I think you’ll agree with me when I say:
Finding images for your website is a painstaking process. And finding FREE images is even harder.
Until now.
I recently spent several days putting together a list of websites that offer public domain images. These websites all offer their images under a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license, which essentially means you’re free to use the images without copyright restrictions.
You:
- Don’t have to provide attribution (though they would still appreciate it)
- Can use them for personal or commercial purposes
- Can edit and modify them to your heart’s content
Even still, you may want to read each individual website’s Terms of Service first, so you know EXACTLY what you can do, and just in case they’ve changed their terms since the last time I checked.
I did not include certain large free image websites in this list, because many of them allow people like you and I to submit our own photos to them.
Now, that wouldn’t be a problem except that sometimes people will submit stock photos they bought somewhere else on the web to these sites, giving them the appearance of having a CC0 license.
If you were caught using one of these stolen images on your website, even if you had done so unintentionally, you could get in a huge legal mess and have to pay a big fine.
To avoid this happening, be sure to check the Terms of Service. If they offer you NO protection in the case of a lawsuit, don’t use that site no matter how “free” they claim to be.
For this list, I’ve only included sites that are safe to use (at the time of writing)
DISCLAIMER:
I am NOT a lawyer. The above is not to be taken as legal advice.
Without further ado, here’s the list (in no particular order). I’ve included a sample image from each website.
29 Websites with Royalty Free Images for Commercial Use
- Owned by Ryan McGuire
- Stunning, high resolution
- Perfect if you need something on the weird and quirky side, but there are plenty of “normal” photos there too.
- 6 categories to choose from
- Has a search function
- Owned by Viktor Hanacek
- Huge portfolio
- Nearly 5,000,000 photos downloaded since 2013
- Multiple categories
- Search function
- Premium membership option
- Owned by Jeffrey Betts
- Large portfolio
- Mostly business-related and nature photos
- Search feature included
- Owned by Karolina
- Huge variety
- Tons to choose from
- Search feature
- Nearly 2.5 million downloads
- Created by Igor Ovsyannykov
- Variety of categories
- Search feature
- Large portfolio of high quality photos
- All pictures by Martin Vorel
- Large portfolio
- A variety of categories
- Search feature
- Owned by Daniel Nanescu
- Wide variety to choose from
- Search feature
- Also has free videos
- Multiple contributing photographers
- Massive selection
- Search feature
- Multiple contributing photographers
- Many different categories
- Tons of photos
- Search feature
- No longer updated because the owner passed away (RIP Nic)
- Many stunning photos, mostly depicting landscapes
- Curated by Henry Reyes
- Wide variety of photos
- Search feature
- Created by Adrian Pelletier
- Many beautiful nature photos
- Search feature
- Created by Jakub Kapusnak
- All photos are food-related
- Premium option available
- Search feature
- Created by João Pacheco
- Lots of nature-related photos
- Search feature
- Created by Klaye Morrison
- High-quality photos
- You can’t download images individually; you have to download them as sets
- In order to download a set, you must provide your email address
- Owned by Kiran BV and Aditya G Bharadwaj
- Mostly travel/nature related photos
- Search feature
- Several contributing photographers
- Many categories
- Over 700 photos
- Search feature
- Owned by Moni
- Many categories, but a large amount of office and nature photos
- Search feature
- Several different categories
- Huge number of photos
- Search feature
- Owned by a team of people
- Every picture is food-related
- Premium packages available
- Search feature
- Owned by Nordwood Themes, a WordPress theme development company
- Hundreds of photos
- Large variety
- All photos by Daria
- Good variety, with lots of photos featuring vintage items
- Search feature
- Hundreds of photos to choose from
- Wide variety
- Search feature
- No high resolution
- Many categories
- Huge variety
- Ad-free
- Hundreds of photos
- No high resolution
- Several different categories to choose from
- Search feature
- Created by Alex Constantine
- Wide range of images
- Search feature
- Owned by Oliur Rahman
- A decent variety, but with heavy emphasis on office/workspace-related photos
- Owned by Jeshu John
- Large portfolio
- Multiple categories
- Search feature
- Several categories to choose from
- Particular emphasis on nature and buildings
- Search feature
So, there you have it! Whenever you need royalty free images for commercial use, you now have a hefty list of websites to choose from.
I hope you found this post helpful. Feel free to share it with your friends and followers on social media, or leave a comment below. 🙂
Can’t believe unsplash.com didn’t make this list
Hey Will,
Unsplash allows anyone to submit their photographs to the site. This means someone could go and purchase an image from Fotolia for example, then make a few changes to it, and upload it to Unsplash, essentially giving it a CC0 license when in reality, it costs. If you were caught using this stolen image on your website, even unintentionally, you could get in big trouble and have to pay substantial fines. If you read Unsplash’s Terms of Service, you’ll notice they provide no protection for their users in the case of a lawsuit.
Now of course, this scenario is unlikely to happen. But enough people have experienced this that it’s simply not worth the risk. That’s why I only linked to websites that are safe to use. You can definitely continue using Unsplash if you wish, but just be aware of the risk involved.
You are right.. Unplash, Pexels and Pixabay are the best free photo aggregator but they do not have their own images. Other website for add is https://photostockeditor.com