Sources of Stock Photographs
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes Last updated on 13th August 2025
While photos always help to spice up a website, having the right ones for a job seems invaluable these days and there appears to be a glut of imagery too, something that has lessened the earning potential of photographers who used to make a respectable living from their stock libraries. While it helps if you have a library of your own, the supply of stock photos still helps with this as much as it has been assisting print media and advertising businesses.
So, here is a selection of those that I have discovered on the web for perusal. They are divided into a number of categories that go from rights-managed photos to free images via royalty-free ones. As ever, some entries will die, while more could come to notice that take their place. AI capabilities are appearing too, reflecting an ongoing upheaval in the image creation sector.
Exclusively Royalty-free
123RF is a stock photos provider founded in 2005 as a branch of Inmagine Group. It offers a vast collection of royalty-free images, vectors, icons, fonts, videos, and audio files. The platform allows photographers worldwide to sell their work under a crowdsourcing model. 123RF has integrated various AI-powered tools to enhance image editing, creation, and search capabilities, including features like image upscaling, background removal, and face swapping.
Adobe Stock is a stock photo service integrated into Adobe Creative Cloud. It provides access to millions of high-quality, royalty-free images, videos, and vectors that can be easily searched and licensed directly within Adobe applications like Photoshop and Illustrator. This integration makes it convenient for users to find and use stock content without leaving their creative workflow.
Bigstock is a stock photo agency that offers a large collection of royalty-free images, vectors, and videos. It operates on a credit-based system where users can purchase credits to download images. It is known for its affordable pricing and diverse range of stock content.
Depositphotos is a stock photo agency that provides a wide range of royalty-free images, vectors, and videos. It operates on both a subscription and a pay-per-download model, offering flexible options for users. It is known for its user-friendly interface and extensive library of stock content.
Dreamstime is another stock photo agency offering royalty-free images, vectors, and videos. It has a large community of contributors and offers both subscription and pay-per-download options. Dreamstime is recognized for its high-quality images and competitive pricing.
iStock is a popular stock photo service owned by Getty Images. It provides a vast collection of royalty-free images, videos, and vectors. It is known for its high-quality content and flexible pricing models, including subscriptions and pay-per-download options.
Getty Images is a leading provider of stock images, videos, and music. It offers both royalty-free and rights-managed content, with a focus on high-quality, professional imagery. Getty Images is particularly known for its extensive collection of news, sports, and entertainment photos, as well as its historical archives.
Shutterstock is one of the largest stock photo agencies, offering millions of royalty-free images, vectors, videos, and music tracks. It operates on both subscription and pay-per-download models and is known for its user-friendly search engine and extensive library of content.
Hybrid
Freepik is a website that provides free and premium resources including stock photos, vectors, illustrations, and PSD files. It offers both free and paid content, with the paid options providing additional features and higher quality resources. Freepik is known for its diverse range of creative assets.
Free of charge
Freeimages, formerly known as Stock.XCHNG, is a website that offers free stock photos, illustrations, and vectors. While it provides free content, some images may require attribution to the photographer. Freeimages is a good resource for those on a tight budget or needing images for non-commercial use.
morgueFile is a free stock photo website that offers a collection of high-resolution images, mostly contributed by photographers. The site allows free use of the images for personal or commercial purposes, though attribution is sometimes required.
The Smithsonian Institution launched a groundbreaking open access initiative in early 2020 that makes over five million digital items freely available under a Creative Commons Zero licence, effectively placing them in the public domain. This collection includes images, 3D models, metadata, and research datasets drawn from the institution's 19 museums, nine research centres, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo. Users can download, share, remix, and adapt these cultural heritage materials for any purpose, including commercial use, without seeking permission or paying fees.
Unsplash is a popular platform offering a vast collection of high-resolution photos that are free to use for any purpose, including commercial use. The images are contributed by a community of photographers and are known for their high quality and aesthetic appeal.