It can be argued that half of marketing is the design or visual, and half is the message you’re communicating. Visual marketing is vital to success and ensures you convert your audience to the intended behavior or action. High-quality images are everything to get you there.
If you don’t have a designer, illustrator, animator, or other artistic individuals on your team to help you execute your marketing goals, there are numerous photography websites that provide free photos for marketing and free stock photos for commercial use. This extensive list includes websites for photos and videos, icons, illustrations, vectors, and more to help meet your needs. The possibilities are endless.
Elevate your visual content and review the following 13 free stock photo websites that will help you communicate your message to your audience.
About licensing
Before we jump into the many websites you can utilize for free stock photos, we need to talk about the CC0 license. This is a Creative Commons license that many of these websites use for their photos, videos, and visual marketing materials.
Under this license, the artists have waived their copyright and database-protected content and put their work in the public domain so others can freely use and modify them, reusing them without restriction under the copyright laws.
Once this license is applied to an asset, anyone can use it in any way. This is necessary for marketers to realize because it includes commercial purposes. The only exceptions to keep in mind are trademarks, logos, and other visuals within the public domain photo that have copyrights attached.
Each section of this post will cover limited licensing information from each website, but it’s vital to review the terms of use and licensing information on each website when you download content for your marketing use, no matter what end product it’s being used for.
Flickr (creative commons)
Flickr is probably a site most are familiar with, as it has been around longer than most. With two main goals, Flickr helps people make their photos available to the people and enables new ways of organizing photos and videos. This means the site acts as not only a sharing application for photography but also an online photo management.
The site boasts home to tens of billions of photos and a community of two million groups. As Flickr is a site primarily for photographers first, be aware of specific usage guidelines. Use images for personal and noncommercial use with permission from the photographer.
Some photographers have a Creative Commons license on their photos. If the license allows free stock photos for commercial use, then you can use these photos in accordance with the licensing terms.
Unsplash
Unsplash has become increasingly popular in recent years. Born from the pain of finding and using great imagery, the company has gathered millions of creators from around the world to build their library. Users have downloaded over 7 billion photos and illustrations to create everything from presentations, artwork, mockups, and more.
Unsplash is completely free. You can sign up, but there is no pressure to do so. Implement these photos for noncommercial and commercial purposes — no permission needed. However, they do encourage and appreciate attribution whenever possible.
Two things Unsplash doesn’t allow are the selling of images without significant modification and compiling images from Unsplash to replicate a similar or competing service.
Pexels
Pexels started in 2014. In 2018, Canva acquired Pexels. The website provides free stock photos and ensures all photos are hand-picked from photos uploaded by users, published with high quality, and licensed under the Pexels license.
The Pexels license states that all photos and videos are free to use, and attribution is not required, but appreciated when possible. You can modify the photos and videos as well.
Similar to Unsplash, Pexels does not allow the redistribution or selling of materials. They also frown upon implied endorsement of your product by the people or brands on the image you utilize. Lastly, you cannot use the photos or videos as part of your trademark, business name, or other branded material.
Burst (by Shopify)
Burst is a free stock photo platform powered by online storefront Shopify. They offer stunning photos for website and commercial use. Their goal is specifically to support entrepreneurs with the newest photos for current trends in e-commerce and retail. Therefore, it is a great resource for free photos for your marketing efforts.
Users can crop, edit, modify, and manipulate the photos without the need for attribution. Use these resources in everything from client work and print ads to menus and websites. Because the photos are royalty-free, you can even design and sell t-shirts or mugs.
You don’t have to be a Shopify customer to use Burst as a resource.
StockSnap.io
StockSnap is a resource for free stock photos for commercial use. “No tricks, no gimmicks, no fine print; just dazzling images for your creative projects.” This free platform has a simple license that allows you the creative freedom you need to apply the photos in your marketing materials without attribution required.
Finding photos on this website is easy, with a tag-based category system to help you browse and locate images for moods, feelings, and more. For example, search “people” and find over 5,000 images with people in-frame. The most relevant photos will appear first. Categories are extensive, with options from wallpaper and water to laptop and light.
FreeImages
FreeImages has a similar look to Adobe Stock as a website offering a diverse collection of free photos, vectors, clipart, icons, and PSD files. The company started in 2001, building a large collection of resources for marketers to use.
As the company progressed, it acquired six leading websites for illustrations. These unions have built a comprehensive platform for other materials beyond photography that will help elevate your creative projects without digging into your budget.
However, their license is not all-encompassing like other sites. Apply downloads for all noncommercial use case scenarios. For commercial terms, the website states, “where commercial use is permitted, you must first significantly or meaningfully modify, update, or otherwise incorporate additional creative elements into the end use such that it becomes your own creative work.” Ensure you read the license terms when downloading and using material.
Life of Pix
Life of Pix is a free photography site that looks similar to Unsplash. Powered by an agency in Canada, the site has a community of photographers under the CC0 license. Their website is small, with over 600 photos, but can be an option to find the perfect asset you need.
Content on this website has a majority of culture, landscapes, and nature-based visuals. The website praises a special partnership with Adobe Stock.
ISO Republic
ISO Republic recognizes that visual content is more than an accent, it’s the centerpiece that communicates your message. Under the CC0 license, they offer highly curated collections of stock images and videos for personal and commercial use. No need for permission or attribution.
The videos offered on ISO Republic are in 4K and HD options that will help make marketing creative work a breeze. When searching on their website, you can view collections that are compiled for various personas, such as the designer or entrepreneur. The website also has categories visually presented to make searching easy.
Kaboompics
Kaboompics is distinctive in its offering of free photos for marketing. Behind every photo you find is an entire photoshoot. The website hosts Instagram-ready graphics that come with a carefully curated color palette. Why is this cool?
If you know your brand colors or a project’s color palette and mood, you can easily search for photos without endlessly scrolling for the right fit. This is a gold mine opportunity for visual marketing with free stock photos for commercial use.
On the home page, you can search for photos and move the slider bar to the desired color. There is also a filter for orientation along with singular photos or photoshoot collections. The site includes categories similar to other stock photo sites and sorting options to customize your viewing experience.
Picjumbo
Picjumbo is uniquely built by web designer Viktor. Started in 2013, he says he started the site because other photography sites wouldn’t accept his photos. He said, “As a web designer, I know that every designer needs high quality photos in full resolution. That’s why I created Picjumbo.”
Picjumbo users are bloggers, theme developers, marketers, app designers, and more. This website has free stock photos for commercial use, but keep in mind that photos might contain trademarked or copyrighted logos or material. As you search, make sure to look closely at the content of the photo to apply it appropriately to your use case.
Gratisography
Gratisography is the quirkiest, weirdest, and funniest free stock photo website you will find. Started in 2011 by a self-taught artist, designer, photographer, and coder. The library on this site is smaller, but unique, with over 700 free photos for marketing efforts that you won’t find anywhere else.
Uniquely, Gratisography also has vectors for free too. How unique is this site? If you want a dog with boxing gloves, a duck dressed like a scientist, or a dinosaur riding a skateboard, this is where you will go.
Similar to other sites, use downloaded material for noncommercial and commercial use as long as it isn’t republished to other sites. As most licenses mentioned previously, if the photo is being used on a product, it must be adapted first.
Reshot
Reshot is another suitable fit for free visual marketing assets. Offering free icons and illustrations with instant downloads and noncommercial and commercial licenses, you can find a myriad of files for your projects.
Reshot is one of the only websites on this list to have an extensive, high-quality icon and illustration library with SVG and vector files. One use case scenario for this is your website. Under the delivery tag, you can find line drawings, color icons, and illustrated cars to use for buttons and website graphics. Save yourself a step and some money by utilizing a free graphic that will elevate your website or brochure.
Their user terms are non-exclusive and worldwide, so you don’t have to worry about scope of work. You can copy, modify, and distribute the files for social media, online marketing, and other projects.
Pixabay
Pixabay is a robust platform for more than just photo and video needs. With over 4.6 million assets, they offer high-quality photos, videos, and music shared by their community members. Their website has filters, including illustrations, vectors, music, sound effects, and GIFs, to help you create your visual marketing assets.
For the many resources Pixabay has, there are guidelines and FAQs for commercial use. If the art is being used for a greater work, like a book, you can utilize it without much modification. If you want to sell products, you must alter the design. To use a photo without alteration for commercial purposes, contact the artist and inquire about a release or rights.
Reach your marketing goals with Revity
We all know that in today’s digital age, people want to see things before they have to read about them. If these websites aren’t providing what you need for free photos for marketing, Revity provides creative and video services that can be helpful.
With years of experience, Revity Marketing Agency produces video and creative for advertisements, tutorials, lead generation, and anything else you can envision. Everything is customizable to your needs from preparation to publication, and Revity can help bring your brand to life.
Contact us to talk through your creative vision today.
