Whenever you write an article on any topic, you should also include some pictures to make your content more engaging and interesting to the target audience. Searching for free images can be challenging for any writer as downloading images from Google, and third-party websites can lead to Copyright violations. But there are certain websites which offer royalty-free images which you can download and redistribute freely. Here we have listed some of the popular tools available online to download copyright-free images.
GetStencil.com
Pricing: Free for creating up to 10 images per month with access to limited photos, $9 per month for Professional edition to create up to 50 images per month, $12 per month for unlimited access
Getstencil.com is a popular free service which allows you to design visually pleasing images for your Social media pages. They have more than 1,200,000+ royalty-free background photos under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. Getstencil is a fantastic tool to find stunning images for free and also edit them according to your needs. The website also contains over 700,000 royalty-free graphics and icons along with 670+ amazing templates with which you can create professional looking images for your content instantly. They have thousands of royalty-free photos getting added every week and this is the best place to search for free images online. They also provide a Chrome extension which you can add to your browser and search images easily without having to visit their website every time.
Pixabay.com
Pricing: Free
Founded in 2010, Pixabay is a cool place to find high-quality public domain photos, vector graphics, illustrations, and film footage. They claim to have more 1143305 high-quality photos, illustrations, and vector graphics which can be downloaded and redistributed for free under the CCO license. Pixabay has an Alexa rank of 501 and is the most popular website for downloading free images. Users can search images based on Categories like Animals, Music, Education, Food/drink, Sports, and Religion etc. You can also search images based on specific size and background colours. There is also a free Pixabay App available for Android devices in Google Play which you can install on your phone and directly download all free images of different sizes. Similar Pixabay App exists for iPhone users as well.
Shutterstock.com
Pricing: US$ 199/month for up to 750 images for single-user subscription, US$ 579/month* for Team subscription with 4 or more users with 750 images per month
Shutterstock.com is the best place to discover more than 163 million royalty-free images, music tracks and video clips. You can search for photos based on various categories like Food, Music, Fashion, Business, Travel, Flowers, Portrait, Abstract, etc. You can also search for graphics under the Vectors category. Shutterstock also provides Editorial images collection with straightforward licensing and also featured photos collection. Users can also submit their professional photos in JPEG format to Shutterstock and get paid for each download. Shutterstock is very user-friendly and caters to the needs of professional designers and big organizations which require a huge collection of stock photos. All the photos uploaded in Shutterstock are of high-quality and they offer free weekly images to their registered users.
Pexels.com
Pricing: Free
Pexels offers a great collection of photos licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. It means that all the pictures can be used freely for both personal and commercial purposes. Users can freely copy, modify and redistribute the photos without asking for permission or setting a link to the source. You can also contribute pictures to this website if you are interested. You can search photos based on colours and there is a popular photos section which features the most downloaded photos. They also rank the contributors based on the number of downloads. Though the website is absolutely free to use, interested visitors can contribute money through PayPal. Pexels provides a Chrome extension which you can add to your browser. They also offer a Mac and Windows App to search for photos from your Desktop directly.
Unsplash.com
Pricing: Free
Unsplash is a popular collection of free images contributed by a generous community of photographers. All the photos published on Unsplash can be downloaded and used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. You don’t have to seek permission or provide credits to the contributor. They have a nice collection of Curated and Featured photos which are downloaded frequently by the visitors. The photos are categorized based on Love, Health, Space, Coffee, Nature, Computer, Food, People, Health, Team and several others. They have a huge collection of more than 200,000 high-resolution stock photos uploaded by photographers across the globe. Users can join the website for free and if they wish to contribute; they can make donations through PayPal or other methods.
