By Eva Williams 22 days ago, Apps and Software
Adobe Stock is a world-famous platform providing a vast collection of royalty-free content. All images and other media are of high quality. However, Adobe Stock is available only for users with an active Creative Cloud account. That’s why users who don’t have any, look for Adobe Stock alternatives.
Adobe Stock offers photos, videos, vector images, 3D assets, and other media and design elements. The platform is mostly based on the library of the old microstock agency Fotolia.
You may use the platform to get images and hone your editing skills in Photoshop, create vector graphics in Adobe Illustrator, and edit 3D models in Adobe Dimension. However, if you are not professionally involved in the sphere, you can pay attention to reliable Adobe Stock alternatives.
In case you are looking for the platform very similar to Adobe Stock, check out the alternatives below. The list describes the best Adobe Stock alternatives with first-class royalty-free visual content. Some platforms offer free content, while others charge truly acceptable prices.
If you are a professional designer or specialize in another creative industry, and are looking for high-quality images, Adobe Stock is a great source to visit. But if you are searching for a stock website for non-professional use, consider similar software to Adobe Stock.
Shutterstock is the best stock photography site for commercial use. It offers an abundance of stock media for designers and other specialists.
The platform provides royalty-free images, videos, and even audio files. In case you need stock vector images, you can also find them on the site. So, if you don’t feel like using vector graphics software, find ready-made vector images on Shutterstock.
Main Shutterstock Features:
For today, Shutterstock’s collection includes more than 300 million stock media files. It is constantly extended with more than 100 thousand images on a daily basis. The service is mainly popular among businessmen, marketing experts, PR experts, and other single-subject specialists who need good visual royalty-free content.
Comparing Adobe Stock vs Shutterstock, I’ve found out that the latter has an in-built picture editor. Thus, you can enhance images, add simple visual effects, crop photos, etc. Even a complete beginner can use the editor to improve pictures. The subscription costs only $29 a month.
iStock contains more than 8 million royalty-free photographs, video clips, and vector images. Like Unsplash, the site works under the lead of Getty Images. It greatly expands the range of stock materials. The minimal subscription allows getting 10 images a month for $2.49 each.
Main iStock Features:
All images and videos on the website are divided into two big groups ‒ Essentials and Signature. The first group includes visuals at budget prices for everyday use. The second group offers premium materials presented exclusively on this platform. They are unique, so you won’t find them anywhere else. When it comes to the subscription, you can subscribe to the whole catalog or the group Essentials.
Collections developed for narrow use are of particular value. For example, you can find photos and videos on such topics as disability, gender fluid, body positivity, people of color, generation Z, LGBTQI+, weird stock photos, etc. Such content is suitable for social and art projects. In addition, this alternative to Adobe Stock has an in-built image editor to make slight corrections.
Pixabay contains more than one million stock media materials. The biggest part of the content is photos, but there are also videos, illustrations, vector graphics, and audio files. This alternative to Adobe Stock is free and the promotion is carried out by dint of the sponsored content.
Main Pixabay Features:
All images, as well as other types of media, are available on Pixabay for personal and business purposes. You can apply any changes to them, edit them as you like, but it’s forbidden to distribute them on other stock platforms.
You can use several search options to find necessary assets, including by authors, themes, or create more complicated search queries. Moreover, the search engine doesn’t make difference between singular/plural and lowercase/uppercase, so you will get the desired result at all events. You can also use various symbols (you can see them on the site) that help clarify the search, delete certain results, make several queries simultaneously (for example, flowers and trees), etc.
Offering an abundance of photos and videos, Pexels belongs to the most popular Adobe Stock alternatives. All content is available under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. Thus, your access to native content is unlimited.
Main Pexels Features:
The platform has pretty convenient navigation by categories. When starting the search, you can see recent and popular queries. Apart from native photos and videos, the site offers a wide range of sponsor content. Thanks to this content, the service functions and provides user images and videos for free.
Popular photo collections are separately located on the site, so you can easily find them. There are also curated collections grouped by topics. Moreover, you can find works of particular photographers since the service makes a list of the top creative specialists and their projects. Apart from the possibility to sell photos online, authors can participate in various competitions and challenges and popularize their works.
Depositphotos grants free pictures, graphics, vectors and videos for free once the initial permission is secured. With Depositphotos, you don’t get a free trial unlike Adobe Stock free trial, so be ready to pick a suitable vpricing plan in order to receive royalty-free pictures without watermarks.
For photographers and illustrators who want to sell their work on Dreamstime, there's a contributor dashboard. This dashboard allows contributors to upload, manage, and track their submissions, earnings, and portfolio statistics.
The starting price is $69 for 5 pics daily for 1 month ($0.46 per picture). When buying or selling pictures, take advantage of money-saving Depositphotos coupons.
Main Depositphotos Features:
Depositphotos is one of the most well-known Adobe Stock alternatives, which is notable for its extensive content catalog. It is incredibly convenient to search for the necessary visual materials on the platform since the website is perfectly organized and equipped with filters. All files are divided into categories, and you can search within them. There is also a possibility to search by picture – you just need to drag your file in a special field.
If you don’t know exactly which pics, videos or graphics to use, the most popular search queries are presented on the website. This way, you will be able to navigate the trends, as well as pick the right materials to bring to life any of your creative ideas.
Unsplash is still an independent stock photo finder containing stock pictures even though it has been bought by Getty Images. At the moment, it functions separately, replenishing its library with royalty-free novelties available at no charge. The service is free, but you need to register to be able to use it.
Main Unsplash Features:
This alternative to Adobe Stock presents a vast array of topics, such as food and drinks, schools, current events, people, fashion, technology, family, real estate photos and so on. Here you will find plenty of unique themes, which are usually absent on other similar services.
Among them are pictures of spirituality, art and culture, bokeh photography, liquid macro abstracts and even COVID-19 photos. Free textures and patterns are also present here.
Thanks to a special license, you may use Unsplash pictures without attribution for business purposes. The main benefit of the platform is the high quality of pictures, so you don’t have to improve and edit them for further use. Even though the service is free, you are welcome to thank the author of the picture by making a voluntary contribution.
Stock Photo Secrets is one of the most affordable stock video sites and photo resources. This is a nice solution for small and medium-sized businesses, startups or personal purposes. The minimum subscription price is $39 for 5 files.
Main Stock Photo Secrets Features:
All pictures, videos, vector images, as well as fonts, are available for commercial use without attribution. The platform presents files in different quality and size options, so you can even download photos in XXL sizes without additional charge.
Stock Photo Secrets is one of the greatest Adobe Stock alternatives due to the beneficial offer for those who need stock pictures in large quantities. 99club allows purchasing a package of 200 pictures for only $99. The pictures are available for use throughout the year.
In addition, pictures with an extended license can be purchased on the platform. The license enables you to print 300,000 copies or more and is required if you wish to use pictures for commercial purposes.
Dreamstime offers visual content not only under a royalty-free license. It also includes the purchase of picture copyright (extended, editorial and full one). The platform boasts a really impressive array of files that can be used for commercial and personal purposes without attribution. The minimum plan of 5 pictures will cost you $25 per month.
Main Dreamstime Features:
Feel free to set the search parameters for the media by such categories as photo, only editorial content, illustrations, videos, audio, only vector/RAWs. You will also come across featured collections (represented by a number of topics) and weekly free content. Besides, Dreamstime has created a Photo Map option that lets you find geographical maps and shots of certain locations.
This alternative to Adobe Stock offers a selection of subscriptions to tailor to the needs of any user. It is possible to order small packages consisting of 5 pictures for single use, or, for instance, choose an annual subscription with 9,000 files if you constantly need stock materials.
