Despite the wealth of images available on the web, sometimes it’s hard to find exactly what you’re looking for…especially if you have a small or non-existent budget. We’ve pulled together a list of some of the best cheap and free stock image websites so you can source photos, textures, icons, illustrations and much more with ease.
Before using an image, please have a read of the website’s terms of use and any relevant licence information to ensure you don’t breach copyright or attribution requirements.
Free stock images
• ADigitalDreamer.com/gallery– Free royalty free images.
• FreeRangeStock.com – A good collection of free photos and textures.
• Unprofound.com – Run by a small group of photographers, Unprofound has a good selection of photos to choose from.
• TextureGen.com – A wide variety of free stock textures to choose from.
• PhotoRogue.com – This site hasn’t been updated in a while but has an unusual twist; you can request a specific image and volunteers will try and find one that meets your specification. There are plenty of great images to choose from.
• ImageAfter.com – Plenty of free images, although the quality does vary.
• Morguefile.com – Free images for creatives by creatives.
• Cepolina.com – Over 15000 meticulously categorised photos, available for download in six different sizes.
• Public-Domain-Photos – 5000 free public domain photos to browse through.
• OpenPhoto – Free images, but be careful to check the license of each photo for usage.
• ImageBase.DaivdInBlack.com – A reasonable selection of free photos, although quality does vary.
• Flickr Creative Commons– Check licences carefully and credit the owner with a link to their profile.
• Single Shot – A small but growing collection of reasonably large photos.
• PublicPhoto.org – Nice range of free images, but the sizes may be too restrictive for some.
• WikiMedia Commons – Over ten million photos to choose from. Attribution is required.
PhotoLib.noaa.gov – Photos must be credited and a few have copyright restrictions (refer to the About page for more details).
• PhotoGen.com –Lots of great quality photos. Sign up is required to access image downloads.
• FreePhotosBank.com – A small but high quality collection covering a range of subjects.
• FreePixels.com – Over 4000 images, the majority of which are nature or object themed.
• StockVault.net – 27000 free images and a community of over 40000 members. One to bookmark.
Both free and cheap stock images
• IconFinder.com – We linked to this on Twitter last month. There’s a huge selection of icons although not all of them are free. If icons are your thing, check out our free hosting and tech-themed icons on our resources page.
• Veer.com – They only have a tiny selection of free images every month, but there’s a good selection of premium images that are extremely cheap and great quality. Well-organised and easy to navigate.
• FreePik.com -A pretty good image search website which is well set out and easy to use. Contrary to its name, not all the images are free (although the majority are).
• FreeFoto.com – Photos are free in return for a link back, or you can purchase a licence for complete freedom.
• DreamsTime.com – Very well organised with plenty of images available. Free photos are available here.
Cheap stock images
• PixMac.co.uk – Low prices and a wide selection of photos available, including celebrities.
• MediaBakery.com – Offers to beat prices of similar images elsewhere on the web.
• FoodAndDrinkPhotos.com – A premium photo site specialising in photos of food and drink, which can often be harder to source.
• CutCaster.com – Another paid resource with good prices and no need to register.
• Fotolia.com – A well-known, cheap source of stock photos with different payment options available.
• iStockPhoto.com – One of the most popular image sites, iStockPhoto has a huge collection of photos at very reasonable prices.
What are your favourite resources for images? Leave a comment below!
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