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Try searching the internet about tips on how to make blog articles and social media posts interesting enough for reader engagement, and you will always see this tip: include images in your blog articles and social media posts. Whether you like it or not, images help drive traffic to your website.
We are living in a world where visual impact is very important, primarily because there are just so many people out there who are offering the same things you are offering. Your target market will naturally choose the one that is more attractive to the eyes, and pictures help attract people.
Are Free Stock Images Really Free?
Years ago, it was very difficult for website owners to find photos that can be used freely in blog posts and articles. Most sites that offer “free” photos actually require either a link back or a sentence about the rights of using the image. These kinds of pictures do not sound so “free” at all. Totally free photos are those that require no attribution at all.
This means that the creator or photographer of the image chose the Creative Commons Zero or CC0 license. The creator is waiving all copyrights and other related rights (which includes moral rights, privacy rights, database rights, and unfair completion protection rights, among many others). So what does this mean for website owners who use free stock images? For website owners or actually anyone who decides to use free stock photos, this means that:
✓ The photos are free for personal and commercial use.
✓ The photos can be copied, edited, and distributed.
✓ No attribution required so you don’t have to ask permission or link back to the source of the images.
Free stock images are royalty free images and copyright free images, so you really don’t have to worry about anything at all. However, there may be free stock images website that allows you to download a limited number of photos at a time.
If these websites detect that the number of images you are downloading is beyond the limit, then they can actually ban your IP address. For such instances, you can actually use proxies in order to avoid getting banned from the website. Connecting to proxy servers allows you to choose an IP address that will mask or hide your real one. Even when the dummy IP address gets banned for downloading so many free stock photos, you can still use another IP address to download another batch of royalty free photos.
Where Can I Get Free Stock Images?
We understand your need for an unlimited supply of free images, which is why this article is all about free stock images and where you can get them. It is important to note though that these websites may change their copyright settings anytime, so make sure to check their policies every time you download free pictures from any of these sites.
Barnimages was created in March 2015 by two Latvian photographers, Igor Trepeshchenok and Roman Drits. They strive to keep a supply of fresh images by uploading new ones every weekday.
Burst is a free stock photo site powered by Shopify. Created initially for businesses and entrepreneurs. Burst offers over 1000 copyright free pictures that are of high quality.
Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions. You will be touched by Little Visual’s story though. The owner had died so there are no longer pictures being added to it. Rest assured that the existing photos are absolutely beautiful and you can actually help his family by using the website.
Create beautiful designs with your team. Use Canva’s drag-and-drop feature and layouts to design, share and print business cards, logos, presentations and more. And also they have a bundle of beautiful free images that could be used for your purpose as well.
This site is self-described as a “Stock Images Coop” where photographers are encouraged and incentivized to contribute images to the Picnoi database.
Hundreds of free images to choose from, plus you can choose images according to resolution.
Free image resource for website designing that are royalty and copyright free. It has icons and free templates in its database.
Crow the Stone
Another free stock image site, Crow the Stone gives you a gallery of royalty-free and high resolution images.
Dreamstime is an image resource for designers. You can find photos that are free from royalty and attribution.
This site’s photographers try to upload five high resolution pictures each week, giving you a variety of free images to choose from.
New Old Stock offers high resolution vintage images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
Images that you download from the Public Domain Archive can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially. No royalty, no watermark, no link back, and no attribution required.
A database of free images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
Creative people are encouraged to exchange their pictures for each other’s inspiration.
Designers, photographers, as well as students are encouraged to share their works in this Stock Image Site for free.
A database of free images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them.
This stock image site specializes in pictures about nature and travel.
A free stock image resource that has been in the business since 2005.
Image After is one of the largest photo collection available online.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially.
Photogen is a stock photo website that offers free images for commercial and personal use.
This photo sharing website provides free stock photos that can be used for any kind of projects.
RGBstock offers a large number of free stock photos and graphics that can be used for illustrations, backgrounds, and wallpapers.
Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions.
MMT is a database of photos taken by Jeffrey Bretts.
Free Nature Stock has a gallery full of royalty-free pictures that are mostly of nature, obviously.
Visual Hunt takes the best free photos from different sources on the internet and gathers them in one place for easy accessibility.
Ancestry Images is created to provide free images and pictures to genealogists, historians, researchers, and other people involved in tracing family history and ancestry.
Their goal is to become the go-to website for people who are looking for free photos. True enough, Free Images has become the source of free and high quality images and vectors since 2015.
Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions. The high quality photos are best for your landing pages, blog posts and website designs.
Images that you download from Free Media Go can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially.
A database of free images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
Photober offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
Pickupimage is one of the largest pool of free photos. Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially.
Megapixel Stock is a free stock images website that offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
A database of free images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially.
Cupcake offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
A database of 27,237,059 free images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
Travel Coffee Book is another website that offers a list of stock images from ForProfitBlogging.com. There might be pictures that are not under the CC0 license, so make sure to check before downloading anything.
Raumrot offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially. It includes a large collection of patterns and backgrounds that you can use for anything.
The Stocks is a collection of free images that are free of royalty. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
A Digital Dreamer is a database of free images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially.
A database of the best free GIFs. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions.
Tookapic has a variety of pictures that are available for sale. However, the link above will take you to the website’s page that offers free images.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially. Whether you are a publisher, blogger, startup online businessman, developer, or website creator, Startup Stock Photos will have something for you.
All pictures found in Polar Fox are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions.
Picography is a collection of free images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
This website offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially. Pictures uploaded to Skitterphoto is automatically licensed under the CC0 license.
A database of free vintage photos that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions. Thus, images from Photos Public Domain are royalty-free.
Magdeleine offers free stock photos from ForProgitBlogging.com. Be careful when choosing images from Magdeleine as some of the pictures are not under CC0 license.
Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions. You will see ads and offers to upgrade while browsing for free photos.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially.
Don’t be fooled by the website’s name. It’s not a database of pictures of dead people, but you can find high quality photos on this website. Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions.
A database of free images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
Unsplash offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes. The website aims to add ten new photos every ten days, keeping everything fresh and new always.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially.
A database of free images captured by Ryan McGuire. The photos have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
ISO Republic offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions. Just a tip: if you want photos that have no watermark, skip the first few pictures by scrolling down. Pixabay and Shutterstock apparently have some agreement, so few of the pictures (especially the first few ones in the gallery) have watermark on them.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially.
Picjumbo is a collection of free images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
This photo site has libraries for commercial stock photos and those under other Creative Common licenses.
Freerange Stock offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially.
Despite the name, Death to the Stock Photo contains a collection of free images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license. All images can be downloaded for free, but your email address is required.
The Italian photographer of this website offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions.
If you are looking for photos that you can use for your blog posts or websites, LibreShot is the right place to go. This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially.
Shutteroo is a library of free images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license. All pictures are taken by Klaye Morrison.
Pexels offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license.
GoodFreePhotos offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
As the name suggests, all photos on the website are of public domain. Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions. Just be careful when using pictures that have logos and products on them because you can’t use someone else’s trademark commercially.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free images that can be used personally or commercially. It has 1000 of royalty-free images in its library.
A database of free images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license. You have to sign in in order to get to their free section (yes, they have images that are for sale).
The Light Painters Loft offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions.
This free stock photo site is your source of absolutely free clip arts that can be used personally or commercially.
A database of free clipart images that have no watermarks at all. You can use and even modify them because they are under the CC0 license. You don’t even have to have an account in order to download pictures.
Open Clip Art offers high resolution images that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
Images that you download from this website can be modified, edited, and distributed without attributions.
WOCinTech offers high resolution images of women of color that you can use freely for personal or commercial purposes.
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About the author
Rachael Chapman
A Complete Gamer and a Tech Geek. Brings out all her thoughts and Love in Writing Techie Blogs.
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