Being one of the best stock photography sites, Pexels hosts an enormous collection of free images as well as MP4 clips. This site is user-friendly, however, it doesn’t have an advanced search feature.
This platform is targeting complete beginners and enthusiasts. That’s why people who are interested in something more advanced want to find sites like Pexels that come with better functionality.
Since most of Pexels' library is filled with content aimed at marketing purposes, it can be very difficult to find images for more story-driven posts. Thankfully, the internet is full of websites like Pexels that provide the exact type of photos you need for all your projects.
Verdict: Adobe Stock is among the most popular sites like Pexels on the market, as it provides convenient access to stock images that you can download in a matter of seconds.
This platform offers a solid combination of free assets and premium stock images that you can purchase. The main advantage is that any image or video you get can be accessed straight from the Adobe software of your choice, be it Photoshop, Lightroom, or another tool.
Adobe Stock lets you pick from 3 main subscription packages. The base package will send you back $35.99/month and includes 10 standard assets per month. Additionally, you’ll be able to transfer up to 120 unused assets to the next month.
The second package costs $59.99/month and includes 25 standard assets or 3 HD clips. Similar to the first plan, if you have unused assets, a total of 300 of them can be carried over to the next month. The third package is priced at $239.99/month and includes 750 assets or 25 HD clips.
Verdict: Shutterstock is a fantastic resource for buying top-tier quality stock photos and some of the best free stock videos. Additionally, this platform lets you download vector illustrations, mockups, and other assets suitable for various graphic design projects.
You can also use Shutterstock to edit. For instance, you can tweak size to match specific requirements imposed by Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.
Shutterstock lets you pick between 3 subscription plans. You can either get a monthly plan without a contract for $49 a month, a yearly subscription for a monthly cost of $29, or a yearly subscription with an advance payment of $229 per year.
Verdict: Pixabay is a fantastic alternative to Pexels that lets you download and use images and video clips without crediting the creator, which isn’t the case with most other platforms. This service also allows you to sell photos online and add your own videos for other users to buy.
This platform offers free access to its assets as long as you limit your usage to personal projects.
Pixabay also offers a free API, which allows you to show the people who view your content where the pictures and clips came from. In this case, you’ll need a link to Pixabay, which you can present in the form of their logo. This is the only thing they ask for as thanks for free API usage.
Verdict: Flickr provides a large collection of photos that can be used for either commercial or personal projects. The search engine built into this platform is a bit more advanced than the one found in Pexels since Flickr lets you not only search for images but also people and even groups. This platform also offers access to a photo book maker which allows you to design and sell photography books.
Flickr is available for free as long as you stick to basic usage. However, if you want to enjoy some extra features, you’ll need to get a subscription.
A monthly plan will send you back $8.49/month, a yearly plan costs $6.67/month, and the price for a 2-year subscription comes down to $5.99/month. By purchasing one of these plans, you’ll receive unlimited storage, zero ads, access to analytics, and a data backup feature.
Verdict: Kaboompics currently hosts over 17k free stock photos, the vast majority of which can be viewed and categorized by “Photoshoot” or specific tags. Additionally, this platform lets you filter the library by color palette, orientation, size, tags, and other parameters that make using it extremely convenient while significantly increasing your chances of finding the exact image you need.
Kaboompics also offers a handy business blog that contains posts, which will help you grow and promote your business.
All photos available on Kaboompics can be downloaded for free. It’s forbidden to sell the downloaded images, use them for establishing a competing service, or offending other users. Lastly, they can't be used for creating ads that promote your product or services.
Verdict: Unsplash is a Pexels alternative that also provides a huge array of free stock images and visual assets while offering a far superior search engine and categorization that will help you easily find specific photos by simply typing in the desired search terms. You can also use this platform to make money with stock photos by contributing your own work.
If you want to use Unsplash for free, you have to adhere to just 2 rules. You can’t sell the downloaded images or use them to start a competing service. If you’d like to use the available content for commercial projects, you can purchase an Unsplash subscription for just $4/month.
Verdict: Burst was created to host a huge array of images, particularly ones suited for commercial projects, as a lot of the photos here are tailored to the hottest business ideas trending on the market. Additionally, the platform’s home page offers a weekly feature of the top free images. All the assets available on Burst can be downloaded completely for free. Additionally, you can get them in one of several resolutions depending on your needs thanks to the “Photo Size” feature.
The images offered by Burst can be used for free for any type of project. All assets are royalty-free and don't require any attribution. As such, they can be freely employed for college projects, ad campaigns, menus, websites, etc. Since they can even be used for commercial purposes, you can feature the downloaded images on your t-shirts, mugs, and other products as you see fit.
Pexels is supported by the ads shown to the platform’s visitors, which is a rarity among premium stock image sites. It focuses exclusively on providing photo and video content and doesn’t offer any illustrations or sound files.
The biggest issue with Pexels is that it doesn’t enforce indemnification when copyright infringements occur. This is the main reason why photographers abandon this platform and look for other sites like Pexels that treat their contributors better.
Adobe Stock is the ultimate Pexels alternative, especially if you’re already using the Creative Cloud platform. It offers smoother performance and it’s also integrated into a larger number of software options, which makes using it a lot more convenient.
