At Jackrabbit, we almost always use stock photography in our initial design presentations, whether to set the mood for custom photography, or for actual use of the final marketing design. We believe photography is one of the most important elements of design. It can tell a story, define a brand, and help provide a visual in accompanying content. Since there isn’t always time to shoot new content, utilizing stock photography can sometimes be the most efficient choice.
Stock photography is pretty much everywhere you look. It is easily accessible for a low price from Shutterstock or iStockPhoto, and can get more expensive from sources like Masterfile or Getty. However, in recent months we’ve noticed an increase in free stock photo sites for personal and commercial use. The more we look, the more they seem to be multiplying like rabbits (see what we did there). No cheesy clipart or animated gifs, no oversaturated cliché business photos with fake smiles–but stunningly awesome photos that are really high quality. We’ve kept our eyes open to such sites and have been taking note to compile the ultimate list of stock photography sites; and the list has grown so large, that we needed to share them. Sure, other lists exist out there, but none are as big or bare-bones as what we’ve compiled for you below.
Being free, of course, these sites come with a few caveats. While they may have amazing photos that could be exactly what you’re looking for, unfortunately, some lack a search field, so finding an ideal image may be time-consuming. But we did our homework and there is an equally long list of sites with search functionality. Of course with all stock photography, be sure to read up on copyrights and licensing. We hope you find this list to be useful down the road!
The “Unsearchables”
While they may not have a search field, some are categorized or continuously scrolling.
- Bucketlistly
- Cupcake
- Death to the Stock Photo
- Gratisography
- Jay Mantri
- JEShoots
- Life of Pix
- Little Visuals
- Move East
- New Old Stock
- Refe
- SkitterPhoto
- Startup Stock Photos
- Travel Coffee Book
The Searchables
- Barn Images
- Burst
- Designers Pics
- Epicantus
- FancyCrave
- Foodie’s Feed
- FreeJPG
- Free Nature Stock
- ISO Republic
- Kaboom Pics
- Magdeleine
- Negative Space
- Pexels
- Vecteezy
- PicJumbo
- Picography
- Pixabay
- Realistic Shots
- Splash Base
- Splitshire
- Unsplash
Search the Unsearchable
These sites pull in information and search from some, not all, of the sites listed above.
And if Still Images Aren’t Your Thing…
These sites offer free stock videos (yes, videos).