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The Best Websites for Free Stock Photos

The Best Websites for Free Stock Photos
Softonic Editorial Team

Softonic Editorial Team

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Whether you’re a blogger or a freelancer who writes articles for a website, you know how important it is to add images to your posts. However, you can’t use just any photo you find on the internet, since most are protected by copyright.

Nowadays, there are hundreds of great stock photo collections where you can find the perfect image for literally any situation. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them require a paid subscription that not everyone can afford. Does that mean you have to forget about adding images to your articles?

No way! Fortunately, there are a number of websites for free stock photos that are not copyrighted or that fall under the Creative Commons license. You can use them to find the perfect pic without spending a dime. Not sure where to find them? Not to worry, keep reading for a selection of our favorites.

Pexels

Pexels is a fantastic option for anyone who’s looking for a good website for free stock photos. It has an extensive gallery of not only photos, but also videos created by young talents in the sector.

One of the strong points of Pexels is how easy it is for anyone to download files from its website. In fact, you don’t even need to create an account to download an image. What’s more, all its photos are available in different sizes to make them easier to download and use.

Finally, Pexels adds five free images to its collection every day. This makes it one of the most extensive and user-friendly sites around. Oh, and if any of its photos have been useful to you, Pexels gives you the option of thanking the author for their work. Don’t forget to do that!

To visit Pexels and start downloading photos, click here.

Pixabay

Pixabay is, along with Pexels, one of the best websites for downloading royalty-free images. One of its biggest claims to fame is that its entire catalog has an exceptional quality, so you’ll always be thrilled with your downloads.

The Pixabay catalog is simply huge. In fact, the site has more than 1.8 million images waiting for you, and that number is increasing by the day! What’s more, you don’t need to create an account to start downloading free photos.

One more important point: like Pexels, Pixabay lets you choose your desired resolution when you click the download button. Of course, you have to be careful when looking at the catalog because the results in the top banner are from iStock and therefore paid.

You can start downloading photos from Pixabay for free by clicking here.

Morguefile

Morguefile is another great option for bloggers or writers who need photos to illustrate their posts on a daily basis. Along with the aforementioned two pages, it’s one of the most popular sites and the most loved by the public in general.

Its catalog contains a large number of royalty-free images that you can start downloading today. As usual, you won’t need to create an account on the website to use its services. That said, you’ll have to accept its terms and conditions to save your photo.

Morguefile’s only weak point is its image quality. While Pexels and Pixabay let you choose the resolution of the photo you’re going to download, on Morguefile you have to accept the one provided by the author. That said, most of the images you’ll download are of impeccable quality.

You can visit Morguefile and start downloading free images by clicking here.

Picjumbo

Picjumbo is the perfect option for anyone who’s looking for spectacular, high-quality stock photos. It doesn’t have the same overwhelming catalog as the other websites on our list, but all its photos are worth downloading.

To download a photo from Picjumbo, you just have to click the green “Download Free Photo” button and save it on your computer. You won’t need an account to download it, and you can choose as many photos you as you like.

Due to its limited catalog, Picjumbo is not the perfect option if you want an image for a highly specific or a slightly “niche” theme, but it’s exceptional for technology pages or urban-type images.

You can start downloading photos from Picjumbo by clicking here.

Freepik

Freepik is a great collection of free images intended specially for designers. And unlike the previous options, Freepik offers vectors, Photoshop templates and icons that are completely free.

Downloading images from Freepik is as simple as clicking on them and saving them to your computer. However, unlike other websites, it requires you to attribute the author. To do this, simply copy the code provided by the site and paste it to your blog entry, newsletter or social media account.

Although it’s not the best option for everyone, Freepik is an excellent tool for fans of infographics or designers who don’t have enough time to create their own resources.

You can start downloading royalty-free stock photos and vectores by clicking here.

Albumarium

Albumarium is, as stated on its home page, a website devoted to sharing beautiful images. To do so, it offers a great catalog of photos and images organized in different albums.

One of Albumarium’s strengths is its wonderful collection of animal images. The photos you can download from this website are of good quality, and you don’t have to create an account. Just click the button and the image will open in full resolution, ready to be saved on your computer.

It is important to note that some photos on Albumarium require author attribution. You can find out if that’s the case by looking for a small icon just below the photo. So, don’t forget to check before using the photo you want.

You can start downloading free stock images from Albumarium by clicking here.

StockSnap.io

StockSnap.io is another good option among copyright-free image sites. Here you’ll find an extensive collection of perfectly labeled, high-quality photos.

To save a photo from StockSnap.io, just enter a term in its search engine and browse its catalog. Once you find the image you like, click on it and download it to your computer. It’s as simple as that!

StockSnap.io has an excellent selection of landscape images, so it’s especially good for travel bloggers. Of course, don’t forget to attribute the author by sharing the code displayed once you download the photo.

You can download free photos from StockSnap.io by clicking here.

Unsplash

Unsplash is a comprehensive site with a good selection of free, downloadable stock photos. It stands out for offering artistic, high-quality photos.

To start using Unsplash, just run a search and select one of the many options that come up. Once you’ve chosen a photo, click on it to open the menu. You can download the photo in its original size, or, if you prefer, choose another resolution by clicking the green button with the white arrow in the upper right corner of the screen.

Like the other pages on this list, Unsplash lets you download pics without creating an account. What’s more, its catalog grows every day with 10 new images, so you’ll always find photos you haven’t seen before.

You can start downloading copyright-free photos from Unsplash by clicking here.

Gratisography

Our final pick is Gratisography, a comprehensive site where you can download a great selection of free stock photos.

An interesting fact about Gratisography is that all the images and photos on this page are the work of the same author, Ryan Mcguire. They stand out for not only being of high quality but also dealing with relaxed, happy and funny topics.

In short, Gratisography is a must if you’re looking for a selection of original images that are different from anything you have seen on other sites. Also, it’s highly intuitive and easy to use.

You can download photos from Gratisography by clicking here.

We hope you found our roundup of websites for downloading royalty-free stock photos helpful. Do you know of any that we forgot to mention? Tell us about them in the comments section!

Softonic Editorial Team

Softonic Editorial Team

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