A picture is worth a thousand words. We all want our own beautiful website to be filled with high quality images. Yet, not all of us have the time to take our own photos or the budget to pay for each image we use.
Fortunately, there are now many photo websites offering free images. You heard it right. FREE photos. Regardless of your purpose, whether it is to create a commercial website, or to execute a content marketing strategy, these photos are free for you to copy, edit and use.
What you should know before using free images online
Before you hurry down to the list, let me run you through the important terms and information you should know before using any free image you find online.
What is Creative Commons?
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization devoted to expand and share creative works through legal means. It enables free distribution of otherwise copyrighted “work” by releasing several Creative Commons licenses. These licenses vary in terms of its freedom or limitation on purpose of use, modification allowed, attribution requirement, or other terms stated.
Understanding the license of the ‘free’ images online
When you find a free image to use, it is important to know what license it is registered under. Ideally, you would want to use images registered under the Creative Common Zero (CC0 1.0) license. Images under this license waive all rights under copyright law and allow users to copy, modify and distribute for all purposes.
Some other free photos websites may operate under other Common Creative licenses such as the CC BY-SA 2.0 license which allow the same as CC0 but require attribution.
What are the terms in Creative Common Zero (CC0) License?
Images or other creative works registered under Creative Common Zero CC0 license are:
- Free to use for both personal and commercial use
- Free to modify
- Free to re-distribute
- No attribution required (but always appreciated)
What is public domain?
In the public domain, you find images or other creative works with copyrights that have either expired, forfeited, or non-applicable in the first place. In most cases, they are free to use for all purposes.
What is royalty free?
Many users make the mistake of misunderstand royalty free images as free-of-charge images. It is not necessarily the case. In most cases, the user is required to pay a one time fee for an image under the royalty free license for it’s unlimited use in all places. The “free” in royalty free does not refer to the cost, but the freedom of using the image freely without paying any additional royalties.
Top 45 sites offering free images for commercial use
Let’s get started! To save your time finding the right image you require, I have listed down the top 45 sites that offer free high resolution images for commercial and personal use, as well as your usage rights.
Note: Terms may change over time so it is highly recommended that you affirm each image’s license before using them.
1. Unsplash
License: Own license with similar terms to Creative Common Zero (see license)
2. Pixabay
License: Creative Common Zero (see license)
3. Free Images
License: Own license with similar terms to Creative Common Zero, allowing free use for most purposes, but with some restricted use (see license)
4. Pexels
License: Own license with similar terms to Creative Common Zero (see license)
5. Burst (by Shopify)
License: Creative Common Zero or Licensed Photos, Both free for personal and commercial uses (see license)
What’s more? They even teach you how to start a business online!
6. Life of Pix
License: Creative Common Zero (see license)
What’s more? New photos added weekly!
7. Gratisography
License: Creative Common Zero (see license)
What’s more? The site to go for if you are looking for quirky pictures!
8. Foodie’s Feed
License: Creative Common Zero (see license)
What’s more? The site to go for if you are looking for food photos!
9. Realistic Shots
License: Creative Common Zero (see license)
What’s more? 7 new photos added weekly!
10. MMT
License: Creative Common Zero (see license)
What’s more? New photos and videos every week!
11. PicJumbo
License: Own license with similar terms to Creative Common Zero (terms indicated at the bottom of homepage)
12. Free Nature Stock
License: Creative Common Zero (see license)
What’s more? Update daily! The site to go for if you are looking for nature photos!
13. Cupcake
License: Creative Common Zero (license indicated at homepage)
14. Picography
License: Creative Common Zero (see license)
15. StockSnap
License: Creative Common Zero (see license)
What’s more? New images added weekly!
16. Kaboompics
License: Own license with similar terms to Creative Common Zero, but the restriction of redistributing its photos (see license)
17. Startup Stock Photos
License: Creative Common Zero (license can be seen at the bottom of homepage)
18. Travel Coffee Book
License: Creative Common Zero (see license)
19. Negative Space
License: Creative Commons Zero (indicated at homepage)
20. Jay Mantri
License: Creative Common Zero (license indicated on homepage)
21. Snapwire Snaps
License: Creative Common Zero (see below each image for it’s licence)
What’s more? 7 new photos added weekly!
22. Morguefile
License: Free for commercial use (indicated at homepage)
23. Styled Stock
License: Own license with similar terms to Creative Common Zero (see license)
What’s more? The site to go for if you are a female entrepreneur!
24. Epicantus
License: Creative Common Zero (see license)
25. Skitterphoto
License: All public domain images
26. ISO Republic
License: Creative Common Zero (see license)
27. Free-Images
License: Public Domain or Creative Common Zero (license indicated on homepage)
28. Public Domain Archive
License: All public domain images
29. Splitshire
License: Own license with similar terms to Creative Common Zero, allowing the use of photos for broad purposes (see license)
30. New Old Stock
License: Free of known copyright restrictions (indicated at homepage)
31. Freestock.org
License: Own license with similar terms to Creative Common Zero (terms indicated at homepage)
32. Reshot
License: Own license with similar terms to Creative Common Zero (see license)
33. Good Free Photos
License: Public Domain or Creative Common Zero (license indicated at homepage)
34. Magdeleine
License: Creative Common Zero or Attribution Required (each image is marked with it’s license)
What’s more? Images are categorized based on their license for your convenience!
35. PikWizard
License: Free for commercial use (indicated at homepage)
36. Libreshot
License: Creative Commons Public Domain (see license)
37. Public Domain Vectors
License: Creative Commons Zero (indicated at homepage)
What’s more? The site to go for if you are looking for vector images!
38. British Library
License: Public Domain
What’s more? The site to go for if you are looking for vintage images from the 17th, 18th and 19th century!
39. Jeshoots
License: Creative Commons Zero (see license)
40. SpaceX
License: Public Domain (see license)
What’s more? The site to go for if you are looking for photos out of space!
41. Rawpixel
It is an online resource with one of the most diverse collections of stock photos.
License: Free, Royalty Free or Public Domain
42. IM Free
License: Most free for commercial use, attribution may be required (different terms indicated on each photo)
What’s more? Not only do they have photos, they also offer icons, templates and button maker for free!
43. FancyCrave
License: Creative Commons, attribution is required (see license)
44. Superfamous
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (indicated at homepage)
45. The Jopwell Collection (by Jopwell)
License: Creative Commons Attribution, meaning the images are free to copy and distribute as long as attribution to “Jopwell” is provided. (see license)
