We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words, especially in the competitive online landscape, where every blogger, business owner, and eCommerce shop is trying to stand out in the crowd.
But with everyone using the same old cheesy stock images on their websites, standing out can be tough. This is especially true if you don’t have any web design experience.
Luckily, there are tons of websites that compile beautiful stock images that can be used on your site to complement your content and encourage site visitors to stay. And the best part is, lots of them are free to use!
If you’re looking for stock images to use on your WordPress website, and aren’t sure where to go, keep reading. We’ve got 22 of the very best stock photo sites listed for you so you don’t have to stress about finding images to publish on your site.
What is a Stock Photo?
A stock photo is a professional photograph of a place, landmark, event, person, animal, or nature that can be used on personal or commercial websites.
Stock images are not unique and are available for anyone to use. They can be used for free in some instances or purchased for a flat fee, depending on where the image is found.
Each image has their own license and terms of use. In other words, you can’t just run a simple Google search, choose an image you like, and copy and paste it on your website. If you do that, and violate a copyright or trademark, you’ll quickly find yourself facing legal trouble like EliteDaily did some years ago.
Here are some of the most common conditions that may be linked to an image you want to publish on your website:
- Public Domain: an image that you can copy, modify, or distribute in any way you want, even for commercial purposes, without asking permission or attributing the work to the original creator. In other words, there is no copyright or trademark protecting it.
- Attribution: some images require that you attribute (or give credit to) to the original owner/creator, while still allowing you to copy, modify, or distribute the image how you see fit.
- Personal vs Commercial: there are some images that you are free to use as you want for personal purposes only. If you use it on a commercial website, you could get in trouble for violating the license.
Of course, there’s more to using stock images on your website than is listed above. And while we’ve done our best to identify which license each stock photo site falls under, we always recommend you make sure you’re following the individual image use terms before adding them to your website.
So, let’s take a look at where you can get stunning stock images for your website.
StockSnap.io has thousands of beautiful, high-quality stock photos for all your website needs. There’s an easy to use search function so finding the right type of image for your project is a cinch. And if you’re looking for a photo that is really popular, you can check out each image’s views and likes. StockSnap is always adding new images to their collection so you’ll never have to look far for a great stock image for your website.
License Type: Public Domain (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Negative Space has tons of stock photos for personal or commercial use. Check out their image tags, use the search function, or even sort based on color scheme to find the perfect image for your business, brand, or blog. And if you prefer, you can always look up images based on categories such as sport, food, and nature. Want the latest images delivered straight to your inbox? You can also sign up for their email list and always get the newest stock images before anyone else.
License Type: Public Domain (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Pixabay has over 1.6 million images to pick from, with new ones being added all the time. But don’t worry, the interface is simple and easy to navigate, despite there being so many photos to look through. You can filter images based on photographs, vectors, and illustrations and find exactly what you need. And if you need video content for your website, Pixabay has that too.
License Type: Public Domain (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Getty Images is a massive stock image resource with images, video, music, and other multimedia products. Their target audience includes creative professionals, media (both print and online publishing), and corporations (e.g., in-house design, marketing, and communication departments). All you have to do is search for images you need, purchase the usage rights, and download to use for your project. Keep in mind, this stock photo site can be very expensive. That said, there are some images available free of charge using the embed option, though this strategy is not allowed on commercial websites.
License Type: Varied
Price: Starting at $175 for 1 download
Pexels provides high-quality stock photos that are easy to search using the search bar, tags, or discover pages. With hundreds of thousands of photos to look through, and new ones being added daily, Pexels offers site owners an easy way create amazing products, designs, stories, websites, apps, art, and more.
License Type: Public Domain (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Unsplash is a unique stock photo site providing people with images not usually found elsewhere. On top of that, they release 10 new “do whatever you want” images every 10 days, so you know there’s always going to be fresh new images to pick through. Start by looking through image collections such as backgrounds/textures or brands, use the search function, or just browse through their top photos on the homepage.
License Type: Public Domain (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Foodiesfeed is a great niche stock photo shop for those that run a food blog, own a restaurant, or sell kitchen appliances. Boasting natural looking food images to help get foodies away from using “ugly sterile stock photos,” this resource of images makes finding food-related photos easy thanks to popular tags, trending food images, and a search directory with over 1200 images to look through.
License Type: Public Domain (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Death to Stock was created in response to the difficulty people were having finding stock images that weren’t overused. You have two options when it comes to using their library of images. The first is to subscribe and access over 3500 stock images and video content right away, with 20 new images being sent directly to your inbox every month. Or, you can sign up for a monthly membership and access premium images reserved for premium customers through a convenient login.
License Type: Free to use, reproduce, and modify (no distribution)
Price: FREE (memberships starting at $12/month)
Pucjumbo is a stock photo site full of images that can be used for personal or commercial works. Choose from categories to start browsing, click on popular stock images you like, or run a quick search and find something particular for your needs. And if you want premium images sent via email every month you can always sign up for a membership too.
License Type: Free to use (no attribution) with limitations (e.g., no redistribution)
Price: FREE (memberships starting at $6.58/month)
Kaboompics offers people over 10K images and specializes in lifestyle, interior design, and blogging photos. That said, there are plenty of other categories from technology to animals to food and drink that can be used for personal or commercial reasons. Plus, you can filter based on color, category, orientation, and even mode.
License Type: Free to use and modify (no attribution) with limitations (no selling or redistribution)
Price: FREE
Shutterstock is a leading stock photo site, complete with images, video, music, and editorial assets. It’s one hundred percent premium to use (and is one of the only like it on our list) but has so many millions of great images for your website it can be worth the monthly price. Search based on photographs, vectors, or illustrations, edit the image to your liking, and download it for use.
License Type: Royalty Free (buy usage rights and do as you please)
Price: Starting at $29/month for 10 images
Burst by Shopify is not just for people that have a Shopify shop. In fact, this stock photo site was created to help entrepreneurs make better websites, products, marketing materials, and more. Enjoy categories like business, spring, fashion, background, food, and many more. Just search, download, and add to your project; it’s as simple as that.
License Type: Public Domain (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Reshot sources photos from individual contributors in photography communities in an effort to unify creators and give them access to the best visual content possible. Search for specific images, check out those that are trending, and even look into related images to make sure your site’s visual content and other projects are unique when compared to the competition.
License Type: Public Domain (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Gratisography claims to offer people the quirkiest, yet most beautiful, stock images around so you can stand out from the crowd. The photographer, Ryan McGuire, is picky about the images he adds to the collection and strives to give creatives a way to brand themselves as different in this boring, stock-filled image world. New images are added weekly and often elicit a laugh. So, if you’re looking for something completely different for your personal or commercial projects, this is a good place to start.
License Type: Free to use (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Freestocks.org is a simple photo site that gives people free stock images to be used in any type of project, whether personal or not. There are several categories organizing images, such as animals, fashion, and people. Plus, there’s a search bar if you’re looking for something special. There are also related images to view when searching for the perfect image that can help you finalize your content and make it visually appealing.
License Type: Free to use (no attribution)
Price: FREE
ISO Republic caters to bloggers and online business owners alike in providing high-resolution stock images to add to websites and social media posts. They also offer a ton of video content that’s also free to use. Search using the search bar, look into their collections of images, and even check out related images after conducting a search to find images that suit your needs.
License Type: Public Domain (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Picography is a sleek stock photo site that makes finding images to use on your website easy. All you have to do is enter a search term and see what’s available. Click on tags to see more, check out related images, or download the photo you clicked on and add it to your site. On Picography, there’s no shortage of categories to browse and hundreds of beautiful images to pick from.
License Type: Public Domain (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Fancycrave touts having free travel stock photos, but in reality there’s a lot more to it. With categories like entertainment, SEO, technology, and textures, there’s not much you can’t find here. And when it comes to the cityscapes, you’ll be in awe of the detail, clarity, and beauty these stock images bring to the screen.
License Type: Free to use with limitations (no selling or redistribution)
Price: FREE
New Old Stock is a photo site filled with vintage photos from public archives. There’s a healthy mix of stunning black and white photographs and color images that bring a life and a sense of nostalgia to any website or project. With a new image added daily, New Old Stock will always have a little something extra to add to your content that will make you stand out from the rest.
License Type: Free to use (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Stokpic, maintained by photographer Ed Gregory, has loads of categories to choose from if a beautiful and unique stock photo is what you’re looking for. There are also the Latest 100 and Favourite categories if you need a little inspiration. And to top it off, if you subscribe to his email list, you’ll receive 10 premium images in your inbox every two weeks. Not only will this put you ahead of everyone else, it’ll save you precious time so you can focus on other parts of your website, content, email campaigns, and more.
License Type: Free to use (no attribution) with limitations (no redistribution)
Price: FREE
Epicantus is packed with high-resolution stock images by Daria, for both personal and commercial projects. In an effort to save you the time and hassle of having to scour the internet for great images you can actually use, Daria collects her own photography in one convenient location for people in need of beautiful images. Stay up to date on new image releases or check out the archives and see for yourself what this talented photographer is sharing.
License Type: Public Domain (no attribution)
Price: FREE
Styled Stock offers people feminine stock photography for those in need of a softer set of images for their projects. Enjoy pastel colors, elegant layouts, and an easy to use search function for finding the right photo for your vision. And don’t forget to subscribe to receive exclusive images not found on the website.
License Type: Free to use (no attribution) with limitations
Price: FREE
And there you have it! 22 of the very best stock photo sites found on the web today. Don’t let your website, email newsletters, social media posts, or other projects fall victim to boring stock photos. Instead, add vivid images that set you apart from the competition and make your site visitors say “Wow.”
Have we left off any stock photo sites you love to use? If so, we would love to hear all about it in the comments below!
