A blog post without any images or visuals is harder to digest (aka more boring) for your readers. And while in an ideal world you have unique photographs, unless you have a hefty budget, chances are that here and there you’ll want to rely on stock photos. So here’s a list with our favourite companies (top picks first!) that provide free images.
Unsplash
Unsplash has been around for a while! It’s often my go-to for free nature images etc. but they have a vast selection of all sorts of photographs. They have a paid tier (Unsplash Plus), but you can choose to only see licens free images. Paid images from other stock websites might appear at the top or bottom of the page, so keep an eye out what you’re clicking on!
Unsplash offers: photographs and illustrations.
Pixabay
Pixabay offers more than images. You can also find illustration, videos and more. Recently they added the option to filter images to exclude AI generated content (or include it as you wish).
The sponsored content is often added at the top of the page in a not so noticable way.
Pixabay offers: photographs, illustrations, vectors, gifs, videos, music and sound effects.
Pexels
I’ve had luck with finding more niche type of photos on Pexels than on some other websites. The advertising is also less sneaky. It’s always good to have options!
A unique feature is that you can enter a hex code (colour code) to find images that would fit your theme perfectly! Other sites might offer you to pick a general colour, not the code.
Pexels offers: photographs and videos.
Piqsels
Piqsels shares royalty free photos that are released under public domain license. While you can get lucky with your fiends, there are less options to customize your search. What you see is what you get. While you can add a minimum file size, you can’t choose image orientation etc. No misleading ads for other stock sites, but this site makes it’s money through other ads that are everywhere.
Pigsels offers: photographs.
Freepik
Freepik offers a lot beyond images: but make sure you look at the licensing requirements. For photographs it also includes the option to only see license free images and the option to include/exclude AI.
Freepik offers: photographs, vectors, illustrations, icons, videos, audio, templates, mockups, 3D models and more.
StockSnap
The StockSnap website doesn’t share a lot of filters options (no choice to pick photo orientation etc.), but the images are license free. (Skip the first two rows of sponsored images)
StockSnap offers: photographs.
Openverse
On Openverse there’s a lot more specifics about licencing available. In my example below you can see which licensing to mark in order to not have to provide photo credit. A lot of photographs are available that are part of the public domain. There’s no option to choose the photo orientation.
Openverse offers: photographs, illustrations, digitized artwork and audio.
Foodies Feed (food photography)
Foodies Feed is all about food photography! While not all images on here are AI generated, a lot of them are. There are no options to search for image orientation, what you see is what you get. Sponsored images from other stock sites are at the top and bottom of the page.
Foodiesfeed offers: photographs of food
ISO Republic
ISO republic has a more limited amount of photographs availabe and search functions are limited. That said, you might find some different images for common searched topics.
ISO Republic offers: photographs and video.
Vecteezy (free only with photo credit)
Vecteezy is great, but only completely free if you’re ok with sharing photo credit and you need to create a login as well. So more restricted. Their plans are very affordable though if you’re needing a lot of stock images, this is a good spot.
Vecteezy offers: photographs, videos, vectors, templates, pngs and motion graphics.
UnDraw (illustrations only)
Undraw has a large selection of illustrations that you can conveniently adjust to your business colour. Unfortunately there’s no search function for the illustrations, so you have to manualy go through all the pages to check out the illustrations.
UnDraw offers: illustrations.
DrawKit (illustrations only)
On the Drawkit website you can find a lot of diffrent types of illustrations, such as icons, 2D illustrations, 3D illustrations and more. While it’s limited in the types of content that’s available, it’s a great free resource!
DrawKit offers: illustrations.
Coverr (Video/Music – only free with creator credit)
Coverr has a large selection of videos.You can switch off the AI video content (there’s a lot of it) and find genuine video content here. If you don’t want a paid plan, they require creator credit to be mentioned.
Coverr offers: Videos and music.
Other sources for free images?
If you’re aware of updates to the providers in this post or I missed a great resource, let me know!
Happy blogging!
