If you're a freelancer or designer looking for quality Flickr alternatives to offer professional stocks of images, graphics, and videos in 8k+ resolution, then check out this article. Described services include unique features and benefits that can be useful both for making money and inspiration.
After Flickr removed the free 1TB of storage in 2018 and limited the options to 7 downloads per week (for free plans), many photographers rushed to look for more convenient alternatives to Flickr for publishing their photos or buying licenses from other photographers to use their work.
When compiling a list of Flickr competitors, we paid attention to the quality of stock photos, their quantity, licenses, and convenient terms for photographers. Mentioned platforms and stocks go with unique features. For example, Adobe Stock integrates with the editors.
Most similar to Flickr platforms serve as sources for inspiration. You can look at the work of other photographers, comment and chat with them in messengers, or create libraries and share your images, making money (on some platforms).
Adobe Stock is the ultimate stock photography tool for designers worldwide. It includes over 220 million high-resolution photos. Since you can view any photo, test it in your designs, and edit without paying, Adobe Stock tops our stock photography sites list. Besides, the software integrates all chosen photos into your editor, including LR, PS, or Ai.
Content available in the core Adobe Stock library includes free photos, illustrations, and high-quality vector graphics. It works great for professional use (all photos are available in JPEG, not JPG).
Main Features of Adobe Stock:
The platform offers additional media types available as premium content. To get access, you have to buy, paying as you go (you can't use subscription downloads to get them). These special resources include premium photos, stock videos, graphic templates, and 3D models.
Shutterstock is a worthy alternative to Flickr that works great for both companies and individuals who want to upload multiple stock photos since it is cheap (about $0.22 per photo). Similar to Adobe, the photo stock has 200+ million high-resolution files. It works great for both personal and commercial projects. Shutterstock has a built-in photo editor where you can perform basic manipulations on your photos before uploading. Smartphone users will enjoy a convenient mobile version.
Main Features of Shutterstock:
Shutterstock offers various plans for customers. It allows you to earn from 25 cents to $75 per image uploading and $2.50 to $23 per video one. The service increases download payments when your total income grows to $500, $3,000, and $10,000. You can receive payments via PayPal, Moneybookers, or check. The minimum withdrawal amount is $75, while the maximum is $2000.
500px is one of the best photo sharing app to get inspiration from other photographers. Besides, it allows you to sell pictures. Working with 500px you can join groups to quickly gain popularity as a photographer. You can easily upload photos to your profile and organize them into galleries from both browsers and smartphones.
Main Features of 500px:
The platform lets you easily license your photos, however, restricts setting a price. 500px has a very informative and user-friendly help center with various articles.
SmugMug is similar to Flickr online platform where you can find images and share them with your friends and audience using the photo-sharing feature. SmugMug has an interesting and useful image filtering option. With the help of filters, you can customize the theme and personalize the profile.
Main Features of SmugMug:
SmugMug has such useful features as labor protection. It puts a watermark on your image, protecting you from photo stealing. Besides, you will enjoy the gallery creation option. You can make galleries with more than 5000+ photos and videos and integrate them with social networks. Compared to Flickr, the platform offers integration with Lightroom which is especially useful for avid photographers.
Photobucket lets you interact with other users as if on a social network using similar tags, follow each other and get inspiration from the best works. As a photographer, you can share individual photos, slideshows, or entire albums with the community. While Photobucket isn't as techy or stylish as 500px, it offers a simple and intuitive experience.
Main Features of PhotoBucket:
The free plan offers basic options with download limits, while the PRO plan includes unique features such as custom URLs creation for fast sharing. You can make slideshows with up to 100+ photos, different themes, captions, and backgrounds. Besides, the platform works as unlimited photo storage.
1x Libraries includes a moderation option, showing you only the best shots. Nearly 3-5% of uploaded images can pass moderation. If you're looking for good shots of nature, animals, skylines, female forms, or just colorful pictures for the design, 1x is your choice.
Main Features of 1x:
You cannot find bad-quality photos since published shots have been professionally edited, including enhanced saturation, white balance, and noise reduction. However, this alternative to Flickr has a low rating as a tool for photographers since the terms and conditions extremely cut your rights. It doesn’t allow you to set the price, refuse to sell an image, remove it after publishing on the site, etc.
DeviantArt is an open platform for artists to post their work, including paintings, ruches, and photographs. It's mostly a community for inspiration, where you can follow artists' work, leave comments, and chat. DeviantArt is the largest social network for artists with 3.8 million weekly visits and almost 140,000 posts per day.
Main Features of DevianArt:
Since it's a free community site, it includes jargon, such as obscene images, violence, and nudity. That’s why this platform doesn’t work for children under 16 yo.
The platform is full of inspiration for photographers. Instagram is free to use. Aspiring photographers can subscribe to various pages and look at professional works, leave comments, communicate with creators, and discover practical tips from posts.
Main Features of Instagram:
Instagram is a free platform with open access to content. However, you can’t use other people's materials to create a design since it’s against copyright. Thus, the platform can delete your posts with plagiarism. You can't earn money for your pictures, thus Instagram works as a photo-sharing platform.
