StockSnap
StockSnap offers stunning royalty-free images, all under the Creative Commons CCO license. Created by the Snappa team, the platform features carefully selected high-quality pictures, with new additions daily.
Morguefile
Founded by Michael Connors, Morguefile is a free photo archive offering images available for free download and reuse.
Picjumbo Royalty Free Images
Picjumbo, a brainchild of Viktor Hanacek, is a free stock photo site catering to designers, bloggers, and marketers. With over three million image downloads, it also offers a premium membership option.
Shutterstock
While not free, Shutterstock boasts an extensive collection of stock photos, royalty-free images, and vectors, making it an excellent choice for premium content creation. Its vast library caters to almost any search query.
FreeDigitalPhotos
True to its name, FreeDigitalPhotos offers royalty-free photos for business, personal, and educational purposes. While every image is free, larger sizes are available for purchase at reasonable prices.
Public Domain Pictures
Home to over 165,000 free pictures, Public Domain Pictures is a haven for public domain pictures. All images are free for both personal and commercial use.
Gratisography Royalty Free Images
Gratisography, a project by Ryan McGuire, provides high-resolution pictures for personal and commercial projects. Most images revolve around themes of animals, nature, objects, people, urban settings, and whimsical concepts.
Stockvault
Stockvault, a platform where photographers, designers, and students freely share their photographs, offers hundreds of free stock photos and graphics.
PhotoPin: Download Royalty Free Images
PhotoPin, utilizing the Flickr API, provides bloggers with millions of free photos under Creative Commons licenses for use in their blog posts.
SplitShire Royalty Free Images
SplitShire offers high-quality, free photos without copyright limitations, making it an exceptional resource for designers, bloggers, website creators, and social media marketers seeking images for their projects.
Stock Photos For Free
As its name implies, this platform offers over 100,000 free stock photos with royalty-free licenses, covering a wide range of image types.
Getty Images: Download Royalty Free Images
Getty Images allows the use of free-to-use embeddable images for non-commercial purposes. This ultimate list compiles the best platforms and websites for downloading royalty-free images, pictures, and illustrations for websites, apps, and projects.
Canva
Canva, an online design tool, offers a selection of free images. However, some images require payment or a subscription.
Picjumbo
Picjumbo provides a diverse collection of free images for various purposes, all without charge or registration.
Freepik: Download Royalty Free Images
Freepik offers high-quality graphic designs, including exclusive illustrations and graphic resources meticulously curated by their design team.
Burst (by Shopify)
Powered by Shopify, Burst is a free stock photo platform featuring thousands of high-resolution, royalty-free images.
Reshot: Download Royalty Free Images
Reshot boasts a vast library of handpicked free stock photos not found elsewhere. We hope this compilation of top websites for downloading royalty-free images, pictures, and illustrations proves valuable to you in your website, app, or project endeavors.