Top 10 Stock Image websites paid and free

One of the most common questions I get is:  “Where can I get free photos or royalty free stock photos for business advertising, marketing, etc?”  The answer is not so obvious since each business has its own unique need.  What is the quality and/uniqueness of the photograph needed?  Is free your best option or would you pay ₹3000 for an amazing one-of-a-kind photograph?

With this balance in mind and to help entrepreneurs save time, here is my list of royalty free stock photos for business advertising websites.  It includes free, low cost and even premium options.

Microstock.in

Microstock is one of largest royalty free vector images platform, the web’s original source for royalty-free stock images, media and design elements. Artists, designers and photographers from around the world come here to create, work and learn. Although microstock started with just a handful of photos in 2000, we now offer vector illustrations, videos, music and sound effects.

Millions of people depend on microstock for affordable prices and exceptional quality. All microstock files are royalty-free¹, which means you only have to pay once to use the file multiple times. We even offer a Legal Guarantee¹ – our promise that content used within the terms of the license agreement will not infringe on any copyright, moral right, trademark or other intellectual property right, or violate any right of privacy or publicity.

Everystockphoto.com – Free Photos

Everystockphoto.com says they are a search engine for photos. These come from many sources and are license-specific. You can view a photo’s license by clicking on the license icon, below and left of photos.  Membership is free, without advertising, and allows you to rate, tag, collect and comment on photos.
Images for business or commercial use are available if you know where to look.  Everystockphoto.com search engine can save time.

Google Creative Commons Image Search Tool:

While searching for FREE images for your business you can use Google.  To get this feature when you are searching go to the Advanced Image Search page then  under the usage rights section you will see a drop down with different types of license that you can search for.

iStockphoto.com

How iStockphoto works:  iStockphoto is the internet’s original member-generated image and design community. Get easy, affordable inspiration with millions of safe, royalty-free photographs, vector illustrations, video footage, audio tracks and Flash files. Buy stock or sell stock — or both.

Stokpic.com –

Ed Gregory has been a photographer for about 10 years and although working with clients is great, he likes to just get out and shoot.  www.stokpic.com is his little baby where he adds new hi-res photos daily and he is happy to share the photos for free.  As you review the website, you will see he makes an effort to describe the images as well.  Check it out, he is an entrepreneur on a mission.  Ed is very generous by offering free photography to use as you like.

AVOPIX –

AVOPIX offers free stock photos & vectors. All images and videos on AVOPIX are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty-free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. Attribution is not required.

AVOPiX offers more than 19,000 free images and new images are added regularly. You can follow AVOPIX on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/avopix

Beyond the many free photos and vectors, you can sign up for a PRO account which gets you premium services.

• No advertisement
•  Much faster loading – Enjoy super fast instant downloads without waiting
• Bulk downloads (you can download up to 50 images at once)
• Premium images and freebies every month only for PRO’s

If you are weary of stock photos, you will want to check out AVOPIX. There is plenty of unique inventory available.

IconFinder

Iconfinder provides high quality icons for webdesigners and developers in an easy and efficient way. The site launched in 2007 as the first search engine focused on icons.

The target audience is webdesigners and developers, but the icons are also used to style desktop or in presentations and reports. With millions on icons downloaded every month it is among the most popular icon sites.

There are options for non-commercial and commercial use.

Freeimages 

Categories of huge gallery containing over 350.000 quality stock photos by more than 30.000 photographers! Need a wallpaper for your desktop or illustration for your blog? Need a pic for your commercial website design? Looking for inspiration?

Share your photos with fellow designers! freeimages is a friendly community of photography addicts who generously offer their works to those who need them free of charge. If you have some nice photos that you’d like to share with others, try it! Not only it feels great to share, you will also get a huge exposure for your work!

Thinkstock.com

What does a plan include?

Your Jupiterimages Unlimited Premium & Stockxpert or Essential & Stockxpert plan is now a Thinkstock plan, offering you:

• Professionally shot images from 18 top collections, including iStockphoto. See list
• Access to all available file types and sizes
• The same license terms as your Jupiterimages Unlimited subscription
• Broader legal protection against copyright claims on all iStockphoto and Hemera content

Thinkstock is offers high dpi, high resolution images for less.  (thought there are less expensive options.)