Best Free Stock Photos in 2023

Best Free Stock Photos in 2023: Free Stock Photos

There are thousands of great free stock photos for you to use on your website and project - many of them without any attribution.

We've gathered our picks of the best free stock photo sites to help you find the pictures you need. All images on these sites are free to use for personal, editorial, or commercial purposes (and pair well with our selection of the best free photo editors), but there are still some restrictions to keep in mind.

The main limits apply to photographs of identifiable people, trademarked products, and privately owned property (not only people's homes but some landmarks). Getty Images has an excellent guide to intellectual property (opens in a new tab), which is worth a look before you get started.

But keep in mind that many of these sites take contributions from amateur photographers, who may not be fully aware of the rules for model release (opens in new tab) for people's photos, and may have taken their subjects. Not asked to sign a waiver. If you are not sure, it is best to contact the site directly.

Top 10 Best Free Stock Photos in 2023

1. Unsplash: Beautiful Free Images & Pictures

2. Adobe Stock Free collection: Photos, Vectors, Videos

3. Pixabay: 2.6 million+ Stunning Free Images to Use Anywhere

4. Pexels: Free 4K Stock Videos & Image

5. Vecteezy: Free Vector Art, Stock Photos & Stock Video

6. Gratisography: Royalty Free HD Stock Photos and Images

7. Pikwizard: Free High-Quality Vectors Photos & Images

8. NegativeSpace: Download Royalty Free Stock Photos

1. Unsplash: Beautiful Free Images & Pictures

Credit: Unsplash

Unsplash is a well-curated collection of beautiful photos donated by skilled photographers and used to create some incredible work (opens in new tab). There are fewer images than you'll find on Pixabay (see below), but the quality is more consistent.

Unsplash's search tool is the fastest way to find a photo, but if you have a little time, check out the collections - groups of photos by other users sorted into topics like Light and Shadow, Street Life, and Into the Wild. After signing up for an account you can create your collection. They are ideal for gathering inspiration or resources for a project.

Unsplash also has an iOS app (that opens in a new tab), which helps you find stock pictures to use for creative work on an iPad or iPhone.

As is the case with all stock photography sites here, it's not necessary to attribute the photographer, but Unsplash notes that it's a good idea to add a simple credit with a link to their profile as a courtesy. Pictured here is by Karl Flor (opens in new tab).

2. Adobe Stock Free collection: Photos, Vectors, Videos

Credit: Adobe Stock Free collection

In October 2020, Adobe made more than 70,000 stock photos, videos, illustrations, and templates available for free for personal, commercial, and creative use. Its purpose, according to a blog post (opens in a new tab), is to "build a means to reach everyone".

Photos are consistently high quality, and artists are paid for their contributions. There's an excellent selection of filters you can use to find the perfect stock photo, and you can even upload an existing image to find similar images.

Most photos are covered by Adobe's standard license terms (opens in new tab), which are highly permissive and only prevent you from distributing the files yourself, creating products where the price is tied to the photo itself. (such as a stock photo printed on one poster) and transferring a license to more than one employer or client. However, it is always worth checking before downloading a photo, as there can be some exceptions.

3. Pixabay: 2.6 million+ Stunning Free Images to Use Anywhere

Credit: Pixabay

Pixabay is packed with over a million public domain images – not just photographs, but illustrations, vector graphics, and even a handful of videos. Its selection of landscape photography is particularly strong, and the Editors' Choices (opens in a new tab) are well worth a look if you don't have anything specific in mind.

Once you find a suitable free stock photo, choose a suitable resolution (print projects will require a much higher resolution than online ones) and complete a captcha to download the file. You can deduct the captcha by signing up for a free account.

Most pictures on Pixabay are safe for work, but to avoid anything obvious showing up in search results, make sure you've checked the Enable SafeSearch box (opens in a new tab) before browsing.

Photography quality isn't as consistently high as Unsplash, but if you can't find free stock photos out there, Pixabay may be able to help.

4. Pexels: Free 4K Stock Videos & Image

Credit: Pexels

Anyone is welcome to upload photos to Pexels, and the site's curators will pick the best shots to populate their searchable collection of public domain images. You can search for something specific, or browse by topics, including pastimes, emotions, and places.

Pexels is an especially good choice for web or app designers, with an excellent set of device images that are ideal for displaying interface mockups. Some images stray close to stock photo cheesiness (it's hard to spell with Scrabble tiles, for example), but the vast majority are creative and original.

Pexels has a category dedicated to space photography, which sounds amazing, but keep in mind that some of the content is from NASA - one of those organizations whose images should only be used in specific contexts.

5. Vecteezy: Free Vector Art, Stock Photos & Stock Video

Credit: Vecteezy

Vecteezy (opens in a new tab) is a new entry in this guide, mainly because of how advanced it offers the user in features and search results, as well as high-quality tools to help you with your projects. with images.

There are countless photos available, with a useful 'trending' bar at the bottom of the search menu is all you need to find the perfect photo.

But the type of results you can filter through shines through, which we haven't seen so far. You can search by color or hex color code, which can bring up photo results that match the exact colors you're looking for.

This can be huge when you're working on projects working towards a similar color scheme, and you want a free photo that can match it. That's why Vecteezy ranks high on our list.

There are also great vector images at high-resolution sizes, which looked great on our 4K monitors in testing. There's also the helpful addition of a 'Free' label to make sure you know which images you can download right away.

While there are stock videos to choose from, it's the photos here that make Vecteezy shine, both in quality and in the results it gives you.

6. Gratisography: Royalty Free HD Stock Photos and Images

Credit: Gratisography

If you're looking for something quirky, Gratisography – a collection of illustrations by talented photographer and graphic designer Ryan McGuire – is perfect. Ryan's photos often have a real edge, and are fantastic if you're sick of dull stock photo clichés; No lady here is laughing alone with salad (opens in new tab).

Gratisography doesn't offer as much content as some other free stock photo sites, but Ryan's creative eye makes up for it, and he adds new photos every week. You can subscribe to their newsletter for update alerts, or keep an eye on their Twitter account (which opens in a new tab).

It's not necessary to give McGuire credit when you use his work, but he appreciates it if you do.

7. Pikwizard: Free High-Quality Vectors Photos & Images

Credit: Pikwizard

PikWizard offers thousands of free stock photos in a wide range of themes. The quality is impressive and – unusually for a free stock photography site – there are plenty of photos depicting people in natural poses. Nothing cute here.

The selection of urban photography is also impressive. If you need a stunning city view, Pickwizard is a great place to look.

If you want to get creative without leaving your browser, PicWizard provides links to an online photo editor. Most of the tools and templates here are premium designs, but none cost more than a couple of dollars.

Photos on PikWizard are offered under two licenses: Free and CC0. A CC0 license means the photographer has waived their copyright, but a free license means they own the copyright but have allowed their work to be used without payment. The full license (which opens in a new tab) explains in more detail. It is not necessary to give credit to the photographer, but it is appreciated if possible.

8. NegativeSpace: Download Royalty Free Stock Photos

Credit: NegativeSpace

Anyone with a camera is invited to contribute to the free Stock Photos at Negative Space, which aims to give amateur photographers a platform to share their work with the world and support fellow creatives.

Like Gratisography, you can subscribe to Negative Space's newsletter for updates on when new images are added, and because the content is refreshed so often, new photos can be posted if you've been working on a project for a while. It is well worth a look.

Negative Space is based in the UK, so most of the photography has British scenes. At the time of writing, the collection contained many shots of architecture in London, so it's worth checking out this Guide to Intellectual Property and the London Skyline (opens in a new tab) before using them.

What Makes Great Stock Photography?

For print jobs, the resolution is important. Standard photo prints require a resolution of at least 640 x 480 pixels, but your printer and designer may want something higher. The photo should be as sharp as possible, with no artifacts or noise visible when zooming in. Avoid shots that are slightly out of focus.

Creativity is also very important. Stock photography has a bad reputation because much of it (even on premium sites) relies on clichés and strange metaphors to convey difficult concepts, but experienced photographers tend to eye interesting details and visuals that convey more of a message. Can expressed subtly or imaginatively. ,

Ultimately it's up to you to decide which photo is best suited for context, but some sites (like Unsplash) let users tag the images themselves, which makes it easier to find the message you want to convey.

Credit: TechRadar