Free Photo sites - "The Monster List"
Getting images for free is great, and there is a lot of choice out there, but sourcing images from a free site can have its drawbacks, the license that the images are provided with is different on every site you use. Some sites prohibit commercial use of the image, most require an attribution, some require you register or signup to a newsletter to access the images, some ask that you seek permission first etc.
A word of warning: Expecting that nobody will notice if you make use of an image that you just take without permission is foolish, tools like TinEye make it free and easy to find who has used an image without permission, and stock agencies like Getty and others use paid services like picscout.com track image misuse, bill the offender, taking legal action if images are not removed. If you are using images without the correct license, someone will catch up with you sooner or later. Here's a typical forum quote "I currently have a demand from Getty images for $1200 over an image I hot-linked to in a blog entry 2 years ago."
With that in mind, here's our definitive list of resources providing free stock photos with a table of comparisons:
| |
 Commercial Use Allowed |
 Attribution Required |
Free Signup Required? |
Guide Resolution
|
Approx size of Collection |
(v) = Varies ?=Approx/Guesstimate, Always confirm the license information before you use any image you find on a site listed here.
| Kozzi |
No(free) |
No |
Yes |
Varies |
75,000 |
| Free subscription allows commercial and non-commercial use from the free collection of 75,000 images, subscription offer for premium image collection. |
| Dreamstime (free section) |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
2700px(v) |
1000s(?) |
| Another commercial provider with free archive, special link to the free images at bottom right of their homepage. |
| Featurepics (free section) |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
500px(v) |
23,000 |
| Microstock agency with free 130px Blog Code for their whole collection or a large selection of un-searchable free images via a link at the bottom left of the homepage. |
| 123rf (free section) |
Yes |
No |
No |
400px(v) |
20,000+(?) |
| 10's of thousands of free images accessed via the "free stock images" link on the home page. |
| StockVault |
No |
Yes |
No |
2000px(v) |
15,000 |
| Community of more than 3000 photographers sharing their photos, note: non commercial use only |
| Morguefile |
Yes |
No |
No |
3000px(v) |
10,000? |
| Community of photographers sharing their photos, also contains a large selection of free work available under an attribution license. I rate this one highly. |
| Cutcaster (free section) |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
1700px(v) |
2,800? |
| Amonther paid microstock agency with a collection of free images, registration needed to download |
| SXC.hu |
Varies |
Varies |
Yes |
1500px(v) |
390,000 |
| StockXchange, one of the first sites to 'share' stock photos, a range of licenses, some require attribution or permission, owned by getty images to promote their microstock site 'istockphoto' |
| freeimages |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
1000px(v) |
6000 |
| easy browsing and instant download, variable image quality but some good pictures to be found, and a photographer upload area with growing collection of images. |
| greatvectors |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Vector |
1000 |
| well categorised collection of free vector background and design elements (eps vector graphic file) |
| freedigitalphotos.net |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
400px(v) |
5,000? |
| There's a catch - only the lowest web resolution images are free the rest cost $5 |
| freepixels |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
1600px(v) |
4500 |
| well rounded collection, good search and some really quite good stock and conceptual images on offer, resolution varies 1852x2200 |
| turbophoto.com/Free-Stock-Images |
Yes |
No |
No |
2000px(v) |
2,000 |
| A commercial stock site with 2000 rather average images, probably sourced from PD archives, not very exciting. |
| photogen |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
2000px(v) |
1,200 |
| small collection, good search and no link needed but registration required. |
| imageafter |
Yes |
No |
No |
1600px(v) |
5-10,000? |
| The place to find textures and backgrounds, plus a selection of reasonable stock photos |
| imagebase.davidniblack.com |
Yes |
No |
No |
1600px+ |
1600 |
| high quality small collection, license is a little vague "treat as PD" or creative commons attribution if you like? lots of good people photos upto 3072x2048 and some nice powerpoint backgrounds |
| creepyhalloweenimages |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
2000px(v) |
100's |
| niche site with halloween theme stock images and clipart |
| freephotosbank |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
2000px(v) |
6000? |
| convenient navigation but somewhat low in quality images |
| freefoto.com |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
1000px(v) |
13000 |
| you might want an ad blocker if you visit this long running, commercial ridden site, free for non commercial use |
| freestockphotos.com |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
800px(v) |
1000 |
| very limited selection, low resolution and images contain a stamp which must be left in place or replaced with a text credit |
| unprofound |
Yes |
No |
No |
1024px(v) |
? |
| creative and unusual site full of artistic PD images organized and browsed by colour |
| studio25.ro |
? |
? |
No |
0px |
? |
| site current broken, listed for reference |
| amygdela.com/stock |
? |
? |
No |
1024px(v) |
? |
| amygdela's atmosphere, free stock photos medium resolution, described as free stock photos but license is not detailed |
| woophy |
No |
Yes |
No |
1280px(v) |
650,000 |
| "WOrld Of PHotographY" geographically organized images uploaded by contributors, not for commercial use, contact of contributor required before use. |
| pixelperfectdigital |
Yes |
No |
No |
2100px(v) |
9000 |
| contributed by a range of photographer, take care when navigation not to click on the paid dreamstime images displayed at the top of each page above the free gallery navigation |
| amgmedia.com/freephotos |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
700px(v) |
100? |
| painful navigation!, and very low resolution, you might find something for a web project here |
| free-photographs.net |
No |
Yes |
No |
650px(v) |
500? |
| limited range and poor quality also low resolution, only just scraped in to being listed. |
| freephotos.com |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
2000px(v) |
5000 |
| good range but mediocre quality uploads from visitors, registration required |
| imagetemple |
Yes |
No |
No |
3000px(v) |
550 |
| good quality free downloads, mostly nature related subjects |
| freelargephotos |
No |
Yes |
No |
1200px(v) |
2300 |
| a good travel/scenic location based library, non commercial use only or buy a $50 commercial license |
| cepolina photo |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
1024px |
5800 |
| great navigation via category, colour and geographic location. downloads in various sizes but the maximum is 1024 pixels |
| bigfoto.com |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
1200px |
500? |
| you need to browse this useful but small collection manually, attribution required but can be omitted if you pay a $5 license fee |
| photorack.net |
Yes |
No |
No |
640px(v) |
27,000 |
| massive collection (suspiciously so?), looks like it's no longer updated, and pitiful resolution of most of the photos makes for limited application - lack of search is also annoying |
| fromoldbooks.org |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
1800px(v) |
2500 |
| collection of scanned illustrations from out of copyright books, organized by title |
| mayang's textures |
Yes |
No |
No |
2560px(v) |
3800 |
| Credit is welcomed, simple site with huge selection of textures and backgrounds of all kinds |
| designpacks |
Yes |
No |
No |
800px(v) |
225 |
| designpacks are zip downloads of 15 categorized images, lowish resolution but nicely thought out for web design or moodboard use |
| amazingtextures |
No |
N/A |
Yes |
1600px(v) |
2000? |
| just when you thought the world did not need another texture site! these textures are repeating so they can easily be used in 3d rendering, free for personal use, $20 for commercial |
| aarinfreephoto |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
504px |
950 |
| photos are watermarked and very low res, reasonable range of subjects |
| photos8 |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
1800px |
9000 |
| If you can survive the horrible explosion of google ads and navigate your way through to download some good photos can be found here, mostly desktop wallpaper style subjects |
| geekphilosopher X |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
700px(v) |
500? |
| collection of PD and free images, limited range of categories and resolutions |
| freemediagoo.com |
Yes |
No |
No |
1200px |
200? |
| some interesting 3d rendered images, audio, textures and flash animation |
| ancestryimages |
No |
Yes |
No |
1600px(v) |
16500 |
| old scans of maps and books not for commercial use |
| oneodddude.net |
No |
No |
No |
1024px(v) |
150 |
| link back attribution much appreciated, not a huge selection but nice range, images are watermarked |
| holylandphotos.org |
No |
Yes |
No |
1600px(v) |
1000's? |
| do check the terms, "in general 4 images can be used without permission" with a credit, images of the "holy land" |
| bajstock.com |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
2800px(v) |
2700 |
| images from one photographer, some good conceptual images and locations in france, high resolutions but annoying popups! |
| DHD Multimedia Gallery |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Varies |
29000 |
| very eclectic mix of images by various contributors, this site has been running for more than 15 years! |
| Cromavista |
Yes |
No |
No |
1024px(v) |
100? |
| spanish site with various architectural, creative and location photos |
| imageblowout |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
1280px(v) |
260 |
| small, non-searchable collection of zip downloads, not updated, some useful New York images |
| 4freephotos.com |
Yes |
No |
No |
1600px(v) |
1000 |
| links are welcomed as are image contributions, selection typical of user generated content, variable quality but some users have contributed some good images also |
| paulbates.com |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
1820px(v) |
50? |
| small gallery from individual photographer, flowers, sunrises and sunsets, yawn |
| vintagepixels.com X |
Yes |
Varies |
Yes |
1400px(v) |
1400 |
| an odd collection of scans of old photos sorted by year (era) and category |
| twicepix.net |
? |
? |
No |
4000px(v) |
9000 |
| german gallery (click sprache to select english language) lots of photos of berlin and nature subjects, images described as free but no license details. |
| photorogue.com |
Varies |
Varies |
No |
1200px(v) |
See note |
| free photo research, some creative free images and others sourced from various free photo libraries, request an image and see if they find anything! |
| textureking |
Yes |
No |
No |
1600px(v) |
350 |
| well edited collection of texture and backgrounds, nice site layout |
| freerangestock.com |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
2400px(v) |
10,000 |
| more than 2000 images in their in house catalogue + thousands of other images contributed by users |
| cgtextures.com |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
?px(v) |
? |
| texture and background image site, free accounts were not available for my review, but paid memberships were, conveniently, available for purchase.... |
| photl.com |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
4362px |
10,000+ |
| amazing quality photos, you need to create an account to download the images, for free you can access 35mb of files per day (this limits you to 2 of the highest resolutions, or several of the smaller ones) The site states they have 250,000 images, but from the search results I find few matches leading me to believe this figure is perhaps false, there seems to be a slant towards food related subjects. |
| freewebphoto.com |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
700px(v) |
1000 |
| registration required and 5 image download daily limit, good quality subjects lots of conceptual subjects covered which are also available for purchase if a higher resolution is needed or web use license without attribution, free for web use only |
| stickstock.com |
? |
? |
No |
1200px(v) |
1000 |
| some nice illustrations but no terms are listed, anyone can upload anything? could have the potential to be copyright infringement nightmare! |
| pachd.com |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
1024px(v) |
1500 |
| some nice images of flowers, food, and travel locations, license for USD 1.99 if you don't want to include an attribution. |
| fontplay.com/freephotos |
Yes |
No |
No |
2624px(v) |
5500 |
| simply described as free photos with no further terms listed this site contains all sorts of interesting things |
| allfreeimages.net |
? |
? |
Yes |
2624px(v) |
5500 |
| no search, some useful conceptual stock subjects as well as the usual architecture and landscapes |
| nationsillustrated.com |
No |
? |
Yes |
2450px(v) |
7700 |
| somewhat vague when it comes to reuse terms - are these really free? good selection of images from all over the world uploaded by contributors, not for commercial use |
| sunipix.com |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
600px(v) |
1000? |
| mostly nature and location / landmark images plus a few concepts like biology and finance, only available at low resolution |
| visipix.com |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
1200px(v) |
76,000? |
| lots of images in the photo gallery section, but where did they all come from? mostly landscapes but also paintings (mildly suspicions?) |
| texture bin 342 |
? |
? |
No |
800px(v) |
1000? |
| seems be guestbookware (sign the guestbook) a trove of interesting textures grunge backgrounds |
| freestockphotos.biz |
Yes |
Varies |
No |
2400px(v) |
11,000 |
| large collection of categorised images, with additional collections of PD, Creative commons and other license types, main collection does not require attribution but link is appreciated. |
| rgbstock.com |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
3000px(v) |
50,000 |
| large collection of user contributed images, registration required for download |
| freestockphotos.es |
Yes |
No |
No |
650px(v) |
5500 |
| good quality concept stock photos, but patheticaly small sizes for free - high resolutions require payment (hybrid microstock). |
| freeimagescollection.com |
Yes |
No |
No |
5184px(v) |
250 |
| small but glowing collection of images available in very high resolution, mostly flowers and nature subjects |
| photosshare.gr |
Yes |
No |
No |
3200px(v) |
3500 |
| collection including some free stock photo galleries, nature, textures, and 3D RED CYAN images |
| free-images-etc.rb-d.com |
Yes |
No |
No |
3200px(v) |
1000 |
| small collection of useful images arranged over 10 pages manual search |
| businessimagesfree.com |
Yes |
No |
No |
400px |
3000 |
| all images on this microstock style site are available free in low reolution, business themed collection |
More Free Image Sites:
Our Creative Commons site directory (free use images with an attribution, simplified licenses)
NB: Always confirm the license details before you use the images, all of the sites listed here clearly display their terms of use which must be followed. Commercial use means that you can use the images in advertisements NOT that you can create products for sale using the images - This is possible but in almost all cases you will need to contact the provider or buy an 'extended license'
LEARN MORE - FREE RESOURCE BOOK
Free Resource Book listing the best of Free and Paid Stock Photo Libraries
Find out More
Disadvantages of Free Sites
Although free sites are great, there is a good reason that most of the images on them are free, they are usually not up to the same quality as those on paid sites. They might be only be suitable for use as a small online images.
Just like with PD images it's often hard to find an image suitable for your needs unless your requirements are for simple non conceptual images like landscapes, flowers, nature or travel.
As a simpler and safer alternative you can look at microstock libraries (quality images, huge selection, easy search and priced from $1).
Free Photo Search Services
- photopy.com search through PD and creative commons licenses from flickr and wikimedia - unfortunately very limited cover!
- picfindr.com search displays results from 6 or 7 sites, some commercial (microstock), some PD and some independent free image sites.
- veezzle.com searches several free stock photos sites in one go.
Missing a Site / Add Listing
Think we have missed a site from the list? then let us know, but be sure that it's not already listed in our PD image sites or Creative Commons free image sites directories.
Sponsor+
Valuestockphoto.com free FOR web use
cut&paste code, high resolution $5 or less
