Paid vs Free
Paid sites like iStockPhoto and Getty Images traditionally have lot more images than free sites because more photographers are drawn to them to earn income.
Free can be a misnomer because there are different types of “free” images:
- Creative Commons Images– this non-profit organization allows its images to be shared and used under various conditions. Some free images may dictate that you provide attribution (author of an image) or for certain uses only (print vs. web)
- Public Domain Images – Images fall under this category if the copyrights have expired or forfeited. However, grabbing a random image does NOT mean they are public domain images!
- Royalty Free Images – Most images under this category requires you to pay a one-time payment.
Royalty Free Image Sites
- Adobe Photo
- Getty Images
- iStockPhoto
- Shutterstock
Free stock images
- Burst (link)
- Pexels (link)
- unsplash (link)
- freepik (link)
- pixabay.com (link)
- freeimages.com
- kaboompics
- stockvault (link)
- stocksnap.io
- canva (some images are paid so pay attention)
- lifeofpix.com
- flickr.com
- crello.com
- Vecteezy (includes vector images)