Where to Find Free Stock Photos? 30+ of the Best Sites

If you are a blogger most likely you are probably constantly on the search for free photos. A cute image makes a post more appealing and does not seem boring. This is my case too. As a blogger, I always need photos to make my posts as beautiful as possible. It can be for a blog post, a website banner, a YouTube thumbnail, a Facebook cover, etc. Nowadays it’s so easy to find plenty of options so it’s hard to narrow it down to just one image.

One thing to keep in mind is to be careful not to use copyrighted images. You run the risk of being sued or forced to stop using it. The whole process of blogging should feel fun without having to worry and have peace of mind when we know we are using Creative Commons photos. The good thing about a lot of these sites is that they offer high-quality images for free for commercial and non-commercial use. If you don’t know what some of these terms mean, I explain more about them later on.

I like to use quality photos on a regular basis for my upcoming posts so I have included my go-to sites to find free stock photos. Make sure to bookmark this page so you don’t have to spend hours searching for a decent photo, or spend money on just one photo! So let’s begin…

NOTE: If you see a heart (♥) it means it’s one of my favorite sites!

This post is all about where to find free stock photos.

Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license = This means you can use these pictures freely for any purpose.

– Free for commercial & personal use.
– You can modify, copy, and distribute.
– No attribution is required.

Albumarium

With Albumarium I like that as you search for a certain image on the top of the site there’s an option to search by Newest, and Most Liked. You can also search by license types such as Any License, or Commercial. So if you have a blog with ads make sure you search for images with a Commercial license.

License? Varies. Be sure to check each image.

Barn Images

Don’t let the name fool you, Barn Images provides way more than pictures of barns. You’re free to use their images without attribution for any purpose. You can search for images with their search feature, by image category, and even by popular tags.

License? CC0.

Compfight

Compfight uses the Flickr API and searches for Creative Commons photos that are available for free. It’s quick and easy to search for any kind of image.

License? Varies. Be sure to check each image.

Creative Commons

The Creative Commons website features a handy search tool that allows you to look for free images on several third-party sites, including Flickr, Google Images, Wikimedia Commons, and Pixabay. The search tool includes options to look for images available for commercial purposes and images that are available to modify, adapt or build upon. This site offers a quick way to search multiple sites containing professional and amateur photography.

Death to the Stock Photo

If you’re not in a rush to find an image, Death to the Stock Photo is a service you can join for free and you’ll receive weekly emails with access to collections of high-resolution stock images.

License? Use the photos as you please, just don’t redistribute them.

Freeimages

With Freeimages you gain access to high-quality, hand-picked stock photos and graphics. This site has a useful Browse tab to search for categories such as, ‘Fashion & Beauty’, ‘Landscapes & Nature’, and ‘Textures & Patterns’. You can also search by image orientation, image resolution, camera model or make, or even dominant color.

License? You must credit some artists.

Freepik

With Freepik you can find lots of free vector designs. Perfect for graphic designers.

License? You must credit the author.

Free JPG

Free JPG is a photo bank with high-quality pictures free for commercial and editorial use. Perfect for bloggers, creators, and designers. The site is available in English and Spanish.

Free Range Stock Photos

If you’re looking for basic photos or photos you want to overlay with text, Free Range Stock Photos is perfect. A lot of the photos have open spaces, meaning you can add your own text or graphic on top.

License? Good for commercial and non-commercial use.

Free Refe

Free Refe is a collection of natural-looking and modern photos from the premium Refe website. The photos are of high-resolution landscapes and street scenes that are all free to download and use. The site has a clean look displaying popular images on top, on the right side a search box, and a category listing to make your search experience easy.

License? All free.

Good Stock Photos

Good Stock Photos provide photos taken by Steven and are high quality and high resolution.

License? The site owner does not technically identify photos as Creative Commons.

Gratisography

If you’re looking for quirky images to spice up the content on your site, Gratisography is the place to go. His sense of humor shines through in his “whimsical” category. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t feature a search function so you will need to scroll through the images and pick out what you want. New pictures are added weekly, and free of copyright restrictions.

License? CC0.

IM Free

IM Free is a curated collection of free resources, all for commercial use. Photography covers a wide range of subjects, including people, technology, sport and fitness, and education. The images have been sourced from different third-party sites, such as Flickr, so make sure you check the licenses on individual images before downloading and using them.

License? Since the photos are curated from various sources, some photos may require attribution.

KaboomPics

Karolina is the creator of KaboomPics and she offers full resolutions images. Karolina has created these images for bloggers, website owners, small businesses, freelancers, and other digital natives. Thanks, Karolina!

License? The site owner would appreciate credit to keep growing her website.

LibreStock ♥

LibreStock is a meta-search engine that scans and indexes stock photos from more than 40 different websites. Very useful and saves time instead of searching on different free stock photo websites.

License? CC0.

Magdeleine

Magdeleine has free high-resolution photography that features work submitted by photographers. The photos generally feature a vintage style. The site makes it easy to search by subject, license, and even look for images by dominant color. All photos are also tagged and the images are mostly photos shot outdoors, but there are also some product images.

License? Varies. You can select ‘CC0 only’ in their sidebar.

Negative Space

Negative Space adds free stock photos every week released under Creative Commons CC0, with no copyright restrictions. My favorite part of this site is that it offers a really cool search tool for content creators: you can search for images that have space for copy on the left, right, or both sides. So you can search for photos by category, copy space, and color.

License? CC0.

Open Photo Project

Open Photo Project has contributors that have offered their images free of charge under the terms of Creative Commons licensing. The images are mixed between high-quality photos and amateur photography. This site also has a useful search box or you can use the handy cloud tag.

License? Varies. Be sure to check each image.

Pexels ♥

Pexels adds every week at least 70 new high-resolution photos. This makes Pexels an artsy archive that is growing fast!

License? CC0.

Photo Pin

Photo Pin has been designed to help bloggers find photos for their posts. The site uses the Flickr API and searches for Creative Commons photos that are available for free. It’s quick and easy to search for any kind of image.

License? CC.
Hi-res? Keep in mind that most of the images are by amateur photographers for the quality is often lacking, though it’s not hard to find a quality image that fits your needs.

Photo Rack

Photo Rack is a forum-style page displaying photo categories on their main page. It’s really easy and fast to find an image that you’re looking for from one of their tags.

Picjumbo

Picjumbo offers free images for commercial and personal works. The site includes a category listing, which makes it easy to filter the type of images you’re looking for and quickly find what you need.

License? All photos are free to use, but the author asks for attribution.

Picography

Picography offers beautiful, natural-looking photos that are free of copyright restrictions. The site is similar to Unsplash in its design and the ability to search images for specific keywords.

License? CC0.

Pixabay

Pixabay doesn’t provide as many images as Flickr, but it more than makes up for it with quality and restriction-free licensing. Pixabay’s images are released under a CC0 license, which means the creators have ceded all rights to their work.

License? CC0.

Realistic Shots

For another great source of high-res, photos visit Realistic Shots. They have available free stock photos for personal and commercial use. They add 7 new photos every week.

Skitterphoto

Skitterphoto offers some truly unique photos. Depending on which you choose, you may also get a personal story from the photographer about how and where the picture was taken.

License? CC0.

Splitshire

Splitshire has free high-quality photos with no copyright restrictions and a real look. A collection of free stock photos by web designer Daniel Nanescu. The photos are free for personal and commercial use.

License? CC0.

StockSnap.io

StockSnap.io has a large selection of beautiful free stock photos and high-resolution images. They add photos every week, so you’re sure to find something that will work for you. The site also has a very handy search feature making it easy to browse through the images available. In addition, the site tracks views and downloads so you can find the most popular photos available.

License? CC0 and no attribution required.

Tookapic stock

Tookapic stock is a site for both free & premium stock photos. Ideal for photography, software, web, and users. You can filter by free photos which are all released under Creative Commons CC0.

Unsplash ♥

No worries with this site. Unsplash releases 10 new photos hi-res every 10 days and they’re released under the creative commons public domain license. This site is one of my favorites to find stock photos. They have a search feature and the images are crisp, clean, and interesting. These are some of the best free stock photos, often showing a dreamy landscape or interesting images of people, or photos of technology. I like to put it in grid mode to see a small version of the photos and find the image that I’m looking for faster.

License? CC0.

Foodies Feed

Foodies Feed is a fantastic site if you are looking for images related to restaurants and hospitality.

Free Food Photos

Free Food Photos is perfect for anyone writing about food or sharing a food recipe. The images are free to use for any purpose, commercial or noncommercial, as long as you credit them.

License? Creative Commons; provide attribution.

FREE STOCK PHOTOS FOR TRAVEL BLOGS

Good Free Photos

Good Free Photos mainly offers scenic photos of wonderful mountains, lakes, and nature perfect for any travel blog. You can also find his Instagram account at @scenic_earth to see his photos.

License? Free for any purpose but credit if possible.

AND MORE FREE STOCK PHOTOS…

There are a few other quick ways to find images that I didn’t mention above. Wikimedia, Google Images, and Flickr have a search function that allows you to search for free images that are available for personal and commercial use.

These sites are too good not to use, and thankfully there’s been a growing number of websites with more beautiful stock photography popping up all over the web to help you build your site. Best of all, they’re free!

These websites provide high-resolution, professional, and stunning photography for web designers, bloggers, and creative people. The images can be perfect for commercial and non-commercial uses as well.

Feel free to bookmark this post! Chances are you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for from one of these links to make your website more appealing.

What is your favorite website to find free stock photos? Do you know of a good site I didn’t mention in the list above? Please share it with all of us in the comments below!