Ultimate Guide to Free Stock Photos
Every website needs some great creative, so we've put together an awesome list of our favorite places to score royalty free stock photos. Thats right, sexy stock images totally, 100% free.
Unsplash
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Unsplash has taken the free stock photo world by storm, topping tons of lists and for a reason – it's really good. You get superb, high quality photos and loads of them, with frequent updates.
Gratisography
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With a high quality collection of amazing stock photos, Gratisography is another top site for image hunters. Need a photo of bridge? Check. Photo of a bear exiting a port-a-john? Also check.
Jay Mantri
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Jay Mantri is a professional photographer with some stunning shots, especially landscapes. Dig in and browse through these gorgeous specimens, even if you don't need any stock photos.
Snapwire
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Snapwire is the first (of many) sites on our list to feature a fully functioning photo search in addition to great content. To keep things fresh, the site is updated with 7 new photos every week. Bravo!
Death to the Stock Photo
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Another classic, Death to the Stock Photo has a slightly different take on free stock images; a weekly email bursting with delicious photos free for any kind of commercial or personal use.
Superfamous
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Superfamous is your one stop shop for aerial landscape photography. With absolutely stunning shots from around the world, you won't even mind giving the creator attribution (required).
Foodies Feed
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A must have for anyone in the food blogging or food startup industry (or who likes to eat), Foodies Feed serves up an oversize helping of free food related stock images – bon appétit!
Travel Coffee Book
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Travel the world from your laptop with Travel Coffee Book, featuring sexy shots of trendy spots and urban life from Barcelona to Bangkok, all totally free and CC0 licensed (do whatever you want).
Stocka
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Stocka features an evergrowing collection of free stock photos organized in numerous categories, and comes with built in search. What more could you ask for? Did we mention everything is free.
Magdeleine
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With lots of earthy tones and great bokeh, Magdeleine offers a super solid free stock photo collection, with categories, tags and get this, photo search by dominant color! Really, it's pretty awesome.
New Old Stock
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Remember when etchings were the new hotness? Maybe not, but with New Old Stock you can re-live those days in all their glory. Useful stock image repository for websites with a historical flair.
Life of Pix
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Simple, clean and to the point, Life of Pix is a great place to start your stock image search. Check out their gallery, and if you're feeling really crazy, submit your own photos!
ISO Republic
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More eye candy than you can handle, ISO Republic offers up a solid stock photo collection. Check out their architecture section, and if you're in the rendering game their textures are also quite handy.
Designer Pics
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Need some sexy backgrounds for a website? Designer Pics has just what you require, with a curated photo collection of stock images perfect for any design project.
Startup Stock Photos
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If you're a bootstrapping startup so busy you can't even take photos of yourselves, don't worry, Startup Stock Photos has you covered. Not a startup but want the look? Just download these free photos.
Lock & Stock Photos
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Lock & Stock Photos is another solid choice when photo hunting, featuring a nice range of stock imagery from around the world free to use in any way you want (CC0).
Pic Jumbo
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Another option, Pic Jumbo has some very nice, high quality images espcially useful for website backgrounds or content marketing material, royalty free for commercial or personal use.
Splitshire
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For some stock photos off the beaten path, Splitshire lists a healthy set of categories not commonly found elsewhere like technology, wedding and abstract backgrounds.
Stock Snap
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Stock Snap features one of the best photo search engines we've seen, and is particularly useful if you're in the market for beautiful (and free) stock landscape photography.
Get Refe
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If travel photos are your thing, definitely check out Get Refe for some great royalty free images of architecture, urban life and atmospheric landscapes spanning the globe.
Little Visuals
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Although no longer updated, the original stock photos are still available on Little Visuals and they're quite good. Downloads are offered by week, each containing 7 beautiful images.
Raumrot
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In addition to their growing stock photo base, Raumrot offers some awesome themed collections, including a Christmas set, and Hipster fashion, travel and office packages, all royalty free.
Public Domain Archive
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Featuring stock photography from the present and past, Public Domain Archive is an expanding treasure trove with some amazing vintage architecture and interior shots.
Picography
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Rome, Paris, London, Berlin; find them all on Picography in high-resolution, pixel perfection, licensed under CC0 with no strings attached. Travel royalty free!
Pixabay
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With a huge (really, it's enormous) collection of photos, vectors and other art, it's fortunate that Pixabay has a built in search engine to easily browse their copyright free content.
Free Images
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Free Images differentiates itself by having the best collection of objects or things – that stuff you sometimes need for a presentation or marketing campaign. Think clipart but better, way better.
IM Free
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People, sports and transportation are just a few of the useful categories on IM Free. If categories aren't your thing, simply scroll and scan the infinity of stock photos sliding up before your eyes.
Pexels
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You'll find some great closeups and bokeh style stock imagery on Pexels, with many beautiful food shots, humans and wood (yes, wood) rounding out their extensive collection.
Kaboom Pics
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While the website design may not blow anyone's mind, Kaboom Pics does deliver on the stock photo front. Spend some time clicking through their collection and you'll be sure to find a gem or two.
Fancy Crave
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With two new photos every day, Fancy Crave is building a really sweet collection of stock images, notable for their sharp contrast, great filters and warm color palettes.
Stock Photos
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A Pinterest style board makes searching and scanning Stock Photos a breeze. User submitted content can be hit or miss, but definitely an opportunity to find some underused royalty free photos.
Stock Up
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If you can articulate in words exactly what you image you need, then Stock Up might just make your day. Easily search 26 stock photo sites from a single search bar (and it's fast).
Compfight
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Flickr has a huge repository of awesome photos, and with Compfight you can easily search for creative commons and commercially licensed images to use in your website or project.