In the past, if you wanted to have gorgeous photos or videos for your web project you had two choices: hire a photographer/videographer OR buy crazy expensive stock photos/videos. Both options requires you to spend some money... however there is now a third (and very attractive) alternative and it's driven by people who are talented and passionate about their work.
Enter the world of free stock photos and videos.
Picture this: you're good with a camera, real good, and you do have a lot of fun taking photos and shooting videos, you're not all that interested in being a photographer or videographer full time but you do want to share your passion with other people... so what do you do? Give your work away for free.
In recent years a lot of passionate photo/video folks have followed this model and now the Internet is filled with sites that offer free photos and videos but how do you know which one is the best? How do you know which ones you should visit? We can help you with that.
We put researched and compiled a list of the top places to find quality free stock photos and videos. One super-important thing to remember is that people are giving these away for free and if there is anything you can do to help them (like give them a link on a 'Photo Credits' page on your site) while most of these are not required you should do it.
NOTE 1: If you want to see how we calculated this score, scroll down below the table.
NOTE 2: This table was last updated on November 13th, 2016.
NOTE 3: If you have a great resource that is not included here please email us.
| Name | Media Type | Signup required? | Attribution required? | Searchable? | # of Items | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pexels | Photos & Videos | No | No | Yes | 500+ | 100 |
| Pixabay | Photos & Videos | No | No | Yes | 500+ | 100 |
| Negative Space | Photos Only | No | No | Yes | 500+ | 88 |
| Life Of Pix | Photos Only | No | No | Yes | 500+ | 88 |
| Unsplash | Photos Only | No | No | Yes | 500+ | 88 |
| Magdeleine | Photos Only | No | Sometimes | Yes | Can't determine | 81 |
| Picography | Photos Only | No | No | Yes | 100-500 | 81 |
| Coverr | Videos Only | No | No | Yes | 100-500 | 81 |
| Re:splashed | Photos Only | No | No | No | 500+ | 75 |
| Videezy | Videos Only | No | Yes | Yes | 500+ | 75 |
| IM Free | Photos Only | No | Yes | Yes | 500+ | 75 |
| Little Visuals | Photos Only | No | No | Yes | 0-100 | 75 |
| Videvo | Videos Only | No | No | Yes | Can't determine | 69 |
| Mazwai | Videos Only | No | Sometimes | Yes | 0-100 | 69 |
| Free HD Footage | Videos Only | No | No | No | 100-500 | 69 |
| Lock and Stock Photos | Photos Only | No | No | Yes | Can't determine | 69 |
| Free Range Stock | Photos Only | Yes | Sometimes | Yes | 500+ | 69 |
| Stokpic | Photos Only | No | No | Yes | Can't determine | 69 |
| SplitShire | Photos Only | No | No | Yes | Can't determine | 69 |
| We Distill | Videos Only | No | No | Yes | Can't determine | 69 |
| Gratisography | Photos Only | No | No | Yes | Can't determine | 69 |
| Ignite Motion | Videos Only | No | No | No | 0-100 | 56 |
| Stock Footage For Free | Videos Only | Yes | No | Yes | Can't determine | 56 |
| GetRefe | Photos Only | No | No | No | Can't determine | 56 |
| Death to stock photo | Photos Only | Yes | No | No | Can't determine | 43 |
