Chances are you’re pretty tired of seeing traditional stock photos of people in suits shaking hands. Not only are they bland and uninteresting, but they also cost money. The good news is that there has been a rise in great stock photo sites that you can use for free – yes, for both personal and commercial use.
In this showcase I put together a collection of 20 sites with beautiful free stock photos that you can choose from. Hopefully, they will help you to spice up your future designs. Do read the licenses carefully though as some of these services and photos may require proper attribution.
Recommended Reading: 30 More Websites To Download Stock Photos & Royalty-Free Images
Compfight
Compfight is an image search engine. You can use it to look for the images that you need quickly. If you want a little demonstration, just click on the ‘show me what compfight can do’ button.
Life of Pix
Life of Pix lets you grab free high resolution images with no copyright restrictions. New photos are also added weekly to give you an array of choices.
Superfamous
Superfamous provides you with free stock photos available for download in high resolution. What’s great about it is that you can search under different collections. You may use them as you like as long as credit is provided.
IM Creator Free
IM Free is a new feature of IM Creator. It’s a curated collection of free resources for commercial use. Make sure to read the license of each image before using as some photos may require attribution.
Getrefe
If you’re looking for pictures with a different point of view, you can give this one a go. Here you’ll find free mobile photos for personal and commercial projects.
Snapographic
All of the images on the website are taken by Thomas Mühl and are free of copyright restrictions. You can search for what you need via the categories located at the bottom of the page.
Lock & Stock Photos
All the images you see on Lock & Stock Photos are the works of AJ Montpetit. He is giving back to the open source community (which he greatly admires) by sharing his photographs under the Creative Commons License ShareAlike 4.0.
Snapwire Snaps
This Tumblr blog with free stock photos is run by Snapwire. Snapwire is a site where mobile stock photographers can submit their photos to answer various requests made by others. Snapwire Snaps provides 7 new photos every week.
New Old Stock
New Old Stock is a site curated and created by Cole Townsend. The idea behind this project is to publish old retro photos from Public Archives which are free of known copyright restrictions. So if you’re looking for more retro photos for your project, you know where to look at.
Jeshoots
Jeshoots is another great site with free high-quality stock photos. You can use the search bar to find what you need or have a browse under categories which features people, animals, food and architecture among other things. If you’re unsure about anything, you can take a look at the FAQ section.
Cupcake
All the images you’ll find on Cupcake are captured by Jonas Nilsson Lee. There may not be as many choices compared to some of the other sites but you can choose from scenery, landscape, objects and animals.
Kaboompics
Kaboompics is a great place to find breathtaking photos for your design projects. You can use the regular search box, look via tags or look under the different categories featured at the top to find the best picture. A new photo is added daily.
Foodies Feed
This site is definitely one that’s made for foodies. Here you’ll find delectable pictures of food. To browse through the free stock photo options, take a look under ‘Free Download’ at the side menu.
Jay Mantri
This lovely site is run by a photographer and traveler Jay Mantri. He uploads 7 new photos every Thursday, so there’s plenty to choose from.
DesignersPics.com
Get a free high resolution photo each day with no attribution required from DesignersPics.com. The names on the photos are pretty generic so you may want to use the category or search option to find things easily.
Raumrot
Raumrot features a selection of photos that have been curated and handpicked for our convenience. There are plenty of different photos to choose from but make sure to give credit to the creator.
Magdeleine
Here’s another stock photo site that delights. Instead of just searching by categories or licenses, you can also search via the dominant color featured in the pictures. Definitely a handy thing for designers looking to save some time.
Public Domain Archive
Public Domain Archive is not specifically a free stock photo site but they do have an extensive collection of free stock photos without copyrights. With new uploads weekly, you will surely find something that catches your fancy.
Startup Stock Photos.
This Tumblr blog is a selection of high-quality stock photos for personal and commercial use. As the name itself suggests, this would be especially helpful for startups. And yes, the photos are free.
Photo Pin
Photo Pin is a collection of photos under the Creative Commons license from Flickr. Just type what you’re looking for in the search bar and it will show you all the different results and you can even sort them according to recent, relevance and "interestingness".
