Last Updated: Oct 07, 2018

A lot of new website owners tend to “panic” when it comes to finding the appropriate images for their projects. But lately, more and more stock photo websites appear in the online world. They want to exposure and market their artwork in exchange for some popularity through social media announcements or other methods of attribution.

What they do is to gather top artists, photographers, and designers in order to present extended portfolios with images, illustrations, and other materials. In most cases, they offer those products under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, which in a few words means you have the right to modify and use the design elements without even worrying about any attribution at all. All at zero cost delivered to your inbox or accessed through their websites.

Infographic – 17 Awesome Websites With Free Stock Photos

Without any further delay let’s get to the juice

Gratisography – Ryan McGuire offers free hi-resolution images for your personal and commercial projects under the Creative Commons Zero license.No attribution is necessary but it is much appreciated and there is an option to donate the artist. The photo categories are animal, nature, objects, people, urban and whimsical.

Unsplash – Another Creative Commons Zero option for your photo projects. There is the option to subscribe and collect the images straight to your email account. One of my favorite photos sites.10 new photos every 10 days.

Pic Jumbo – Another resource for free photos available for personal and commercial purposes. There are premium offers as well. I like their subscription option where I am getting all of their free offers right away in my inbox. High quality and very interesting images by Victor Hanacek.

Free Digital Photos – A website that offers HQ excellent photos and illustrations for any type of advertising material, for personal and commercial use. The free of charge images come with no watermarks in a small size of about 400 x 267 px and there is required a simple attribution. If you use that image on your website you can refer to the source and the creator of the page or post where you used it. All images are offered in various sizes and you can purchase the premium offers even with an extended license at an extra cost. The marketing and business related images are among the best online.

We Function – This is a design blog with resources and inspirational posts about web design and not only. Inside there is a separate section with some free photo packs. These photos can be used in any way you like, the only thing they ask is if you can share their post on Twitter. In my opinion, this is the least you can do to honor the photographers. It costs nothing and you help them grow their audience.

Refe – Natural looking photos with a royalty-free license. There are packs that you can buy but there is a Free of charge section inside. Their categories are abstract, business, food, home, lifestyle, nature, outdoor, transport, travel. Moreover, they run a Tumblr blog if you want to follow their work.

Photo Collections – This website only contains free images under the Creative Commons Public Domain. That means you can do whatever you want with the images without any attribution. Very easy to navigate, natural looking photos of HQ.

Pixabay – One of the most popular stock photo sites. Their main slogan is … “Free high-quality images you can use anywhere”…There is a huge collection inside and hundreds of photographers contribute with their work daily. There are also premium offers that you can purchase and they co-operate with Shutterstock.

Start Up Stock Photos – This is a Tumblr Blog with free images. All they ask is to share their work on the popular social networks or reblog their images on your Tumblr dashboard. Modern photographs ideally for business-related and marketing campaigns.

Jay Mantri – All images are Free to use them any way you want.Another Tumblr blog where you can follow the artist and reblog his images, an awesome kind of attribution.

Free Nature Stock – Royalty-free images about nature that you can use however you want. The creator Adrian Pelletier updates daily his collections. You can subscribe to his newsletter if you like his work. Again this is a Tumblr project, it would be awesome if you can reblog their work or share it socially.

Update Oct 07, 2018: They added videos to their collections.

Picography – Free Hi-Resolution photos to use them however you like. They are not asking for attribution but you can share their work on Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook.

Made In Moments – Travel Stock Photos that you purchase but there is a Freebies section as well. They deliver every week new photos that you can use them anywhere you want. Tomy, Marina, and Ruby travel the world and share their photos on the web.

Death To The Stock Photo – Allie and David offer free monthly photos for your creative needs. You can follow them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. If you sign up with your email the photos will be delivered to your inbox.

SplitShire – Daniel Nanescu from Italy loves photography and he gives away for free HQ images to use them in your projects. There is a premium section if you want to financially contribute to his work. A lot of categories should cover every need.

Stock Snap – All images come with no copyright restrictions and no attribution is asked. Hundreds of new photos added on a weekly basis. The team consists of Marc Chouinard and Christopher Gimmer.

Magdeleine – A free high-resolution photo every day. When you hover over their images you can see the license but usually, there are free under the CC0 Public Domain. On every photograph is mentioned the creator’s name underneath. Artists like Jay Mantri contribute to Magdeleine with their excellent shots.

Update 14 May 2017 – New Resources Added

• LibreStock Search engine
• All the Free Stock Media for Websites in one Place
• Dreamy Pixel
• Pexels – Free stock images & videos
• Skuawk – Free public domain photos
• EveryPixel – Search engine that filters out bad results
• BlogPiks – Stuart Miles collection
• The Ultimate List of Multimedia Resources
• The Ultimate List of Free Stock Photos
• Best photo editing online apps

I hope you find this resource useful. I am waiting for your comments and thoughts. Do you use any of these websites mentioned? Till next time.