Shutterstock is one of the best stock photo sites available today. The platform allows users to browse and buy royalty-free over 434 million stock images, 29.2 million videos, audio, and editorial content. It’s easy to use, has broad licensing terms, and has excellent customer support. But that doesn’t mean it’s the perfect solution for everyone. If you’re looking for a great Shutterstock alternative, consider the industry-leading options in this guide.
Photutorial analyzed Shutterstock’s biggest competitors to bring you this list of alternatives based on pricing, image library, licensing, customer support, and more.
The best Shutterstock alternatives of 2023
- Depositphotos: Best for affordability
- Adobe Stock: Best for integration with Adobe Creative Suite
- Envato Elements: Best for freelancers
- iStock: Best for premium images
- Pond5: Best for stock footage
- Unsplash: Best for free high-quality photos
Best for affordability
Depositphotos
- Images
- 255 million
- Image price
- $0.19–$5.80
- Licensing
- Royalty-free
- Free trial
- 10 images (7 days)
The verdict: If you’re in the market for a moderate number of monthly images—say, between 30 to 100—Depositphotos emerges as a more cost-effective choice than Shutterstock. With the entry-level subscription plans priced the same, Depositphotos offers three times as many photos. Moreover, their small on-demand packs come in significantly cheaper than those at Shutterstock.
Pros
- Good selection of stock images but smaller than Shutterstock
- Just as good customer support
- No editorial content
Cons
- Smaller indemnity ($5000) than Shutterstock ($10,000/$250,000)
- Worse variety and quality of stock images
- Image quality & variety: Depositphotos image quality and variety are mostly good, but it’s lacking compared to Adobe Stock and Shutterstock, especially for trending/new topics.
- Price: Depositphotos subscription prices start at $24.92 per month for 30 images and up to $166.58 for 750 images, costing $1.44 to $0.22 per image. On-demand options are more expensive, available in sizes of 3, 11, 25, or 100 images, costing $2.99 to $14.00 per image. Extended licenses are much more expensive, costing $63.96–$89.00/image. You can also get Unlimited downloads subscriptions ($4.99/month) with access to 1.3 million files.
- Licensing: Depositphotos offers Standard and Extended royalty-free licenses, almost identical to Shutterstock’s. The only difference is that Depositphotos offers much lower indemnity—only $5,000 for both.
- Customer support: The customer is one of the best stock photo sites. The live chat is knowledgeable and replies very fast, while the response from email takes one to three business days.
- Additional features: Depositphotos’ stock library is integrated into the VistaCreate editor. The site also has a free background remover from images and videos, an image upscaler, and an API.
- Free trial: The free trial last only 7 days, but you can get 10 royalty-free images with the 25 images/mo plan.
- Discounts: 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 (3 images). 28.1% discount by buying Extended License in bulk (25 images). On average, a 30% discount for buying videos in bulk (25 videos) and a 33% discount for buying Extended licenses for videos in bulk.
Best Shutterstock alternative
Adobe Stock
- Images
- 335 million
- Image price
- $0.26–$9.99
- Licensing
- Royalty-free
- Free trial
- 10, 25, or 40 images (30 days)
Why is Adobe Stock the best Shutterstock alternative: Adobe Stock’s subscription plans are almost identical yet slightly more expensive than Shutterstock’s. The standard license is the same, but the extended license provides a smaller indemnity. Adobe Stock offers better, native integration into Creative Cloud, and more flexible on-demand options.
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.
- Image quality & variety: Adobe Stock gets most of its stock images from photographers using Lightroom and Photoshop, which are connected to the library. As a result, the Adobe Stock library contains photos from some of the best photographers in the world.
- Price: You can buy Adobe Stock stock images with subscriptions, which give a certain number of monthly credits that you can use to download images, videos, or audio tracks, similar to Shutterstock. Standard images cost $0.26 to $9.99 with subscriptions and $8.00 to $9.99 on-demand, while the premium images (higher quality) cost up to $119.80. The Extended license costs $72.
- Licensing: There are the Standard, Enhanced, and Extended licenses. The Standard license is included with all standard downloads, while the Enhanced license is included with the premium downloads. The difference is that the Enhanced license allows unlimited copies, while the Standard license is limited to 500K. The Extended license also grants you the use in merchandise and for other purposes where the image represents the major value of the product.
- Customer support: Adobe Stock customer support is its worst feature. The live chat always responds quickly, but the operators are almost exclusively unknowledgeable.
- Additional features: Integration into the Adobe Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro makes Adobe Stock the go-to stock photo website for creatives. It allows you to browse all Adobe Stock assets from within the apps, thus significantly speeding up your workflow.
- Free trial: Adobe Stock free trial is one of the most generous among stock photo sites, allowing you to download 10, 25, or even 40 free royalty-free images, based on the plan you pick.
- Discounts: 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).
Best stock photo subscription with unlimited downloads
Envato Elements
- Images
- 7 million
- Image price
- $11.50–$39.00/mo
- Licensing
- Royalty-free
- Free trial
- Unlimited downloads (7 days)
Why is Envato Elements the best Shutterstock alternative with unlimited downloads: Envato Elements has just 7 million photos, but you can get much cheaper for $16.50 per month and with unlimited downloads. There’s also no extended license. Envato Elements has a wide selection of creative assets that you can’t find on Shutterstock.
Pros
- Unlimited downloads with no daily limits.
- 7-day free trial with full access to all creative assets.
- Assets can be used commercially.
- Simple licensing.
- Plans for individuals, teams, and enterprises.
Cons
- One of the lowest indemnities in the industry.
- You can’t use creative assets for new projects after unsubscribing.
- A small collection of photos and videos compared to other stock agencies.
- No refunds.
- Image quality & variety: At over 7 million images, which is considerably less than at other stock photo sites like Shutterstock or Adobe Stock, Envato Elements offers a surprisingly good variety. However, the quality of photos is lower than elsewhere, yet good enough for most projects.
- Price: Envato Elements’ pricing involves only one subscription plan with two commitments and one discount—all give you unlimited downloads of all creative assets. The monthly plan costs $39 per month, and the annual plan costs $16.50 per month. Students get a 30% discount, which reduces the price for the annual plan to just $11.50 per month.
- Licensing: Because you get unlimited downloads, the Envato Elements licensing is not as impressive. While it’s still royalty-free, you may not use the assets for merchandise or other purposes where the asset would represent the majority of the value.
- Customer support: Envato Elements customer support is available through email or a help page.
- Additional features: The best-known Envato feature is Placeit, the mockup and logo tool. There are also tuts+ for learning, mixkit, and reshot.
- Free trial: 7-day free trial, during which you get full access to all features, including unlimited downloads and the commercial royalty-free license.
- Discounts: Subscriptions for individuals are available with 57% cheaper yearly ($16.50/month) and monthly ($39.00/month) commitments. Students get a 30% discount on subscriptions, thus paying only $11.00/month. Each additional team member is 30% cheaper. Read more about Envato Elements discounts »
Best premium image Shutterstock alternative
iStock
- Images
- 150 million
- Image price
- $0.22–$9.90
- Licensing
- Royalty-free
- Free trial
- 10 images (30 days)
Why is iStock the best premium image Shutterstock alternative: iStock is the only stock photo site that offers premium images (called Signature) with subscriptions, costing as little as $0.44 per download, compared to Shutterstock’s offset, that cost at least $211.
Pros
- 150 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.
- Image quality & variety: iStock divides images into two collections: Standard (Essentials) and Premium (Signature). The Signature collection is composed of technically better images that look more professional. It’s like buying Getty Images with subscriptions, while the Essentials are good for everyday use.
- Price: Essential images cost $0.22–$4.00 with subscriptions, while Premium images cost $0.44–$9.90. You can also get images on-demand with credits, costing $8 to $12 per credit, where Essentials cost 1 credit and Signatures 3 credits.
- Licensing: iStock licensing is virtually the same as Shutterstock’s licensing: The Standard License grants you up to 500,000 copies and $10,000 indemnity, while the Extended License grants you unlimited copies and up to $250,000 indemnity.
- Customer support: It is very rare even to get a response from the iStock customer support team.
- Additional features: Search Trends lets you browse the current visual trends by region, industry, and over time.
- Free trial: The free trial last 30 days, and you can get 10 royalty-free images.
- Discounts: 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.
Best Shutterstock alternative for amateur designers
Canva
- Images
- 110 million
- Image price
- $9.99–$12.99/mo
- Licensing
- Royalty-free, CC0
- Free trial
- 30 days
Why is Canva the best Shutterstock alternative for amateur designers: Starting at just $9.99 per month, Canva is the cheapest option to get unlimited downloads of stock photos and access to an easy-to-use graphic design editor much more powerful than all Shutterstock’s tools. These make Canva the best option for amateur designers and solopreneurs on a budget.
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
- Image quality & variety: A large portion of Canva’s image comes from free stock image sites, like Unsplash and Pixabay.
- Price: Canva is available with a free forever plan, which comes with a limited number of assets and functionality. Canva Pro costs $9.99 to $12.99 monthly and grants you full access to all features.
- Licensing: Canva offers two types of content: Free and Pro. The Free and Pro Content licenses cover all the content available on Canva’s platform, including photos, icons, illustrations, videos, audio, fonts, and templates. Free users can use Free content at no cost, and Pro content can be used by paying a fee or having a valid Canva subscription.
- Customer support: The customer is quite fast, and it usually takes around 2 business days to get a response through email.
- Additional features: The stock image collection is integrated into a super-intuitive editor, best suited for simple graphic designs, logo designs, and social media graphics.
- Free trial: 30 days free trial of Canva Pro.
- Discounts: 24% discount on the annual plan compared to the monthly. 3% discount for each additional team member.
Best Shutterstock alternative for stock footage
Pond5
- Videos
- 34 million
- Image price
- $8.32–$25/video
- Licensing
- Royalty-free
- Free trial
- –
Why is Pond5 the best Shutterstock alternative for footage: Pond5 has more videos than Shutterstock and a lower price per video. Pond5 also offers more comprehensive extended licenses for footage, making it ideal for large businesses.
Pros
- 33 million videos.
- Bonus credits with credit packs.
- Price matching.
- Excellent quality.
- Affordable with subscriptions.
Cons
- Subscriptions give access to a small portion of content.
- Some videos are very, very expensive.
- One-size subscriptions only.
- Image quality & variety: Pond5 has the largest collection of royalty-free stock footage, even larger than Shutterstock. All videos are heavily vetted, ensuring you won’t find low-quality videos.
- Price: Pond5 is on the higher end of video costs, where single downloads cost from $25 up to several thousands of dollars. You can also get subscriptions that cost $8.32 per video download, which grants you access to only about 10% of the collection.
- Licensing: Licenses are very broad, allowing you to do practically anything within reason with videos. Extended licenses cost $149 and $299 and grant you up to $1M in legal coverage.
- Customer support: Getting a response from the customer support team takes several days.
- Additional features: Pond5 has an API and a couple of thousands of free stock videos.
- Free trial: /
- Discounts: Save up to 58% when you pick yearly subscriptions instead of monthly.
Best free Shutterstock alternative
Unsplash
- Photos
- 4 million
- Image price
- Free or $4/mo
- Licensing
- Royalty-free
- Free trial
- –
Why is Unsplash the best free Shutterstock alternative: Unsplash has the largest collection of free stock photos available with the CC0 license. You can use all photos even commercially without attribution.
Pros
- 4 million professional stock photos
- Free for commercial and personal use
Cons
- Free photos are mixed with Unsplash+ photos
- Much smaller collection than Shutterstock
- No indemnity with licenses
- Image quality & variety: Very good quality and variety of stock photos for a free stock photo site.
- Price: Most Unsplash photos are completely free to use, but you can get the Unsplash+ subscription for $4/mo to get unlimited downloads of all premium Unsplash photos.
- Licensing: The free photos come with the Creative Commons 0 license.
- Customer support: Getting a response from the customer support team takes several days.
- Additional features: API.
- Free trial: /
- Discounts: /
Summary: Best Shutterstock alternatives
| Stock agency | Cost | Images | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Stock Best overall | $0.26–$9.99 | 326 million | 10, 25, or 40 images (30 days) |
| Depositphotos Cheap Shutterstock alternative | $0.22–$14.00 | 255 million | 10 images (7 days) |
| Envato Elements Best for unlimited downloads | $11.50–$39.00/mo | 8.1 million | Unlimited downloads (7 days) |
| iStock Best for premium images | $0.22–$9.90 | 167 million | 10 images (30 days) |
| Canva Best for amateur designers | $9.99–$12.99/mo | 110 million | 30 days |
| Pond5 Best for stock footage | $8.32–$25/video | Data not available | – |
| Unsplash Best free Shutterstock alternative | Free or $4/mo | 4 million | – |
Learn more
- Shutterstock vs. Envato Elements
- Shutterstock vs. Getty Images
- Shutterstock vs. iStock
- Shutterstock vs. Adobe Stock
What to look for in a Shutterstock alternative
When looking for a Shutterstock competitor, the first thing you should consider is what features you need. If you’re looking for a platform with high-quality images, make sure the platform you choose offers a vast selection of high-resolution photos. If you need to incorporate videos or music, check to see if the platform provides multimedia options like video clips or audio tracks. Do you require an extensive license for your media? If so, your Shutterstock alternative needs to offer flexible licensing options.
You should also consider the price of the platform. While some platforms offer a free tier, you’ll likely need to upgrade to a paid plan to get the features you need. Be sure to compare the price of the paid plans before you commit to a platform. Most Shutterstock competitors offer a free trial or sample assets to evaluate the platform before paying.
Finally, consider the level of customer support offered by the platform. Some platforms offer 24/7 chat support, while others only offer email support. If you need help finding the right media assets or understanding the licensing terms, be sure to choose a platform that offers the level of customer support you need. Make sure you can reach customer support easily if you have questions or run into problems. Look for a platform that offers 24/7 chat support or, at a minimum, a comprehensive knowledge base.
Is Shutterstock the best stock image site?
Shutterstock pros and cons
Pros:
- The largest collection of stock images (434 million)
- 30-day trial with 10 free images or 2 audio tracks worth $49
- Wide variety of buying options
- Big discounts with the annual prepaid plans
- Excellent customer support
- API, integrations, and image editing tools
- AI image generator
- $10,000 to $250,000 legal coverage (indemnity)
- Audio & SFX available with unlimited downloads
Cons:
- Not the cheapest for small subscriptions
- Footage can be quite expensive
- No rights-managed license
Shutterstock cost
Shutterstock prices start at $0.22 per image and reach up to $14.50, depending on the buying option. Subscription plans start at $24.92 per month. You can save 50% by choosing an annual plan and an additional 20% by prepaying. On-demand options are more costly, with images costing $2.30 to $14.50.
When to choose a competitor over Shutterstock
If you’re looking for a large collection of stock images, videos, and audio at moderate prices, Shutterstock is a good choice. However, if you need a cheaper option, rights-managed licensing terms, or cheaper footage, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Additionally, if you need other media assets like fonts, templates, themes, and plugins or want to avoid Shutterstock for any personal reason, you should consider one of its competitors.
Depositphotos is a good choice if you’re looking for an affordable Shutterstock alternative with decent licensing terms and good image selection. Adobe Stock is a good choice if you use Adobe apps, while Envato Elements offers the most versatility with content.
Methodology
There are many factors to consider when choosing a Shutterstock alternative. Image quality and variety, pricing, customer support, search features, and third-party integrations are all important factors to weigh.
When it comes to image quality and variety, some platforms offer a more diverse and high-quality selection than others. If you’re looking for a platform that excels in this area, you’ll want to consider factors such as the range of image categories, the quality of the images, and whether or not there’s customer support to assist you in finding the images you need.
Pricing is another important consideration. Some platforms may offer free tiers or low-cost options, while others may charge a monthly or annual subscription fee. You’ll also want to compare the cost of extra features or add-ons, such as extended licenses, video clips, and premium images.
Customer support is another crucial aspect to think about. You’ll want to ensure that the platform you choose offers customer support that’s available when you need it, be it in the form of phone support, email support, or live chat.
Search features and functionality are also vital considerations. Image platforms typically offer a range of search capabilities, such as keyword search, advanced filters, and even AI-powered search options, to help you find the right assets for your project.
Additionally, third-party integrations can help streamline your workflow. For instance, you may want to integrate the image platform with design software, content management systems, or marketing tools.
Just like with Squarespace alternatives, balancing these factors can help you make an informed decision when choosing a Shutterstock alternative.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a better alternative to Shutterstock?
Adobe Stock is the best alternative to Shutterstock if you use Creative Cloud tools or if you need more flexible on-demand stock images. Also, choose Adobe Stock over Shutterstock if you need a larger free trial with 40 instead of 10 free stock images.
What is a free alternative to Shutterstock?
The best free Shutterstock alternative is Unsplash with almost 4 million excellent stock photos. Other excellent free Shutterstock alternatives include Pixabay, Pexels, and PikWizard.
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