Last Updated on May 17, 2022
This is a list of the Best Free Stock Photo Sites in 2022 where you can find royalty-free high-quality images for your personal as well as commercial project.
Images or media are an integral part of the content and their absence can make the content difficult to skim and digest.
Be it a blog, website, eCommerce store, or anything in between, Photos play an important role in enhancing a website, making it look professional and creative.
All that said, finding or creating high-definition images for your project is a pain in itself.
No matter if you plan on buying images from the internet or taking them yourself, it’s a really expensive task to accomplish.
And most people on the internet cannot afford to shell off that kind of money to purchase a couple of images for a one-time project, article, or blog.
The above statement stands true as there are thousands of people searching the phrase “Best Free Stock Photo Websites” on Google.
Hence we have created this blog post listing the most popular free stock photo sites that offer thousands of premium quality stock images, donated by some of the world’s most generous photographers, and come with a CC0 license.
All these images are in the public domain and can be used for personal and commercial purposes without paying any royalties.
Although it is always advisable to thoroughly check the image credentials and permissions before using it anywhere else on the internet.
Also, it is always generous and ethical though not mandatory, to attribute to the photo author, provide a link back to them, and pay a small amount for their coffee.
Now let’s dive in and check out the entries in the list.
Here’s a list of the Best Free Stock Sites in 2022.
1. Pixabay
Pixabay is an international, copyleft, and free-to-use website for sharing photos, illustrations, vector graphics, film footage, and music.
The stock photo site has over 1.8 million+ high-quality stock images and videos that are shared by its talented community.
On Pixabay you can easily explore the editor’s choice, popular images, popular videos, and popular searches with a click of a button.
Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, share copyright-free images and videos.
All contents are released under the Pixabay License, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist – even for commercial purposes.
If you want to share your work on Pixabay you can simply join the network or just click on the ‘Upload’ button to get started.
Pixabay also offers an API and its free images are safe to use all over the internet.
Though all the content on the website is free to use, you can be generous and donate to the authors through PayPal.
2. Unsplash
Unsplash is a website dedicated to sharing stock photography under the Unsplash license.
The website claims over 211,166 contributing photographers and generates more than 17 billion photo impressions per month on their growing library of over 2 million photos.
There are high-resolution royalty-free pictures on this stock website.
Unsplash is a platform powered by an amazing community that has gifted hundreds of thousands of their own photos to fuel creativity around the world.
You will find images in numerous categories like editorial, architecture, current events, experimental, fashion, film, health & wellness, interiors, nature, people, street photography, and more.
Unsplash also holds an annual awards event i.e. Unsplash Awards for the best talents and contributions of the year.
You can also join the website and submit your photos as a contributor.
Unsplash hand-selects every photo and accept only the best so that no matter what you need, you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for on Unsplash.
With partners like BuzzFeed, Squarespace, and Trello being powered by Unsplash API, the Unsplash library is more widely accessible than ever.
3. Pexels
Pexels is another great free stock photo site that features the best free stock photos & videos shared by talented creators.
It provides high-quality and completely free stock photos licensed under the Pexels license.
All photos are nicely tagged, searchable, and also easy to discover through our discovery pages.
You can explore more of Pexels by discovering photos, popular searches, leaderboards, challenges, and free videos.
Pexels lets you sort content by trending or new media. Plus you can also upload your own images and videos.
The Pexels API helps you incorporate the world’s best free stock photos and videos into your app or website.
All photos and videos on Pexels are free to use and attribution is not required.
Giving credit to the photographer or Pexels is not necessary but always appreciated.
Pexels also offers black and white photography, happy birthday images, business videos, happy new year images, and HD wallpapers.
4. Rawpixel
Next on our list of the best websites to download free stock images is Rawpixel.
It offers free stock images, vectors, and PSD mockups.
You can simply start searching for images or boards by entering your keyword in the search box.
Rawpixel also offers a business lifetime membership and by becoming a Rawpixel Business Lifetime Member you get unlimited access to the most awesome design resources forever.
Joining Rawpixel is free and anyone can join this platform.
When you land on the website you will find free, premium, and creative common 0 images.
5. StockSnap.io
StockSnap offers beautiful, high-quality stock photos for just about any use you can think of – including commercial usage, for free.
There are numerous categories to choose from like business, nature, beach, wallpaper, love, food, people, and more.
You can also explore the daily trending images.
StockSnap features a large community of professional photographers that submit high-resolution images weekly which are free from copyright restrictions.
You can also submit your own work by joining StockSnap.
6. Gratisography
Gratisography provides you with the world’s quirkiest collection of free high-resolution pictures you can use on your personal and commercial projects without copyright restrictions.
You get access to high-resolution free stock images, composed of the world’s best, most creative pictures & images you just won’t find anywhere else.
Gratisography offers photos in categories like animals, fashion, nature, people, business, food, and more.
You will also find collections of amusing animals, funky food, artsy architecture, whimsical women, etc.
Plus you can also sort images via recent and trending.
7. Stockvault
Since 2004 Stockvault has catered to its visitors with free stock photos, “ready to use” web layouts, and logos, helping those who don’t have the means to turn to the royalty-free agencies.
The sole purpose of this website is to collect and archive high-resolution photographs that photographers, designers, and students can share and use for their personal and non-commercial design projects.
There are free images available under categories such as animals, transportation, graphics, construction, nature, industrial, objects, people, seasonal, 3D renders, and textures.
You will find the latest, most popular, most downloaded, most loved, and featured photos.
Apart from uploading your own content, you can even buy premium images.
8. Picjumbo
Picjumbo is a free stock photo site created in 2013 by designer & photographer Viktor Hanacek.
More than 7.5 million images have been downloaded from the website.
You can also subscribe to the Picjumbo newsletter to get all new free stock photos in your inbox.
There are a lot of categories ranging from business photos, free food photos, and abstract images to nature images or technology photos. Just use the search bar in the header or Categories in the menu.
All the images on the site are high-resolution free stock images, backgrounds and stock photos are free of charge, with no watermark, and can be used in both personal and commercial projects.
All the free stock photos are shared by a community of generous photographers and travelers.
Picjumbo has been cited as one of the best free stock photo sites by various popular & international online publications.
9. Life of Pix
Life of Pix is another great stock photo website that offers free images for commercial use.
All the images offered on the website are in high resolution.
Life of Pix also offers free HD videos that can be used for your personal and professional projects.
You can also go through a collection of photographers and find out more about their work.
And like most of the free stock image sites, you can also join this one and contribute your work.
10. Burst (by Shopify)
Burst is a free stock photo platform that is powered by Shopify.
The photographers are constantly shooting and uploading high-resolution images to help users find the perfect free stock photo for their next project.
The goal of the website is to build the best free image library for entrepreneurs, designers, developers, and bloggers, so they are constantly uploading new photos and adding new categories to reflect current trends in eCommerce and retail.
Burst image library includes thousands of high-resolution, royalty-free images that were shot by our global community of photographers.
Burst also provides a huge library of useful resources for photographers.
The website offers collections in categories like animals, arts, backgrounds, business, celebrations, holidays, flowers, fitness, fashion, outdoor, technology, work, and more.
11. Icons8 (Moose)
Icons8 has one of the best collections of stock photos, collages, transparent PNG, and backgrounds.
And now the company has launched a new stock photography service, Moose.
To find an image you can simply type in the keyword in the search box and press enter.
You will find the images sorted as new, rising, and top.
Since the website is popular for high-resolution realistic photos, there are many sub-categories for it as well. Like gender, age, ethnicity, body type, hair, special features, and more.
Icons8 also offers a photo creator, vector creator, and smart upscale.
On Icons8 you will find images for free as well as paid license.
12. SplitShire
On SplitShire you will find beautiful and exclusive free stock photos.
You can instantly download a private collection of free stock photos, free stock videos & high-resolution images for personal and commercial use.
It started as a side project in 2014 and since then SplitShire stock photos have been downloaded millions of times, now you can see them around the web, in magazines, and in music videos.
SplitShire photos can be used on websites, blogs, apps, ebooks, book covers, social media, magazines, infographics, t-shirt prints, and more.
You can easily browse images from new stock photos and the top best photos.
SplitShire offers images in categories like abstract, animals, food, street, technology, nature, people, wedding, and more.
13. Morguefile
Morguefile is another awesome site to get free stock images for commercial and personal use.
It is a free photo archive that offers over 400,000 stock-free images with no copyright restrictions.
Founded by Michael Connors in the early Internet days of 1996, the site was created to serve as a free image exchange for creative professionals and teachers to use in their work.
The amazing thing about this website is that if you can’t find a photo you can make a photo request.
Morguefile also runs quest challenges on a daily basis.
#Quest sends Morguefile creatives on a daily photo challenge to capture the world around you.
All images submitted will be available to you and other creatives to use in your designs and your professional work under the Morguefile free stock photo license.
You can also search images on iStock, Getty, Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Dreamstime, and Bigstock using this website.
14. Kaboompics
Kaboompics is one of the most popular sources of free images for lifestyle, interior design, and specialized bloggers in the World.
Every month, over 70,000 people from 209 countries visit Kaboompics, a royalty-free service for stock images.
To this day the site has gathered over 6 million impressions, and the photos have been downloaded over 4 million times.
You can download and use Kaboompics for your own purposes – grace your blog posts, create lovely graphics for your social media accounts, and make your website more appealing – all for free, including commercial use.
Photos from Kaboompics appear on sites like BBC, CNN, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Yahoo, iSpot, BuzzFeed, Hubspot, The Huffington Post, Lifehacker, and more.
Apart from free stock photography, you will also find color palettes and photoshoots on this website.
15. Reshot
Next on our list of the best free stock photo sites is Reshot.
Reshot aims to unify creators via a free exchange of the world’s best visual content.
From seasoned pros to those with a newly-discovered creative spark, Reshot will help you elevate your creative projects.
Reshot provides the world’s best-emerging photographers with a beautiful platform for sharing a sampling of their best work for free use in creative projects.
Creatives in need of visual content can freely explore and license some of the world’s best imagery.
Most of the free images on Reshot are unique, non-stocky, and handpicked.
You can explore the trending photos section or even join the platform to contribute your own work.
The unique thing about Reshot is that it offers quick image packs like diversity, everyday technology, active lifestyle, flat lay, etc that save your time and efforts.
16. ISO Republic
The ISO Republic provides for download thousands of the best high-resolution images & videos, all free for personal and commercial use.
It is an independent website that provides curated collections of the best high-resolution CC0 photos and videos.
Its mission is to offer highly curated collections of stock images and videos that you can use both personally and commercially.
You will find images and videos in the categories such as latest, people, nature, food, technology, city, landscape, business, travel, sport, fashion, and more.
The site also offers various photo collections curated for designers, entrepreneurs, women, food, abstracts, architecture, etc.
17. Pikwizard
Pikwizard features an inventory of over 1 million high-quality free stock photos and videos that are ready to use.
All the content on the site is royalty-free, safe for commercial use, and requires no attribution.
There is a huge collection of images in categories like abstract, animals/wildlife, backgrounds, textures, buildings, business, finance, celebrities, food, healthcare, and more.
The site offers a clean user interface that makes searching for images and videos easy.
For a more personalized experience, you can simply log in to Picwizard.
18. NegativeSpace
NegativeSpace is a place to find the most beautiful, free high-resolution images on the web.
All the images offered on NegativeSpace are free for commercial and personal use and come with a CC0 license.
NegativeSpace has something for everybody, so be sure to check out the categories: Abstract, Animals, Architecture, Business, Black & White, Food, Landscapes, Nature, People, Sport, Street, Technology, Transport, and Work.
Each of the high-quality photographs you find on the platform has been taken by a photographer from the NegativeSpace community.
NegativeSpace also allows you to search for images on the basis of colors.
It also has a network of content sites that includes 1stWebDesigner (web design resources & tutorials) and PSDDD (free web & mobile app design resources).
NegativeSpace creators also maintain a collection of tools for web developers, they are JSONLint, JSCompress, JSONCompare, RandomKeygen, and DNS-Lookup.
19. Picography
Picography has been providing stunning images to millions of people for the past 3 years.
It is now one of the top sources for gorgeous, high-resolution, free photos.
You can use any of their free stock photos however and wherever you like, with no attribution required as all photos are CC0 licensed.
Some of the categories in which you will find images are abstract, architecture, business, food, fashion, music, technology, sport, people, and more.
You can also get a 1 month’s free trial of Shutterstock through this website.
20. Rgbstock
Rgbstock is created by a group of enthusiastic photographers and graphic artists.
Its vision is to build the best free stock image site on the web and is dedicated to making high-quality images available to those who cannot afford to pay for them.
Rgbstock has a huge number of high-quality free stock photos and dazzling free graphics for illustrations, wallpapers, and backgrounds.
It has what you are looking for, with more than 100,000 free stock photos online.
You can simply join the platform and start contributing.
21. FoodiesFeed
Next on our list is a website that is dedicated to free food stock photos i.e. FoodiesFeed.
It is the best resource for highly visually appealing free food photos in high resolution.
Jakub Kapusnak started Foodiesfeed 3 years ago, completely from scratch without any programming or online marketing skills.
It was a simple personal project to give away his food photos that started to pile up shortly after he got passionate about food photography.
Over 1.6 million food images have already been downloaded from the platform and over 3.7 million photos viewed.
Foodiesfeed is a worldwide community of food photographers that help designers, food and nutrition bloggers, social media managers, business owners, and others to create beautiful things.
It’s a place where the demand for world-class food photos gets satisfied completely for free.
You can log in or sign up to the website and upload your own food images for free.
22. Freestocks.org
Freestocks.org boasts a collection of free high-resolution stock photos.
The site offers royalty-free stock images for both Commercial and Personal Projects under the CC0 license (read more).
Freestocks.org images are not your cliché free stock images worn out a long time ago but rather a source of photos that are fresh, up-to-date, and versatile in style so that they are fit for everybody’s everyday use as well as for more complex and specified projects.
You will find a wide range of themes for various purposes and occasions you might need to use the images for.
The collection is divided into several categories, such as people, nature, fashion, food drinks, and more so that you can easily browse through a section of your interest.
You can also search for any given topic using a search box.
The search for the desired image can be narrowed by choosing a specific category instead of browsing the whole page.
23. New Old Stock
As the name suggests, New Old Stock features a huge library of vintage photos from the public archives.
All the available images are free of known copyright restrictions and can be used for personal and commercial purposes.
New Old Stock can be a great site for people looking for HD images of the history, events, and scenarios.
You can easily search for images by entering your keyword in the search tab.
New Old Stock also offers photo packs for easy access.
24. Foca Stock
FOCA provides free CC0 photography for personal and commercial use on websites, projects, themes, apps, and more.
You will find free photos, videos, and templates for commercial use.
FOCA has over 95,000 downloads and has also been featured on Shopify and Canva.
You can also create custom and free social media graphics with FOCA Editor.
FOCA offers an amazing collection of images in categories such as abstract, animals, buildings, business, people, sports, spring, textures, technology, and more.
25. SkitterPhoto
Skitterphoto was launched in 2014 by amateur photographers with day jobs from Groningen and Drenthe in The Netherlands.
All photos on Skitterphoto are public domain. This means that all photos are free to use for any purpose.
You may download and edit photos and even use them commercially.
And if you’re a photographer and want to share your photos with people who need a photo for their blog, website, or other media, you can join Skitterphoto.
You can simply browse free photos in categories like animals, business, finance, food, technology, sports, music, people, and more.
26. Picspree
Picspree is another good site that offers free images for websites.
All the photos come with a CC0 license and don’t require attribution or credits.
It helps you discover and download beautiful royalty-free images, stock photos, illustrations, and vectors that are free for personal and commercial.
You can easily browse categories such as family, food, jobs, nature, technology, education, business, fitness, lifestyle, and more.
Picspree also allows you to join the platform and the website is available in many languages.
The free stock photo site also offers premium images and videos.
27. Styled Stock
Styled Stock is a unique website that provides beautiful free feminine stock photography.
You can also subscribe to their website and receive exclusive free photos directly in your inbox.
On Styled Stock you will find images in categories such as beauty, business, desktops, fashion, florals, food, frames, lifestyle, and mugs.
You can filter your image search by color.
Most of the images on the platform have a slight feminine touch that is perfect for women bloggers and entrepreneurs.
Styled Stock also has its own blog.
28. Libreshot
LibreShot (former freepix.eu) is a project started by Martin Vorel that contains free stock photos for private and commercial use.
You can use all their photos for free, without attribution or credits.
Libreshot features images in categories such as animals, architecture, nature, technology, background, Buddhism, landscape, technology, travel, plants, winter, environment, and more.
All the images on the website come under CC) – public domain, so you can use them anywhere with peace.
29. Good Stock Photos
Good Stock Photos is a project of SparkFlow and offers high-quality and high-resolution photos.
All photos here are free to use anywhere you want, in whatever you want.
You can use the free photos from this site on your blog or website, app or software, social media, online advertisements, and more.
The images on Good Stock Photos are categorized under nature, people, activities, architecture, transportation, things, and scapes.
Conclusion – Best Free Stock Photo Sites
Images are one of the most interactive forms of content but are often costly to buy.
Not only are pictures pleasing to watch they also make content more engaging and easy to digest.
These top free stock photo sites will provide you with high-resolution images that are absolutely free for personal and commercial use and come with a CC0 license.
So whatever your photo needs for that upcoming project be, these stock photo websites will help you find the best royalty-free high-definition image in a matter of few clicks.
I hope you found this list of the best free stock photo sites in 2022 helpful.
And if you did, don’t forget to share it with your friends and family, and also do subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay updated on all our latest resources on digital marketing, startups, small businesses, and entrepreneurship.
Also, don’t forget to mention your favorite free stock photo site in the comment section below.
