Stock images are a great way to get professional photos on a budget. You can purchase print-quality images from sites like Shutterstock, but if you’re looking to cut costs, there are plenty of photographers who donate pictures for commercial use. Thanks to these talented photographers, there are literally thousands of images on various free stock images sites to choose from.
There are plenty of rules when it comes to stock photography. Make sure you read the guidelines before you use a photo. Also, when working with free stock photos, keep in mind that some require them to be at least 300dpi. You can learn more by reading the Do’s and Don’ts for Using Stock Photos. 32% of marketers say visual images are the most important form of content for their business.
Are you searching for free high-resolution images? To help you find images and create stunning printed products on a budget, here are some of our favorite sites that provide high-quality stock photos for free. Below we’ve listed some of the top websites for free stock images for commercial use.
Free Stock Images
123RF
123RF is a popular stock photo site that sells photos at a low cost, but they also have a library of free images for commercial use that’s available for members. Membership is free, and attribution for unpaid photos are required.
Albumarium
Albumarium arranges its stock images by albums. Their search feature allows you to filter by license. Lots of original photos you can’t find anywhere else.
Bigfoto.com
Bigfoto emphasizes where photos are taken. You can choose photos by geography or category. Not a huge selection, but you definitely won’t see these photos anywhere else. Great destination photos of a variety of places worldwide.
Burst
If you’re looking for images aside from the typical landscape or abstract lighting, check out Burst’s collections of photos in categories like fitness, yoga, and portrait photography. All these stock photos are provided entirely free from Shopify (the creators of Burst) with no attribution required.
Canva – Natural Women Collection
Aside from creating beautiful designs, Canva has millions of free and premium stock photos. Collections include anything from nature and wildlife, to abstract art and people, including their recent Natural Women Collection, promoting body positivity and diversity in women.
Compfight
Not much to look at, but man is Compfight fast! Search for images on Flickr and get both paid and free results. Filter by license type. Lots of ads, so be careful where you click. Regardless of all the ads, there are tons of photos available on this Flickr search engine.
Did you know that 93% of consumers cite images as a major consideration when making a purchasing decision online?
Cupcake
It’s rumored that free stock photo sites were started by photographers who wanted to donate unused project photos. Cupcake, like a few others on this list, was started by photographer Jonas Wimmerström. It contains mostly landscape photos and food. All photos are free for commercial use without attribution.
Death to the Stock Photo
Death to the Stock Photo is on a mission to combat boring stock photography. Instead of downloading photos from the website, join to get a monthly photo pack via email. Some older projects are available in their graveyard for downloading.
DesignersPics
If you’re concerned about originality, this small stock photo collection from DesignersPics includes some great original food photography. All photos are free for commercial use, and attribution to photographer Jeshu John is requested but not required.
Dreamstime
A popular paid stock photo site, dreamstime includes an extensive collection of free photos. Attribution is required.
Epicantus
Photographer Daria, who is also a designer and startup coach, provides a small collection of free stock photos for commercial use. An exciting mix of free commercial images includes aerial photos, close-ups, and startup culture.
Find a Photo
Search over 10,000 CC photos that require no attribution. The cool thing about Find a Photo is that you can search by color, so you can find just the right photo for your design.
Foodiesfeed
Restaurants and markets will appreciate the mouth-watering collection of food photos available in Foodiesfeed. Your perfect flat lay of red foods is waiting. Each picture includes info on the full-resolution size and license type on the download page.
Foter
Search engine Foter lets you scour through over 330 million free stock photos. Download in three different sizes and you must provide attribution to Foter on your printed project. For matching branding, download the WordPress plugin and use the same photos on your print and digital projects.
Free Images
Free Images provides a wide variety of free and paid images. When downloading free images, check the resolution since it’s not listed on the site. Also, license info isn’t showing, so it’s better to provide attribution.
Free Nature Stock
There’s something about nature that makes humans emotional. According to experts like Daniel Leemon, that emotional connection is stronger than good customer service. This site provides nature stock photos by photographer Adrian Pelletier. It’s updated daily, and no attribution is required.
Freepik
Looking for free stock photos and graphic resources? Freepik offers more than 700k photos for free and 2M premium photos. Freepik affords exclusive content and it’s much more than a stock photo website. It provides Vectors, PSD files, and Icons to make your work easier
Freerange Stock
Freerange provides Equalicense images for commercial use, no attribution is required.
Some images use a CC license. If you want to alter your stock photos, you can send images to Pixlr for editing.
Free Stock Image Point
Great site for landscape and worldwide destination photos, especially in Bali. This small collection of completely free images requires no membership, but you can get images emailed to you by subscribing.
Good Stock Photos
Good Stock Photos is a collection of free images to use anywhere for anything. Search for the exact photos you want, or browse by topic. All stock photos are unique and not found on any other stock photo website. You can use them on personal or commercial projects without the need to credit the source. A new photo is published daily, so check back often.
Gratisography
If you’re looking for print projects that turn heads, check out photographer Ryan McGuire’s outrageous stock photo page Gratisography. Edgy shots of people with exaggerated features, and interesting situations. If you’re looking for that perfect shot of a monkey fighting a banana, you’ll find it here. Attribution is not required and commercial use is allowed.
ISO Republic
Over 100 pages of free stock photos ranging from dentistry tools to landscapes. ISO Republic photos are not seen anywhere else, and all appear to be very high quality, with great use of filters and some edgy shots.
Pikwizard
Pikwizard is a great new website that contains over 100,000 high-quality images. Of these 100,000, around 20,000 would be completely exclusive to us. This website features high-quality images of people, which are usually few and far between on free stock photography websites.
Pixabay
Download over a million stock photos, illustrations, or vector images at no charge at Pixabay. Some images require attribution; check the image before downloading. High-resolution and commercial images are available. Many popular stock photo sites like Unsplash and Pexels have accounts on Pixabay.
Pexels
All images on Pexels are licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 license, meaning you can use them for commercial purposes without attribution. The quality varies greatly, but check the leaderboard for the best images.
pliXS
A very small collection of high-quality CC photos. Check the license for rules on modification, commercial use, and attribution. Some of the best animal stock photos we’ve seen on pliXS.
Stokpic
Free high-resolution photos that don’t require attribution. The site uses two different licenses, both allow you to use the stock photos in commercial projects without attribution. Check out the Stokpic favorites section for some great beach scenes, food shots, and people.
Unsplash
With new images posted daily, Unsplash is one of the oldest and most popular free stock photo sites on the web. All images are available free for commercial use, and you can do what you want with them. No attribution is required.
Wylio
Though it doesn’t look like much, Wylio is an influential site that allows you to search over a million Creative Commons-licensed photos. Since there are many types of Creative Commons licenses, attribution may be required, and some photos may not be allowed to use in commercial projects.
Time to Get Moving on That Print Project!
If budget is a concern for your company marketing (and given today’s climate, whose isn’t?), check out some of these sites that provide free commercial use images. You’ll save a ton of money over traditional paid sites, making it easy to get a great return on your printing investment.
While purchasing printed products online is easier than ever with our store, if you’re still nervous about creating your project, contact our design department. We’ll be happy to help you create your next masterpiece.
Do you have a favorite website that provides free images for commercial use? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
