Words are a powerful means of expressing your opinions. Some authors can perfectly describe a scene, and the readers can picture the events as they take place.
However, if you’re writing a blog or running a commercial WordPress website, you don’t have the time or space to rely solely on your words.
Incorporating text with images is a great way to engage the readers. If you have a WordPress site or blog, make sure it has lots of relevant images to help the audience retain their focus. Experts believe that images help the audience stay on a page longer.
A professional photographer can take several hundred dollars for a single project. Often not all pictures you need can be taken in a day or so. However, the bill is out of the roof.
Using stock images is an excellent alternative for a WordPress website or blog. Not only are these images cheap in comparison, but they are also clicked by professional photographers for stock Photo websites.
Let’s dig in a little more to learn about the websites that offer the best free & paid premium stock photos.
Best Places to Get Free and Premium Stock Photos
Shutterstock (Paid)
Shutterstock probably has the most extensive high-quality photo library available online. You can find an endless variety of pictures and choose the ones that suit your project. It is a no-brainer to use the website, given that a single image may cost as low as 25 cents per image.
There are several subscription options to choose from, which are pretty reasonably priced. You can begin with a 30-day trial subscription that allows up to 10 downloads for free. After that, the packages vary between as low as $29 and go up to $249 per month based on monthly downloads permitted.
Stockphotos.com (Paid)
Stockphotos.com is a fantastic website with over 130 Million resources available. So whether you’re looking for pictures for an interior decor blog you want to run or a home improvement products website that you run already, Stockphotos has all the correct images available.
Different subscription levels for consumers are available. Subscriptions start from $39 a month to up to $349 a month. They also offer bulk packages for pictures and videos on an annual basis. If you need high-quality videos, the website also provides full HD and 4K videos.
Pexels (Free)
Pexels – It is an excellent stock image website for people with a low budget. The pictures and videos on the website can be reproduced without any charge. Ideally, avoid photos with clear faces since you may need permission from the models to use the images.
The license is pretty liberal, with only a couple of restrictions in place. Firstly, the images should not be passed onto other platforms. Models present in images do not automatically endorse whatever you’re promoting. Pexels also clarifies that the models in these pictures do not endorse your product or services.
Pixabay (Free)
Pixabay – It is an excellent website with free images and videos for your word press website. Millions of resources available on the website are a creative commons license. Attribution is preferred but not required.
There are some restrictions on how the resources on the website can be used. For example, images, videos, or music cannot be passed on to other similar websites, nor can these be used for commercial purposes without adding any value to them.
In the case of an identifiable model in the pictures, you should not imply to viewers that the model endorses your website, products, or services. You can, however, get an actual endorsement from the person and advertise afterward.
Unsplash (Free)
Unsplash – It is another website that offers millions of free resources that can be used for online campaigns and WordPress websites. A wide variety of images can be used for any website or ad campaign.
These images can be used for most commercial uses. However, Unsplash does not allow anyone to use its images and create a competing stock photo website.
Similarly, passing these images without significant changes to a third party is discouraged. However, you can find all kinds of subjects you may need for WordPress websites or blogs, making it an excellent option.
Adobe Stock (Paid)
Adobe Stock – The website has lots and lots of resources that can be utilized for all kinds of projects and websites. You can get a free trial period before a commitment of an entire year. After that, packages begin as low as $30 a month and go up to $200 for the standard assets.
Monthly unused assets can be rolled over to the next month. However, if you use more pictures than available images in your package during a month, you will incur extra per-image charges.
Premium stock photos and assets from the website, which include HD pictures and videos, are available as well. However, there is a separate pricing structure for them.
Yay Images (Paid)
Yay Images has millions of resources from 18,000 photographers from around the globe. Website charges start from $19 per month, with many available monthly and yearly packages. You can also get perks with partner websites with a Yay Images subscription.
There is no royalty for the images separately from the subscription. Therefore, you can get high-quality images for any blog or niche website on the platform.
Depositphotos (Paid)
Depositphotos is one of the most extensive online resources for premium stock photos and videos. The website has all kinds of photographs and videos that can be used for your website. There are several subscription options available at Depositphotos. You can get regular images starting from $10 per month.
You can also get packages worth several hundred dollars a month based on the number of premium stock photos you utilize. You can also get premium videos with extended licenses on the website. The website also has a referral program that allows you to earn a commission every time you help them land a new client.
picjumbo (Free)
picjumbo is another popular website with free stock photos that Viktor Hanacek created back in 2013. Since then, picjumbo has become an excellent resource for downloading backgrounds and free stock photos you can use for both personal and commercial use.
picjumbo has several thousand free images available that may come in handy for your website or blog. Furthermore, picjumbo has a Premium Membership where you get access to picjumbo’s premium stock photos library, plus you get exclusive stock photos sent to you every month.
picjumbo is an excellent resource for anyone who wants free stock photos for personal and commercial projects.
Vecteezy (Free & Paid)
Vecteezy offers millions of beautiful stock photos, 4K videos, and vectors. Most of the resources are free, but others can be purchased with credits or through a Pro subscription. With unlimited downloads, the Pro subscription, which starts at $9 per month, is one of the best values in the industry.
The user experience at Vecteezy is excellent. The site is well designed, there are several features like collections and favorites for organizing resources, and there are a number of ways to filter the search results to find exactly what you’re looking for.
Stockvault (Free)
Stockvault has been around since 2004 and offers free stock photos that photographers and artists share with the community. Stockvault has over 100,000 images and illustrations of people, animals, landscapes, flowers, electronics, food, and much more.
Photographers and artists worldwide submit all the images. So there are a plethora of images from different categories you can choose from.
We often use Stockvault to find matching images for our blogs, and I guarantee you will also find awesome photos. Did I mention they are free?
NegativeSpace (Free)
NegativeSpace is a website that offers free high-quality stock photos. There are a wide variety of images available from different categories and topics such as animals, food, landscapes, people, technology, and more.
The photos are released under the Creative Commons CC0 license. Which grants users the right to, for example, download any photo. Use, copy, edit, or share it. Furthermore, use it for personal or commercial purposes.
All pictures on the site are taken by photographers from the NegativeSpace community. NegativeSpace is also a website that we recommend because they have a large selection of photos that are suitable for most purposes.
The Conclusion
All of the websites with free and premium stock photos mentioned above have some fantastic resources for WordPress websites. You can benefit both from paid and free websites based on your particular requirements.
It would help if you spent some time before making a decision, especially about the paid subscriptions.
Discuss your particular needs with the chosen site’s support department and determine which package from the premium stock photos websites works the best for you in the long run.
Also, ensure that you can update or downgrade your subscription based on your needs. These steps will ensure that you get the best value out of your account and do not pay more than you have to.
Disclosure: We sometimes use affiliate links in our content. Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” It means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission. It helps our website keep on running and allows us to offset our writing team’s cost. Thanks for your support.
