Looking for the best Pexels alternatives? If yes, below you will find the best free image websites like pexels.
Sites like Pexels are a gift from the heavens. All the free high-quality images would usually come at a price, but these sites offer them for free. Every picture on Pexels is available for free.
It doesn’t matter how you use it, either. As long as you don’t claim ownership afterward, you can use it for personal or commercial purposes.
Essentially, you can make money out of Pexels without actually paying to access it.
But as a marketer, blogger, artist, designer, tutor, etc., you know that even in a collection of 3M+ images, you can fail to find the exact image that goes with your content.
That is why it is impractical to rely entirely on Pexels for your visuals.
In this article, we will discuss a few high-ranking Pexels alternatives in the hope you will see how they differ from Pexels and figure out where they can come in as substitutes.
Free Image Sites Like Pexels
1. Unsplash
Unsplash, like Pexels, is a library of free photos that you can use in personal, commercial, and editorial projects.
More than 300k photographers and creators contribute to its database, with a great deal of them doing it on a regular basis.
So there is no shortage of images on Unsplash if you are looking for royalty-free visuals to complement your content.
However, the site may not be suitable for you if you are looking for images you can use and keep.
The rights remain the creators’ and can be used elsewhere anytime.
2. Pixabay
Pixabay is next on the list of free image sites like Pexels.
Users of the site get unlimited download privileges and can access the entire Unsplash library by simply creating a user account.
What I like most about Pixabay is that besides a search feature, it has curated collections of closely related images and videos.
For instance, if you are looking for a tulip, you can refine your results with the search function or by opening the flowers collection.
On the flip side, the site doesn’t have the best quality photos or images depicting specific situations or events. It can take a lot of searching to find the perfect image.
3. Burst
People have complained about Burst images not being as refined as those in other websites like Pexels, and rightly so.
Many of the photos I saw were low-quality, and the lack of an advanced search feature made the site even less appealing.
However, Burst is free. And there is no shortage of good photos if you have the time to browse the library manually.
I’d say it is the best stock photo site for you if you have a Shopify store that you need to populate with images.
Burst is powered by Shopify, and there is seamless integration between the two sites.
There is even a “search by business ideas” feature that new account owners can use for ideas.
For general or random stock photo use, there are better free image sites like Pexels to try out.
4. StockSnap
StockSnap curates photos from thousands of submissions and makes them available for download and use at no cost.
To find an image, all you need to do is know its category. For example, if you are looking for pictures of people, you just need to click on the “People” category.
You can use the search feature if you have a particular thing in mind.
While StockSnap may not have the largest image pool, its simplicity makes it stand out from the crowd.
What you may not like is that it mixes its free pictures with Shutterstock premium images. So you will have to do the sorting manually while browsing.
5. Vecteezy
Vecteezy has a collection of over a million stock photos.
That is nothing compared to some sites like Pexels, but each of the images on Vecteezy is reviewed manually by a special curation team.
The site is also very easy to use, according to users. The search function is pretty accurate and exhaustive, and you can filter images by orientation, color, style, age, number of people, etc.
The downside of using Vecteezy’s images is that you have to give credit to the creators, which can sometimes be too much work.
That said, the site provides property and model releases with every free photo, shielding users from potential legal issues.
Premium Pexels Alternatives
6. Shutterstock
Shutterstock blows Pexels out of the water if we are to compare the two by the sizes of their inventories.
It has over a billion stock images and adds more images per day than any other site like Pexels.
It’s not hard to see why, though. Shutterstock directly pays its contributors, which naturally means the final user has to pay something.
New users get a free trial that comes with 10 free images.
After that, they have to commit to one of three paid plans: a $29-per-month all-in-one subscription, a $49-per-year subscription, and a $479 multiple-user (10 users max) plan that grants 750 downloads per month.
On-demand options range between $42 for three images and $299 for 100.
7. Adobe Stock
Imaging software giants have their own database of visuals that integrates with all Adobe products.
So if you are an Adobe designer, Adobe Stock is without a doubt the perfect Pexels alternative for you.
That is not to say you can’t use it outside the horizon of Adobe and its products.
All the images, videos, audio, vectors, 3D options, etc. are downloadable and can be used independently.
All you need to do is commit to a subscription that matches your image quantity and quality demands.
$30 a month buys you 10 standard assets or one HD video. $50 per month guarantees you a maximum of 25 standard assets or 3HD videos.
$200 per month gets you 750 standard assets or 25 HD videos. A free 30-day trial is only available with the first two subscriptions.
8. iStock
iStock boasts the oldest database in the industry.
It contains an extensive library of images, videos, music, and sound effects and provides an editor with which you can alter creations before using them.
Unlike Pexels, however, iStock charges for downloads. As a new user, you will get a free one-month trial, which grants you 10 downloads.
You can then continue enjoying access to the database either on-demand or via a subscription.
A single photo downloaded with credits will cost $12. You can buy as many as 300 credits in a pack.
Subscriptions are the better option if you plan to download images on a regular basis.
The cheapest plan goes for $29 a month, while the most expensive costs $99.
Also check out Sites Like 99designs to level up your design career.
9. Deposit Photos
Of paid Pexels alternatives, Deposit Photos is up there with the very best. Its library is both high-quality and easy to browse.
It’s actually among the few stock image sites that let you refine your search by camera angle.
Most of the regular filters are available, too, so you’re not trading anything for the extra filters.
Also, after you select an image, the site offers a list of suggestions in case you choose to use another image instead.
Many people say they love its editing features, but that’s a matter of individual conscience, given there are many free sites like Pexels for videos and photos that offer the same features.
Deposit Photos offers four subscription plans. The lowest goes for $9.99, while the highest costs $199. You can also pay for the visuals on-demand.
10. Jumpstory
Jumpstory is one of the friendliest stock image sites, at least from a pricing standpoint.
For $39 per month, you can access its entire library and download as many photos as you wish.
The price goes down to $19 a month if you choose annual billing.
As regards photo quality, many sites like Pexels fall short of the market standards.
Jumpstory has an AI algorithm that automatically gets rid of substandard submissions. So most photos in its collection are of decent quality.
Another noteworthy feature is the platform’s compatibility with sites like WordPress and Wix.
The integrated access comes in handy if you are a blogger looking to insert images into your content without having to save them first.
Other Sites Like Pexels for Videos and Images
11. Freepik
According to the Financial Times, Freepik is among Europe’s 1000 fastest growing companies.
It’s easy to see why. The company was born in 2010 and is already receiving 18 million unique visits per month.
The fact that its client base includes companies like Amazon, NASA, Spotify, and Microsoft vouches for it on the legitimacy front.
Unlike other Pexels alternatives, though, Freepik is not a premium or free stock image site. It is a hybrid of both.
And the free photos, vectors, and icons require attribution whenever they are used.
The premium subscription comes for €9.99 a month and grants a maximum of 100 downloads per day. If you purchase the yearly plan, the total will translate to €7.49 per month.
12. Gratisography
Gratisography offers the “quirkiest, weirdest, and funniest” stock images that do not answer the description of typical “stock” photos.
For this reason, it has a rather small library with limited categories.
I’d say it is a great site if you are looking for a single quirky image or a few images to build content on.
However, if you are looking to source images on a regular basis, you might want to try out other sites.
13. EyeEm
EyeEm has one of the best curated photo libraries, which explains why its images are so costly.
Accepted submissions are categorized into essential images and stock images, where essential images are priced $29 a pop, while premium images go for a whopping $199 each.
The good thing about purchasing photos from EyeEm is that you don’t need to search so much to find a decent image.
Most images are high-quality and easy to find thanks to the site’s advanced search feature.
If you don’t like what you see, you can pay for a photo contest and get to choose from dozens of submissions.
EyeEm doesn’t have a subscription program.
14. PicJumbo
PicJumbo may not offer as many photos as other Pexels alternatives, but its quality is unrivaled.
Many reviews also give props to its minimalistic design and helpful image search feature.
Personally, what I think sets it apart from the other free stock image sites on this list is the provision to download the entire image collection in one go.
Apparently, with a small donation you can have all PicJumbo images in a local storage.
While PicJumbo is largely a free site, there is a premium subscription as well.
This is for those who wish to gain instant access to all photos and receive emails with 50 premium photos monthly.
The subscription is determined solely by the amount of time you want it to last.
For a month’s subscription, you will need to pay $49. For a year, you will pay $129. A lifetime plan will set you back $249.
15. Bigstock
Bigstock is a stock image provider that specializes in photographs, vectors, and illustrations.
All its resources are accessible via a premium subscription that’s priced based on the number of images you wish to download per day.
If you wish to download 5 images per day, for instance, you will pay $79 per month, $199 for three months, or $639 per year.
That’s the cheapest plan. The most you can pay for a Bigstock subscription is $2,879 per year for 50 images daily.
Another way to access the images is on-demand through credits. The smallest credit pack (25 credits) goes for $49.
While it’s not uncommon to run into sub-par images on Bigstock, the site has one of the largest libraries and will always have something close to what you are looking for.
Conclusion On Pexel Alternarives
The importance of images in modern-day digital communication cannot be overstated.
Typical marketing material, blog posts, class presentations, news articles, etc. all need visuals to fit the consumer standards.
These Pexels alternatives are good sources of decent images, vectors, icons, and even videos that would otherwise take you hours to create yourself.
Which one did you like? Let me know in the comment section below.
