The biggest mistake you can make when creating graphics for your website, blog, or social media is turning to Google Images for your image source. Don't put a copyright bullseye on yourself–pin this free stock photo list and refer to it often! (Of note–I only pin the ones that I find easiest to use with the least amount of restrictions or hoops to jump through for the images to remain completely free.)
*Updated November 21, 2016
1. Pexels.
- What: Pexels.com
- Pros: Pexels offers free stock photos you can download for personal or commercial use without need for attribution, has high resolution for print, includes color values for each photo in the description
- Cons: They don't have the largest variety, their search isn't the most intuitive (do a search on training and you'll get train pics. No kidding.)
2. Pixabay
- What: Pixabay.com
- Pros: Can search for videos, vector images, and illustrations in addition to photos, large files sizes available (free registration required)
- Cons: Not the most intuitive search, variety is middle-of-the-road
3. morgueFile
- What: morgueFile.com
- Pros: selection has increased in size, free for personal and commercial uses
- Cons: not always the most professional quality selections, not the largest selection
4. Stockvault
- What: stockvault.net
- Pros: decent selection, free for personal and commercial uses
- Cons: do see some overlap with other free stock photo sites, you MUST be careful in which images are free and which are links to Shutterstock.
5. FreeImages.Red
- What: FreeImages.red
- Pros: fairly easy to navigate
- Cons: little difficult to click on an image in Chrome
6. DesignersPics
- What: DesignersPics.com
- Pros: lots of unique images compared to these other sites
- Cons: smaller selection, but quality work
7. Minimography
- What: Minimography.com
- Pros: Absolutely GORGEOUS images! But I'm a fan of minimalist photography, so there's that.
- Cons: Not the easiest to search by, but it's doable. I really haven't found a terrible image in my searches thus far!
8. Mopho.to
- What: Mopho.to
- Pros: They just went all free–it was a subscription-based site before. Lots of great images you won't find on other free stock photo sites.
- Cons: Not the biggest selection…yet. But I'm not sure on what their plans on for this site.
Final thoughts:
Whatever you do, don't “borrow” images that aren't yours for the taking. As you can see, there are plenty (if not more!) websites available that have royalty-free stock images you can use on your website and blog!
What are your favorite free websites for stock photography? Share them with us on social media!
