The 5 most known free stock photos and images websites

In our era, visuals and images are everywhere. Our eyes are the best asset marketers worldwide use to attract our attention. Each of us consumes hundreds of images every day without even noticing it : on billboards while driving, while walking in the street, in shops, scrolling on our smartphones, everywhere…

Keep asset provenance with the design file

A free stock-photo collection is a place to look for an image, not a universal permission for every intended use. Check the actual asset, provider terms and context before adding it to an approved campaign.

Keep the source page, creator information, download date and relevant licence reference with the project. Distinguish a platform’s free collection from a separate paid offer. A historical library count does not describe its current inventory.

The Unsplash licence, Pexels licence and Pixabay Content License describe their own permissions and restrictions. Do not describe every current Pixabay image as CC0 or every free image as restriction-free. Check identifiable people, brands and the intended use where relevant.

For an illustrative campaign, choose a source image and review the proposed crop, headline and implication together. An image should not suggest an endorsement or product result that the campaign cannot support.

Use the photographic handover, the representation review and the website image checklist to carry source information through to the final asset. The legacy Reshot and Skitterphoto links are retained; their current availability and terms are not certified by this revision.

Practical guidance revised November 1, 2026. Examples are illustrative.

To make sure that we all catch attention of others, we have to showcase the most appealing content as possible. Finding images and most especially free and amazing photos can sometimes be difficult. Google images is a great inspiration source but you can not use Google images due to their copyrights limitation. Check the sites below if you are looking for copyright free stock photography or editorial photography for sports or news.

Discover in this post, 5th of many websites that we think are the most famous and will improve your creative productivity.

Unsplash

With Unsplash, you can browse its current collection; the original 850,000-photo count is historical rather than a current inventory statement.

With a huge library of photos and thousands more being added each day, chances are you will find the right photos for your project.

As part as photos, Unsplash is known to support photographers and creators, the original contributor count is historical; check the current collection and creator profiles. Photos are sorted inside collections and its really impressive how easy it is to navigate through their website.

By the way, we, at Pixelixe, described a photo-library integration in our original 2019 guide to the free graphic design creation app thanks to Unsplash’s API.

Pexels

The pexels.com website help millions of designers, writers, artists, programmers and other creators to get access to beautiful photos that they can use freely which empowers them to create amazing products, designs, stories, websites, apps, art and other work.

Pexels provides high quality and completely free stock photos licensed under the Pexels license. All photos are nicely tagged, searchable and also easy to discover through the discover pages.

Their baseline is “Empowering Creators”.

Pixabay

Pixabay.com offers stock media under its applicable terms. Its current Content License has restrictions; do not describe all current assets as CC0 or restriction-free. Check the selected asset and intended use.

Skitterphoto

The original 2019 profile described skitterphoto.com as a CC0 photo collection. Current availability and asset terms were not verified here; confirm them for the selected file rather than assuming every use is unrestricted.

Skitterphoto offers some truly unique photos and depending on which you choose, you may also get a personal story from the photographer about how and where the picture was taken.

Skitterphoto was launched in 2014 by amateur photographers in The Netherlands.

Reshot

The original 2019 profile described Reshot as a source of stock photos. Its current collection and terms were not verified during this revision; retain the link as a historical reference and confirm the offer before reuse.

Reshot aims to unify creators via a free exchange of the world’s best visual content. Reshot provides emerging photographers with a beautiful platform for sharing a sampling of their best work for free use in creative projects.

Conclusion

Whatever the project you have, whether you simply need to add colors and add visual tips in your next powerpoint presentation, whether you want to choose a background for your own wallpaper or post on your social media feeds, you must source colorful, stuning images to inspire your audience and motivate them to follow your arguments.

We hope that this post has been useful to you. Once you found your images, keep in mind that we provide an online editor with free features alongside paid services whose current asset availability should be checked in the editor; the 2019 inventory counts are not a present guarantee. Discover our online editor at https://studio.pixelixe.com/.