Adobe Stock is better if you’re not limited by budget or if you’re already invested in the Adobe Creative Cloud ecosystem.
Envato Elements is better if you need a large volume of downloads or you can’t afford to spend more than $16.50/month.
How to start: 25 free images at Adobe Stock or 70% off the first month at Envato Elements.
Takeaways
Envato Elements and Adobe Stock are two popular stock photo and stock video sites. They offer very similar types of assets but differ in the number, quality, and cost of those.
Whether Envato Elements is better than Adobe Stock depends on your needs. Envato Elements is more affordable and comes with unlimited downloads, but Adobe Stock has a wider range of stock content, such as stock photos, stock videos, stock music, and stock templates.
Adobe Stock vs. Envato Elements: Summary
Adobe Stock and Envato Elements are two well-known platforms that provide a wide range of digital assets, such as stock photos, videos, audio, and graphics. Both platforms are intended to make it simple for individuals and businesses to find high-quality assets for their projects.
| Service | Adobe Stock | Envato Elements |
|---|---|---|
 |  | |
| Photutorial Rating | 4.9/5.0 | 4.7/5.0 |
| Best For | Adobe Creative Cloud users, professional creatives | Entrepreneurs, creative individuals, video editors, WordPress developers, graphic designers |
| Payment model | Subscriptions, on-demand | Subscriptions |
| Cost | $0.26–$9.99/image; $9.99–$22.39/video | $16.50–$39.00/month for unlimited downloads |
| Licensing | Royalty-free (standard, extended) | Royalty-free (standard) |
| Indemnity | $10,000 | up to $645 |
| Free trial | 30 days of the 10 downloads subscriptions (worth $29.99) | 12 free files per month |
| Pros | – The second largest collection of stock images (300 million); – 30-day free trial with 10 images worth $29; – Wide variety of buying options. – Large bulk discounts. | – Unlimited downloads with no daily limits. – Free files. – Assets can be used commercially. – Simple licensing. – Plans for individuals, teams, and enterprises. |
| Cons | – Relatively small indemnity for the Extended license. – More expensive than some alternatives | – One of the lowest indemnities in the industry. – After unsubscribing, you cannot use creative assets for new projects. – A small collection of photos and videos compared to other stock agencies. |
| Learn more | Adobe Stock review | Envato Elements review |
| Try Adobe Stock | Try Envato Elements |
» More: Compare the best stock photo sites
Quality and variety
These popular online platforms cater to creative professionals by providing an array of assets, such as images, videos, and music. While they share a similar customer base, key distinctions in quality and variety set them apart.
When it comes to quality, both Adobe Stock and Envato Elements pride themselves on offering top-notch creative assets. Adobe Stock boasts an impressive collection of over 300 million images, providing users with a vast array of high-quality options to choose from. In contrast, Envato Elements offers a more modest collection of 7.5 million images. While still maintaining a high standard of quality, you may find it more challenging to locate the perfect image on Envato Elements due to the smaller selection.
Now, let’s compare the creative assets offered by each platform:
| Creative asset type | Adobe Stock | Envato Elements |
|---|---|---|
| Images | 326 million | 8.1 million |
| Videos | 26 million | 4.2 million |
| Music | 72,000 (+26,600 at Premium Beat) | 145,000 |
| Sound effects | – | 629,000 |
| Templates | 99,000 | 461,000 |
| 3D | 17,000 | 183,000 |
| Add-ons | / | 19,000 |
| Editorial | 6 million (Premium) | / |
| Fonts | 20,000+ (Adobe Fonts) | 36,270 |
| WordPress themes & plugins | / | 5,400 |
| Try Adobe Stock | Try Envato Elements |
As discussed in the following chapter (Pricing), Envato Elements offers unlimited to all these creative assets with one $16.50/month subscription. At Adobe Stock, you need to buy a different subscription/pack for each type of asset.
- WINNER: Adobe Stock
Pricing
Adobe Stock and Envato Elements have very different pricing systems.
Adobe Stock offers subscriptions that allow you to download any type of assets, and on-demand packs sold separately for different types of assets like images, videos, music, and editorial images. This allows flexibility regarding what content you need and how long.
» More: Adobe Stock pricing explained
In comparison, Envato Elements has one type of subscription that grants you unlimited downloads of all Envato creative assets, including images, videos, audio, music, templates, and more. You can get it with a monthly commitment of $39.00 or much cheaper with a yearly commitment of $16.50 per month.
» More: Envato Elements pricing explained
- WINNER: Envato Elements
Licensing
While Adobe Stock and Envato Elements offer royalty-free licenses for their content, their licensing policies differ significantly. Adobe Stock offers two royalty-free licenses: Standard, Enhanced, and Extended. These licenses offer varying usage rights and legal coverage, with the Standard license offering up to $10,000 in legal coverage.
» More: Adobe Stock licensing explained
Envato Elements, on the other hand, has only one license option. While this simplifies the licensing process, it also means that users have less flexibility in terms of how they can use the assets they purchase. Most notably, the Envato license does not allow users to use assets for merchandise. Additionally, the legal coverage provided by the Envato license is significantly less than what is offered by the Standard license from Adobe Stock, with only slightly above $200 in coverage.
- WINNER: Adobe Stock
The Next Step
Now that you know the ins and outs of Envato and Shutterstock, you can comfortably pick one. And if you’re still unsure, read our guides on getting Envato free and Adobe Stock free.
Alternatively, you can compare Shutterstock to other stock image sites:
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