Alexis Kestler
In today‘s digital world, visual content is essential for engaging your audience and getting your message across. But finding high-quality, licensed images can be time-consuming and expensive. Thankfully, there are many excellent free stock photo sites that allow you to legally use images on your website, blog or social media.
As a data analyst and AI expert, I rely heavily on visuals to communicate complex information and data insights clearly. Over the years, I‘ve used hundreds of stock photos from various free sources online. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share my top recommendations to help you find all the great licensed images you need – without paying a dime!
1. Pixabay
With over 1.8 million free stock photos, vectors and videos, Pixabay is one of my go-to sites. I love the quality and variety of images available. For example, when creating data visualizations on global agriculture, I easily found multiple high-resolution photos of farms, farmers, crops and machinery that brought my presentations to life.
Pixabay also has an excellent collection of graphs, charts, diagrams and illustrations that are extremely useful for demonstrating data insights. And with no attribution required, using Pixabay images is fast and hassle-free. It‘s one of the best all-purpose free stock sites out there.
2. Unsplash
Unsplash features beautiful, high-quality photos submitted by a talented community of photographers. It‘s one of my favorite sources for eye-catching images related to nature, people, technology, business and more. Unsplash releases new photos every day under the Unsplash license, which allows commercial use with no royalties or attribution required.
I often use Unsplash photos as background images on websites and presentations. The high-resolution files are perfect for large displays and retina screens. Unsplash has an excellent search function, making it easy to find the perfect photo for any project. The mobile app also allows me to save and access images on the go.
3. Pexels
Pexels is another of my go-to sites, with thousands of photos, graphics and videos available for free. All files are licensed under Creative Commons Zero so you can use them for commercial or non-commercial purposes with no attribution needed. I really appreciate how easy Pexels makes it to find the perfect image with its intuitive search and helpful categories.
For example, when I was designing the UI for a finance app, I easily found multiple high-quality stock photos of business concepts like teamwork, charts, money, and more. Definitely a must-have free image resource!
4. Gratisography
Gratisography provides vibrant free stock photos that never fail to grab attention. Photographer Ryan McGuire captures unique perspectives, bold colors and stunning landscapes. I often use Gratisography images as eye-catching headers or hero images on websites.
The photos are also excellent for social media posts and thumbnails. With up to 20 free high-def photos added weekly across various categories, it‘s easy to find the perfect Gratisography image for any purpose. No attribution is required.
5. Burst
Burst is a free stock photo site created by Shopify, so the library is full of useful business, lifestyle, and nature images. As an entrepreneur and small business owner myself, I appreciate having easy access to these high-quality, royalty-free photos to use across my projects and content.
Burst is optimized for mobile, so I can download images directly using the iOS app. And with new additions daily, I can always find fresh, unique visuals for my business‘s social media, website, presentations and more.
6. Life of Pix
Life of Pix offers a free collection of beautiful, high-resolution photos curated by Leeroy Advertising Agency in Montreal. With new images added daily, it‘s one of my top sources for captivating graphics related to nature, architecture, textures, fashion, food and more.
I often use Life of Pix photos when developing product UI/UX design concepts that require realistic, lifestyle imagery. And because no attribution is required, it‘s easy to quickly import Life of Pix visuals into my workflows and prototypes.
7. StockSnap
StockSnap provides a wide variety of public domain photos that are an excellent free alternative to stock image services. The library spans many useful categories like travel, business, textures, objects, and nature. All files are licensed under Creative Commons CC0.
When writing blog posts or educational content, I rely heavily on StockSnap to find relevant, high-quality photos that help visually reinforce my message. The ability to browse by category or keyword makes it easy to zero in on the perfect image.
8. ISO Republic
ISO Republic offers a unique collection of free stock photos focused on nature, travel and conceptual imagery. These visually compelling images are great for websites, digital products, social media and more.
I‘m a huge fan of ISO Republic for presentation backgrounds and web design. The photos add style and emotional impact to any project. An account login is required to download high-res JPGs and PNGs. New photos are added weekly.
9. KaboomPics
KaboomPics provides eye-catching stock photos with bold colors perfect for ads, magazines, websites and more. The library spans categories like people, business, technology, nature, health, food and sports.
When designing infographics, articles, or presentations related to business concepts, I often use KaboomPics photos to add engaging visuals. Photos can be filtered by color as well, allowing you to find images that fit your design scheme.
10. Picjumbo
Picjumbo is filled with totally free stock photos across over 30 categories. As a food blogger and amateur chef, I find Picjumbo particularly great for food-based images like ingredients, meals, restaurants settings and more.
High-quality food photos can be difficult to find for free, so Picjumbo is an invaluable resource whenever I need to style a blog post or article. Photos are licensed under Creative Commons CC0.
11. FreeImages
FreeImages is one of the largest free stock photo sites with thousands of public domain images. Categories include architecture, business, sports, nature, textures, machines, and more. While a paid account unlocks some benefits, you can browse and download images without logging in.
When starting new website projects, FreeImages is one of my first stops to collect images related to the theme and topic. I can download a good base of graphics to use across the site templates and content. Just be sure to double check licenses.
12. Flickr Creative Commons
While Flickr hosts both free and paid images, I appreciate the large number of Creative Commons licensed photos available that require attribution. Using their advanced search, you can filter specifically for CC photos and drill down by usage permissions.
For collaborative presentations that allow sharing and editing, Flickr CC photos are extremely useful. I can quickly find graphics to use as slides that meet the right license permissions.
13. Getty Images Free Collection
Getty Images offers select photos to embed for free on non-commercial websites. While you can‘t download or host the full images, it‘s useful for adding engaging graphics to blogs or educational sites.
I leverage Getty‘s free collection when creating data-driven content for my personal blog. The embed feature makes it super easy to add eye-catching photos with just a few clicks, and link back to Getty Images.
14. Free Nature Stock
Created by photographer Adrian Pelletier, Free Nature Stock offers thousands of CC0-licensed landscape, wildlife, and nature photos. It‘s my number one resource for finding stunning free nature imagery.
The high-resolution shots of natural landscapes and phenomena bring my science and environmental blog posts to life. Photos are perfectly suited for websites, products, apps and more. New photos added weekly.
15. Public Domain Pictures
As the name suggests, Public Domain Pictures offers completely free stock photos that are in the public domain. All photos can be used for commercial or personal projects without attribution.
For prototyping and wireframing new product concepts, I often use Public Domain Pictures to placeholder imagery during initial design phases. The public domain license also makes it easy to quickly mock up ideas.
16. Magdeleine
Magdeleine hand selects and curates a collection of free stock photos available without attribution needed. I‘m constantly impressed by the high-quality, unique images found here spanning travel, food, nature, textures, animals and more.
Magdeleine uses a color-based navigation that allows you to browse and search photos by color. This is extremely helpful when I need images that fit a certain visual theme or color palette.
17. FoodiesFeed
FoodiesFeed contains thousands of delicious, high-resolution food photos licensed under Creative Commons. All images are captured by talented food photographers from around the world.
As a food blogger, FoodiesFeed is an invaluable resource whenever I need eye-catching imagery of meals, ingredients, restaurants and more to complement my recipes and restaurant reviews. The free license helps keep my food blog costs low.
18. SplitShire
Created by photographer and designer Daniel Nanescu, SplitShire offers beautiful free stock photos of travel, nature, business, people, textures, objects and more. The photos are free of copyright under Creative Commons CC0.
SplitShire is my go-to source for travel and nature-related images when writing blog posts or creating photo-driven web designs. The style is vibrant and captivating, perfect for websites and commercial use.
19. ShotStash
ShotStash provides a generous library of free stock photos, from high-res images to 360-degree panoramic photos. While an account is required, you can sign up for free and access thousands of CC0 images.
I often use ShotStash for fun and experimental projects where cost is a factor. But the library is extensive enough that I can usually find great photos for professional projects as well.
20. NegativeSpace
NegativeSpace offers a collection of thousands of high-quality stock photos across a variety of categories like animals, cityscapes, textures, conceptual images and more.
NegativeSpace is one of my favorite sources for unique conceptual images to use in engaging slideshow presentations on abstract topics. The photos add style and reinforce messaging through visual storytelling.
Finding amazing free stock photos for your website or project is easy with these incredible resources. With quality imagery available across almost any topic or category imaginable, you can give your content an eye-catching, professional edge without breaking the bank. Happy image hunting!
