There are dozens of Free stock images sites out there but some stand out and offer a little extra
A strong, vibrant, eye-catching and compelling image is important in this digital media age we live in. Research data indicate that great images increase the click-thru rate (CTA), website traffic and conversion rate (converting a casual viewer into a buyer). A recent HubSpot report found that photos on Facebook generated 53% more likes and 104% more comments than posts without an image.
If you are operating a lean startup, blog, digital site or marketing company, you know you are going to need free to low cost images once in a while for your products and marketing materials. By now, there are many stock sites out there that provide royalty-free and attribution-free images.
In fact, we discovered that ThemExpert assembled a fantabulous list of over 70 such sites with an awesome description of each.
Many of the sites are side projects of companies or people and were launched to fill a void. A few offer a mix of paid and premium priced images.
Here are our fave 6 totally attribution and royalty free stock image sites and apart from the rest:
1. StockSnap.io has some of the most dynamic photos around. The site adds new images weekly and photographers join and contribute their images to the pot. You can search by popularity, by most downloaded, the the number of times people have given the image a heart, or by order of the time it was uploaded onto the site.
What’s Unique: The search by popularity option is also good because if you want an image that isn’t being used by a lot of people, you may want to avoid the most popular images and go with the ones that populate closer to the bottom of the search results.
2. Unsplash is great for landscape and super high resolution photos. These images are great for use on actual (and not digital) marketing images. Also, looking for ideas?
What’s Unique: Unplash has a “Made with Unsplash” page where users can upload projects or marketing materials they created using images from Unsplash’s database. You’ll see how people have used the images in apps, products ,websites, Instagram posts and more. It’s a gold mine of creativity!
3. Picnoi is a very new service and seeks to fill the void in images of people of color available on other stock sitess. It is a co-op, meaning that those who use images are asked to put images back in to “pay it forward.” Search through and you’ll find some a good collection of strong photos contributed by photographers, users and others. There’s a mix of photos you may find in other stock images sites but would have to dig deep to find. They do the work for you. Because it is new, there aren’t that many images on it yet, but as it grows and more photographers and users contribute, we think this will be a great resource,
What’s Unique: Given all the recent push and attention to racial diversity in imagery and marketing, this site will become a great resource for companies looking to have inclusive images.
4. Pexels is our go to source for photos. Since we discovered this site, life hasn’t been the same. This site is also searchable but we’ve found that you have to be creative in your search terms because you may not get a hit with one term but if you reword or find a synonym for the same word, you’ll get tons of images returned.
What’s Unique: Click the “Discover” tab and you’ll see the photos characterized and find the boldest and most dynamic photos around.
5. Pixaby is the mother of all free search sites. This site has been along the longest. There are various licenses attached to each image. Not all are attribution free so you have to be mindful in reading the terms of use for the image before downloading and using it.
What’s Unique: Pixaby includes illustrations and graphic design items as well, which many people need for infographics.
6. TheStocks.io is a great curator of various free image sites. It is built around a frame interface. You’ll find a few of our faves and others on there.
What’s Unique: It’s a great place to start and saves you the time of going to each site individually.
Now that we’ve given you the inside scoop into our fave free stock sites, go out there and make something beautiful!
