In stock photography, cheaper usually means lower quality. However, in this post, we collected the 9 best cheap stock photo sites that, despite being affordable for everyone, offer high-quality stock images. Interested in how we review stock photo sites to give you the most accurate information?
9 Best Cheap Stock Photo Sites of 2022
- Shutterstock: Best overall
- Adobe Stock: Best for graphic designers
- Depositphotos: Best for bloggers
- iStock: Best subscriptions
- Canva: Best all-in-one
- 123RF: Best Canva alternative
- Dreamstime: Cheapest extended licenses
- Bigstock: Overall cheap
- Vecteezy: Best freemium
Shutterstock
- Images: 410 million
- Price: $0.22–$14.50/image
- Free trial: 10 images (30 days)
- Buying options: subscriptions, on-demand
Why We Picked It
Shutterstock is our top choice for stock photos due to its affordable pricing, wide selection of high-quality images, videos, and music, and strict technical standards. It offers several purchase options, including subscriptions and on-demand purchases, with prices ranging from $0.22–$14.50 per image. All licensing is royalty-free with Standard and Enhanced RF licenses. Live chat, email, and phone support are also available. We recommend it for businesses, graphic designers, and individuals who can afford to spend at least $25/month on images.
Learn more: Read our full Shutterstock review.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- The largest collection of stock images (408million)
- 30-day free trial with 10 images worth $49
- Wide variety of buying options.
- Big discounts with the annual prepaid plans.
Cons
- Content packs need to be bought for each content type separately
- Editorial images are expensive ($99.50–$199)
- Enhanced License affordable only when bought in bulk
Site Details
- 30-day free trial, during which you can download 10 royalty-free images. You keep the images even if you cancel the trial and pay nothing.
- 20% discount if you buy an annual subscription instead of a monthly subscription, and a 33% discount if you make an annual prepaid commitment.
- 32.4% discount if you buy 5 standard images on demand instead of 2, and 37% discount if you buy 25 standard images with demand plans.
- 10% discount if you buy 5 Enhanced images instead of 2, and a 32% discount if you buy 25 Enhanced images.
- No daily download limits for subscriptions or on-demand plans.
- With the new All-in-One subscriptions, you can download images, videos, and audio files with a single subscription.
- Royalty-free licensing with coverage of $10,000 with the Standard License and $250,000 with the Enhanced License.
- The Standard License allows up to 500,000 prints and copies and unlimited web impressions, while the Enhanced License allows unlimited prints and copies and even use in merchandise.
- Use our coupon code to get an additional 10% discount.
Adobe Stock
- Images: 294 million
- Price: $0.26–$9.99/image
- Free trial: 10, 25, or 40 images (30 days)
- Buying options: subscriptions, on-demand
Why We Picked It
Adobe Stock is the perfect solution for graphic designers and anyone using Adobe Creative Cloud. With its integration into Creative Cloud, you can quickly and easily try out stock assets before purchasing them, helping you save time and money. You can purchase assets either through a subscription or on-demand, with prices slightly higher than Shutterstock but with the added benefit of flexibility. Plus, Adobe Stock offers a generous free trial and excellent licensing terms.
Learn more: Read our full Adobe Stock review.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Superb image and video quality.
- Offers templates, 3D objects, and fonts.
- More than 1 million free images.
- Creative Cloud integration.
- Works with Photoshop, Illustrator, & others.
Cons
- More costly than some alternatives.
- No promo codes or coupons.
- Expensive premium content.
Site Details
- 20% discount when you buy a yearly subscription instead of the monthly one.
- Up to 97% discount on the price per image when you pick a larger subscription (i.e., 750 monthly downloads) compared to the smallest ($0.26/image vs. $9.99/image)
- Up to 20% discount on large credit packs (150 credits; $8/credit) compared to the smallest credit pack (5 credits; $9.99/credit).
- Broader licensing for teams allows the license to be shared but at slightly higher prices.
- Unlimited web views with all licenses.
- Up to 500K reproduction with the Standard, while unlimited reproduction with the Enhanced and Extended.
Depositphotos
- Images: 224 million
- Price: $0.22–$14.00/image
- Free trial: 10 images (7 days)
- Buying options: subscriptions, on-demand
Why We Picked It
Depositphotos offers 224 million photos, vectors, videos, and illustrations at very affordable prices when bought in small packs compared to its competitors. It’s particularly inexpensive for small subscription plans, which cost only $1.50 per image, roughly half the price of Shutterstock. However, the large subscriptions are no cheaper than at other stock photo websites. You can also get a free trial for 10 free stock images that lasts only 7 days.
Overall, Depositphotos’ images are very good, but the diversity and the quality are noticeably lower compared to Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, and iStock.
Who it’s for: We recommend Depositphotos to anyone who needs royalty-free and quality images at very low prices. Therefore, it’s a great option for bloggers and small businesses.
Learn more: Read our full Depositphotos review.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 224+ million images
- Good image quality
- No daily limit
- Reverse image search
- Great customer support (phone, live chat, and email)
- A collection of free images
Cons
- No custom packs (only available for enterprises).
- Limited flexibility of on-demand options.
Site Details
- Very affordable image subscriptions even for small packages compared to other stock photo sites.
- 16% discount on yearly subscriptions compared to monthly.
- 73.5% discount when picking the largest subscription plan of 750 monthly downloads compared to the smallest one.
- Up to 78.6% discount on bulk purchases with on-demand packs (11, 25, or 100 images) compared to the smallest one (3 images).
- 28.1% discount by buying Extended License in bulk (25 images).
- Video packs are available in three sizes (1, 5, and 25 videos), and 5 resolutions (240p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, 4K).
- On average, a 30% discount for buying videos in bulk (25 videos), and a 33% discount for buying Extended licenses for videos in bulk.
- Unlimited downloads subscriptions ($4.99/month) for access to 1.3 million files.
- Teams pricing for images is, on average, 2× as expensive as for individuals.
- 7-day free trial for 10 image downloads with the 25 images/mo plan.
iStock
- Images: 148 million
- Price: $0.22–$9.90/image
- Free trial: 10 images (30 days)
- Buying options: subscriptions, on-demand
Why We Picked It
iStock’s pricing is very similar to Shutterstock’s
Learn more: Read our full iStock review.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 148+ million images.
- The Signature collection is of superb quality.
- Competitive prices.
- 10 images with the free trial.
Cons
- Signature images are a lot more expensive.
- Very expensive extended license.
- Very poor customer support.
Site Details
- Basic subscriptions grant you access to the Essentials collection, and the Premium subscriptions to the Signature and Essentials collection. Premium + Video subscriptions give you access to Signature and Essentials collections as well as videos.
- 16.5% discount when you buy annual subscriptions instead of monthly (valid for Basic and Premium subscriptions. This discount is increased to 24% for Premium + Video subscriptions.
- 92% discount when you buy the largest Basic subscription plan instead of the smallest, 94% for the Premium subscriptions, and 53% discount for the Premium + Video subscriptions.
- A 30-day trial for the Basic subscription of 10 downloads is available in most countries.
Canva
- Images: 110+ million
- Price: $9.99–$12.99/month
- Free trial: 30 days free
- Buying options: subscriptions
Why We Picked It
As an all-in-one stock image website and a graphic design platform available at surprisingly low prices, Canva is our go-to recommendation for beginners on a budget or those looking for a simple workflow solution. For $9.99 per month, you get access to the entire platform, including a simple drag-and-drop editor, over 500K templates for pretty much any graphic, and over 110 million stock images. If that’s too much for you, there’s a 30-day free trial and a permanent free account that limits lots of Canva’s functionality.
Who it’s for: Canva is best for beginner graphic designers and those on a low budget who need a cheap source of stock photos and a simple graphic design platform all in one. Thanks to the collaboration tools, it’s also a good solution for teams of any size.
Learn more: Read our full Canva review.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 30 day free trial
- Inexpensive subscription
- Intuitive and super easy-to-use
- Huge built-in stock photo library
- Prompts team-work
Cons
- Bad at photo editing
- No one-time purchase option
- Can’t use it offline
- Lacks advanced design options
Site Details
- There are the Free, Pro, and Teams plans.
- The free plan is free forever but offers limited resources.
- The Pro plan has a 30-day free trial and costs $12.99/month when bought monthly and $9.99/month when bought yearly.
- The Teams plan costs $14.99/month plus $14.50/month for each additional team member.
- The Pro and Teams plans give you access to over 110 million stock images and videos.
Dreamstime
- Images: 200+ million
- Price: $0.23–$51.78/image
- Free trial: 15 watermarked downloads
- Buying options: subscriptions, on-demand
Why We Picked It
Dreamstime is a stock photo website that offers subscription plans, credit packs, and extended licenses for images. Subscription plans start at $0.158 per image and come in six sizes, ranging from 5 to 750 monthly downloads. Credit packs start at $8.00 per image and come in ten sizes, with prices ranging from $0.616 to $9.54 based on the pack chosen. Extended licenses are uniquely sold with subscriptions at Dreamstime for $16.10 per image, or can be purchased on-demand for 50 credits or $62.50. A free trial of 15 watermarked images is also available. There is a link available for an additional 30% discount on stock photo prices. However, the image quality on Dreamstime is reportedly subpar and there have been concerns about the use of watermarked images in the free trial and the promotion of the free trial on questionable websites.
Who it’s for: Dreamstime is the cheapest stock photo site for extended licenses that you can buy for as low as $26. However, we are not convinced by its image quality, which is usually subpar. We also don’t like the “watermarked images” free trial and shady websites promoting their free trial.
Learn more: Read our full Dreamstime review.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Up to 30% discount.
- The cheapest extended license.
- Extended licenses with subscriptions.
Cons
- Often overedited images.
- Poor variety.
- Free trial images are watermarked.
Site Details
- Images cost $0.23–$5.00 with subscriptions and $0.88–$51.78 with credit packages.
- You can get unlimited access to a limited collection of images for $5/month.
- Dreamstime is the only stock photo site that offers Extended licenses with subscriptions, costing $19.55–$26.50/image.
- All-in-one subscriptions cost $14.76–$17.90/download and let you download any media file, including image, video, and audio.
- Dreamstime has a 30-day free trial with 15 images, but they are watermarked.
Summary: Best Cheap Stock Photo Sites
| Stock photo site | Number of photos | Rating | Price | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shutterstock | 390 million | 5.0/5.0 | $0.22–$14.50/image | Yes (10 images) |
| Adobe Stock | 295 million | 5.0/5.0 | $0.26–$8.00/image | Yes (10, 25, or 40 images) |
| Depositphotos | 224 million | 4.8/5.0 | $0.22–14.00/image | Yes (10 images) |
| iStock | 140 million | 4.8/5.0 | $0.22–$7.00/image | Yes (10 images) |
| Canva | 110 million | 4.6/5.0 | $9.99–$30/month | Yes (30 days) |
| 123RF | 180 million | 3.9/5.0 | $0.36–$11.80 | No |
| Dreamstime | 185 million | 3.9/5.0 | $0.225–$51.78/image | Yes (15 watermarked images) |
| Bigstock | 111 million | 3.1/5.0 | $0.157–$12.00/image | Yes (35 images or videos) |
| Vecteezy | 2.2 million | 3.2/5.0 | $9.00–$14.00/month | No |
Best Cheap Stock Photo Sites
Shutterstock
- Subscriptions ($0.22–$4.90/image): Subscriptions are available in four sizes (10, 50, 350, and 750 monthly downloads) and with three payment options (monthly, yearly, and yearly upfront).
- On-demand ($9.16–$14.50/image): On-demand packs come in three sizes (2, 5, and 25 images). Enhanced license images come in the same sizes but cost $67.96–$99.50/image.
- Royalty-free license ($0.22–$14.50/image): Unlimited web distribution, up to 500,000 prints or copies, and up to $10,000 in legal indemnification. Learn more
- Enhanced license ($67.96–$99.50/image): Unlimited web distribution, unlimited prints or copies, and up to $250,000 in legal indemnification.
- Free trial (10 images during 30 days): Be careful, though, because you must cancel the trial 2 days in advance. Learn more
- Coupon code (25%): Using the 25% coupon code, you get royalty-free images for $0.165. Learn more.
Adobe Stock
- Subscriptions ($0.26–$9.99/image). Subscriptions are available monthly (more expensive) or annual commitments and come in four sizes (3 or 10, 25, 40, and 750 monthly downloads). You can access standard images, templates, 3D elements, and music tracks with subscriptions.
- On-demand ($8.00–$9.99/image). Using credits, you can get premium images that are unavailable with subscriptions. They cost $96.00 to $119.88.
- Royalty-free license ($0.26–$9.99/standard image). Unlimited web views, 500,000 copies or views, and up to $10,000 in legal indemnification. Adobe’s royalty-free (dubbed “Standard”) license applies to standard assets.
- Enhanced license ($96.00–$119.88/premium image). Everything royalty-free license has + unlimited copies or views. Adobe’s Enhanced license applies to premium assets.
- Extended license ($79.99/image). Everything the Enhanced license has + unlimited merchandise.
- Free trial (10, 25, or 40 standard images). Adobe Stock’s free trial gives you the most downloads of any stock photo free trial.
- Coupon code: Adobe Stock offers no coupon codes.
- Free collection: You can also download free files from the free collection of 1+ million assets.
- Additional features: Integration into the Creative Cloud.
iStock
- Subscriptions ($0.22–$4.00/Essential image; $0.44 to $9.90/Signature image): Subscriptions are divided into Basic (for Essential images) and Premium (Signature images). Both come in four sizes (10, 25, 50, and 750 monthly downloads) and are available with month-to-month and annual plans.
- On-demand ($8.00–$12.00/image): iStock offers ten credit packs (1 to 300 credits) that you can use to buy photos, vectors, illustrations, and videos at the following prices.
- Royalty-free license ($0.22–$12.00/image): Unlimited web distribution, 500,000 copies or prints, and a $10,000 legal guarantee.
- Extended license ($79.99): Unlimited web distribution, unlimited copies or prints, $250,000 legal guarantee.
- Free trial: 10 free stock images with the 30-day free trial. Learn more
- Coupon code: You can get up to a 20% discount with iStock coupons.
Depositphotos
- Subscriptions ($0.22/image) are either monthly or annual (14% cheaper) with 30, 75, 150, and 750 monthly downloads. You get the best price ($0.22/image) by choosing the largest plan for a full year. But you can use my 15% promo code for Depositphotos and pay only $0.197/photo.
- On-demand plans ($2.99/image) are available in sizes of 3, 10, 25, and 100 images. You can choose between a standard license and an extended license. Choose the 100 image plan for $2.99/image to get the best price. In contrast, the smallest 3 images cost $14.00/image.
- Extended license ($63.96) is available with on-demand packs only, costing $63.96–$89.00/image, based on pack size. Thus, the best investment of your money is buying a 100-image plan, compared to buying 25 images four times.
- Free trial is not available at Depositphotos. To get Depositphotos’ free trial, sign up and wait a couple of hours to get an invitation to a 7-day free trial of 10 photos via email.
- Free photos from a collection of 70K free files similar to what Adobe Stock offers. Furthermore, Depositphotos lets you download watermarked images, giving you a chance to test the image in your design or project before buying it.
Canva
- Price: $0.00 for Free; $9.99/month for Pro; $30/month for Enterprise.
- Subscriptions: $9.99–$30.00/month. Canva’s stock photo library is integrated into its editor, so the only way to get access to the images is to buy a full subscription.
- License: Canva offers multiple licenses based on the source of images. For its Pro content, a form of a royalty-free license applies, which gives you a perpetual, non-exclusive, and non-transferable, worldwide right to use the content.
- Free trial: There’s a 30-day free trial for the entire Canva suite (tools + photos).
- Coupon code: /
- Additional features: The entire Canva stock photo library is integrated into all of its tools.
123RF
- Subscriptions ($0.36–$3/image): Available in sizes of 10, 50, 150, and 350 monthly downloads with the monthly and yearly (25% cheaper) options. There’s no daily download limit.
- On-demand plans ($2.69–$9/image) are available in sizes of 3, 10, 25, and 100 downloads, but you can also get a custom pack of up to 1,000 downloads.
- Extended licenses ($59–$130) are sold based on the required extended use.
- Free trial (10 images) lasts 30 days and is available with the subscription of 10 monthly downloads.
Dreamstime
- Subscription plans ($0.158/image) are available in six different sizes: 5, 10, 15, 25, 100, and 750 monthly downloads. By prepaying for the entire year, you get a 23% discount. I partnered with Dreamstime to give you an additional 30% discount connected to a link. This link allows you to get the best stock photo prices possible. With the largest plan, you will get stock photos for as low as $0.158/photo.
- Credit packs ($8.00/image) come in ten different credit sizes that you can use to buy images. However, the pricing of images depends on the image level. The higher the image level, the more credits it costs. To determine which level the image falls into, click on each image and check manually. Furthermore, levels change every day because they depend on image popularity and age. The credit prices range from $0.616 to $9.54 based on the credit pack you choose.
- Extended licenses ($16.10/image) are uniquely sold with subscriptions at Dreamstime. This results in the best possible price in the industry – $16.10 for an extended license. Of course, you can buy an extended license on-demand for 50 credits or $62.50.
- Free trial (15 images), but they will be watermarked.
Bigstock
- Price: $0.157–$12.00/image.
- Pricing options: Subscriptions, on-demand.
- Free trial: 35 images or videos during the first 7 days.
- Coupon code: /
- Additional features: /
Vecteezy
- You get access to all resources even with a free account, but you must give attribution.
- Vecteezy’s standard royalty-free license allows only 100,000 copies and sales, which is very low compared to 500,000 other stock photo agencies.
- With the Pro plan, you access the SVG editor, which is good, but not as good as Adobe Illustrator.
Rating Methodology
To identify the best stock photo sites, we took a holistic view of 31 stock photo agencies that incorporated image number, quality, variety, prices and pricing options, licensing terms, features, and customer support.
- Image quality & variety: 20% of the score. We browsed each stock photo site for over 50 search terms and analyzed the resulting image quality and variety. Both were scored qualitatively based on our expertise and experience. The quality check comprised technical quality, including exposure, sharpness, grain, saturation, color temperature, and added value. The variety check was primarily focused on checking what percentage of images came from the same photo shoot.
- Stock photo prices and pricing options: 20% of the score. Price is the crucial factor in choosing stock photos, and having various options helps customers find the best plans. We checked whether the stock photo agency offers subscriptions, on-demand options, and which sizes. In addition, having a free trial is a bonus as it allows customers to get an insight into what they can expect. Finally, we considered the minimum, median, and maximum price per image and the price per extended license image.
- Licensing terms: 20% of the score. We read and took notes on every stock image license. We compared them based on how many copies, reprints, and impressions they allow and their indemnity value.
- Image number: 15% of the score. The number of images is essential when rating stock photo sites because when you need thousands of images, you can quickly run out of free photos. We checked each stock photo site’s database and took notes on the number of images.
- Additional features: 15% of the score. Additional features are meant to simplify or enhance a customer’s workflow. We reviewed and tested all the additional features where possible. Since some are limited to enterprises, or we couldn’t get in touch with the support team, we searched for customers with access to the additional features and asked for their opinion.
- Customer support: 10% of the score. Crucially, when testing customer support, we didn’t tell them who we were, so we got treated like every other customer. We took notes of the response times, contact options (live chat, email, and telephone), and the usefulness and kindness of the support teams.
What’s the difference between the “cheapest” and “best cheap” stock photo sites?
Because we wanted to be thorough, we covered both topics, despite how similar they may seem. The main difference is that the cheapest stock photo sites are ranked purely based on increasing pricing.
In contrast, we ranked the best cheap stock photo sites (the current post) based on the quality of service measured with our ratings. However, we listed only the sites we deemed affordable, meaning those within reach also for users on a tight budget.
Next in stock photos
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- Cheapest Stock Photo Sites
- Best Stock Photo Sites for Graphic Designers
- Best Stock Image Subscriptions of
- Best Stock Photo Free Trials
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About your guide
Matic Broz is a multifaceted creative professional, with experience as a photographer, graphic designer, and business owner. He has a decade of experience in helping other creatives improve their craft and start their own businesses. His writing and research have been featured in notable publications such as The Guardian, PetaPixel, and USA Today. Additionally, his scientific research has been recognized with a cover feature in the prestigious MDPI-owned journal. In his leisure time, he enjoys photography, hiking, and spending time with dogs. Read more
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