- How to use stock photos: rules and tips for beginners
- TOP-5 best stock photo sites with free images
- Which photos to use for the website: stock photos, AI or your own
Media content has always been an important part of internet projects, whether personal blogs, company websites, online stores, or social media pages. However, not everyone has the resources and desire to take professional photographs, especially when it comes to a new project or platform where images are not a key element. This is where the best free stock photo sites come to the rescue — platforms with millions of images that can be used in your own articles and posts without any payment. The main thing is to know the usage rules and current services. In this article, we will discuss where to find images for your website, review the most interesting stock photo sites, and of course, mention AI-generated images.
How to use stock photos: rules and tips for beginners
Stock photo sites — are ideal places to find images for your website and enhance your own article or post. However, do not think, "they are free — I can do whatever I want." Even paid platforms with images have restrictions, and free ones even more so. Not following the rules can lead to bans, content removal, or even legal claims.
But there’s no need to worry, just know the key rules for using images from stock photo sites:
- Check the license. Usually, it is indicated right on the photo page, but you can also look at License or Terms of Use.
- The best option is CC0 (Creative Commons Zero), which allows you to use media commercially without restrictions (in advertising, on websites, in social media), modify the original (edit, crop, add filters, etc.), and not credit the author.
- CC BY is a stricter license — you must credit the author.
- The most restrictive is CC BY-NC-ND — only non-commercial use with attribution.
- Do not sell photos. A great idea might come to mind: "I will take photos from stock sites and sell them." But this will only lead to copyright infringement and related problems. The thing is, on stock sites, even paid ones, you do not buy copyright; you get a license to use it (the photo author remains the author always, unless copyright is explicitly transferred, which is almost never the case on stock sites).
- Credit the author. If the license requires attribution, use the formula: photo title + author name + source + license type. For example, "Winter in town" by David J, licensed under CC BY 2.0. However, if the license does not require attribution, we still recommend adding it in a simplified form: photo title + author name. This is good etiquette, respect for the author, and it increases trust in your content.
- Be careful with photos of people. Most free stock photo sites allow the use of photos of people on websites, blogs, and social media. However, for advertising campaigns or sensitive topics (medicine, finance, politics), make sure that using the image does not create the impression of endorsement of a product by a specific person. For such cases, a Model Release is needed — a document that confirms a person's consent to use their image for commercial purposes. This does not apply to pictures of people in the background who cannot be identified.
- Search by novelty. All the best stock photo sites have filters and sorting, including display by publication date. We recommend searching for new, less popular photos to make your content more unique, rather than using overused, generic images.
We also want to highlight a common mistake — downloading an image from a stock site and instantly publishing it on the website without optimization. As a result, one image can weigh several megabytes, take up a lot of space, reduce page loading speed even on the best virtual hosting, and because of this, you may face negative audience reactions and a drop in Google rankings. Therefore, after downloading, it is worth reducing the file size and, if possible, using the modern WebP format.
TOP-5 best stock photo sites with free images
Before analyzing the best free stock photo sites, it is worth noting that the popularity of AI-generated content is rapidly growing. That’s why we recommend additionally reading our article on TOP AI services for content creation, which can help in writing texts, generating realistic images, and visual elements. However, it is still better to support talented people, especially since the services listed below offer millions of great works that can be used in website design, articles, and posts.
Pixabay — a universal service for content search
Pixabay — one of the most well-known communities of authors, artists, musicians who share their works without paying royalties. The site was created by Hans Braxmeier and Simon Steinberger in November 2010 in Germany. The high demand for the platform is confirmed by over 6 billion total downloads.
Key advantages of Pixabay include:
- 5.8 million resources of various types as of December 2025;
- diverse content: photos, illustrations, vector images, videos, music, sound effects, 3D models, gifs;
- download images in various sizes, for example, 426x640, 853x1280, 1280x1920, 2310x3464;
- instant editing in Canva, for example, you can remove the background, retouch, crop images, prepare posts for social media, etc.;
- registration is not required, but it allows you to like, comment, and add content to your favorites.
And pay attention to the site's section "Content License." In general, you can use materials for free without the need to credit the author. However, there are certain restrictions, including using the content in a misleading or deceptive manner, in an immoral or illegal way.
Also read: Sitemap for images: why it is needed and how to create it
Life of Pix — professional photos without copyright restrictions
If you want to get free high-resolution photographs, then you will love the Life of Pix platform, whose content is provided by the advertising agency and network of photographers Leeroy Advertising Agency. As stated on the site, it has over 5 million views per month, and the email database has 40,000 subscribers, which is excellent confirmation of the quality of the media.
During our study of this platform, we found the following advantages of Life of Pix:
- a copyright license that allows you to download, copy, modify, and use images for free;
- license distribution for commercial and non-commercial use, without the need to credit the author or link to the site;
- distribution of the photo database into thematic galleries: nature, cities, people, animals, textures, workspace, etc.;
- instant download directly from the catalog, without the need to go to the image page.
Disadvantages include advertising images from the paid platform iStock. Although they are displayed with appropriate labeling, they slightly distract from the content of Life of Pix itself. And you cannot choose the size, so often you will have to download files approximately 4284x5712, 5233x3493, etc., which weigh 5-10 MB. However, it should also be noted that this is not a critical problem, as you can easily reduce the file size without compromising quality on free services.
Burst by Shopify — high-quality photos for business owners
A large number of small business owners do not have the funds to create or purchase professional photographs. The popular international platform for developing and managing online stores, Shopify, decided not to look for a solution but to create it themselves. Thus, the Burst service was born, which hosts thousands of high-resolution photographs for use without paying royalties.
We analyzed the site and highlighted several important advantages of Burst by Shopify:
- 20,000+ photos with two download options: in low and high resolution, depending on your needs;
- content is divided into dozens of collections, for example, animals, beauty, fashion, food, flowers, technology — everyone will find the photos they need for their business;
- resources are downloaded instantly without registration, just select the version and click the Download free photo button;
- a section with 20+ ideas for online business with detailed descriptions, supplier information, business model reviews, marketing tips, and free images;
- the site is updated weekly with new high-resolution photos.
Example of a photo from the Burst service. You can even use the photo immediately to create an online store on Shopify.
Also read: How to start a business in the digital goods sector in 2025: 10 popular products
Kaboompics — the best free stock photo site for social media
Kaboompics — is an incredibly aesthetic service with stock photos for personal and commercial purposes. It features not only individual photos but also photo sessions, each containing dozens of resources in one style. And, as stated on the service, no artificial intelligence: each image is photographed by a real person, with authentic lighting, natural colors, and consistent aesthetics.
Important! Kaboompics has two types of licenses. The standard license allows you to download, modify, and freely use content for personal and commercial purposes, such as in design, advertising, printed materials, etc. However, the editorial use license prohibits using the content in advertising, product packaging, brand marketing, and allows only for news articles, blog posts, and non-commercial publications.
Advantages of the Kaboompics stock include:
- a huge number of truly high-quality photos that often surpass the content from Burst;
- many professional photo sessions for various purposes, such as "Winter Cars," "Still Life Backgrounds with Fruits and Vegetables," "Reading Aesthetics";
- instant download with two options: original size and the ability to specify the width of the image yourself;
- for quick searching, you can use filters for photo orientation options and color schemes.
During testing, we noticed a drawback of Kaboompics, such as offers with discounts on iStock. However, they do not interfere, and there are no other advertising messages or banners. And this is not such a big price to pay for the opportunity to download quality photos for a blog, website, online store, or social media for free.
Startup Stock Photos — free stock photos for startups
Are you a startup founder, blogger, freelancer, designer, developer, publisher, or generally engaged in activities related to content creation? Then we recommend visiting the Startup Stock Photos site, which features hundreds of free photos on the theme of startups, offices, and technology. It was created back in 2014 by developer Eric Bailey and marketer Josh Krakauer, who decided to gather photos of friends and familiar places in one place. And although as of December 2025, it is visited by only about 1,000 people per month, the better — you will find more unique images than on world-famous platforms.
It is difficult to name a large number of advantages of Startup Stock Photos, as it is essentially just a regular blog with nice photos. You simply click on any image and the Download button. And the photo is downloaded in its original size, after which you can resize, crop, use as a background, and so on.
Which photos to use for the website: stock photos, AI or your own
Before the list of the best free stock photo sites, we mentioned that there is a rapidly growing demand for images from artificial intelligence. They look stunning (let's pretend we haven't seen those photos of people with 6-8 fingers or without them at all), they are quick to generate. However, you need to have skills in writing prompts, refine the results, plus they do not guarantee complete commercial safety.
The other option is to create your own images, but it all depends on the context. If you are talking about the team, describing your own product, writing an article about a service or mobile app, then it is better to take the photo yourself. We prefer this approach, for example, the review of the Rank Math SEO plugin was done based on our own experience and with our screenshots of the WordPress site management panel. And it works great, as it ensures lower competition in Google Images.
At the same time, the best free stock photo sites combine the advantages of both methods: they allow you to obtain high-quality realistic photographs, while not requiring time, equipment, shooting, and editing skills. Such photos are not unique, but they can be effectively used for articles on general topics, added to landing pages, and used as a basis for creating your own visuals.
And even better for websites — combine all three approaches. When uniqueness and trust are important, use your own images. If you want to add unconventional visuals, try AI services. And for scaling content without wasting time and budget, use the opportunities of the best stock photo sites described above.
