IMAGO review

IMAGO is a German stock photo agency that focuses on editorial images and videos. Their collection includes 385 million images and 65 million videos, with over 200,000 new files added daily through partnerships with major agencies like Shutterstock and Alamy. IMAGO offers a variety of licensing options including Rights Managed, Royalty Free Classic, and Royalty Free Premium. Prices range from $4 to $349 per image and from $20 to $499 per video.

While IMAGO has a massive collection of editorial content, its interface and search functionality need improvement. The filters are clumsy and unreliable, while customer support is only available on weekdays. Overall, IMAGO is a great budget-friendly source for editorial images and videos, especially when buying in bulk. But for creative images, there are more affordable options from sites like Adobe Stock or Shutterstock. IMAGO is ideal for news media, documentaries, and other informational content creators looking for a low-cost provider of editorial visuals.

Pricing and licensing: lots of options make up for confusion and flexibility

• Cost: $4–$349 per image, $20–$499 per video
• Licenses: Rights Managed, Royalty Free Classic, and Royalty Free Premium
• Indemnification: No limit
• Commercial use? Yes, for non-editorial content

IMAGO offers a wide variety of image and video licensing options, providing flexibility for your needs. However, with 12 different licenses available, this system can be confusing for new users—you can license images and videos through three different licenses: Rights Managed, Royalty Free Classic, and Royalty Free Premium, and each of those licenses comes in Standard and Extended versions.

Luckily for you, however, you are more limited than that. Each asset can only be licensed with one of these licenses, and the only thing you have to decide on is whether you want the Standard or the Extended version.

Rights Managed licenses are ideal for editorial content like news articles and documentaries. These licenses grant single-use rights, meaning you must buy a new license for each new use. With a Standard version of the license ($29 per image and $99 per video), you can use media for web use only, and videos are limited to FHD quality (1080p). The Extended version ($99 per image and $499 per video) expands your usage options to include print (up to 5000 copies) for images, and videos come in 4K resolution.

Royalty Free Classic license works for editorial and commercial projects. The Standard version ($9 per image and $49 per video) is for single-use and web only. Images come in medium resolution (max 1000 pixels) and videos up to FHD. You would use this license for blogs, digital advertising, and social media. The Extended version ($99 per image and $199 per video) removes web-only restrictions, offers higher resolutions, and permits multiple uses.

Royalty Free Premium is similar to the Classic but allows multiple uses with Standard and Extended. The Standard version ($99 per image and video), while the Extended version ($349 per image and $399 per video) grants usage beyond the web.

If you want to buy multiple images or videos, you should use credit packages. They come in sizes of 12 to 200 credits, costing from $99 to $1,999. You can use credits to buy any license, but they cost different numbers of credits, ranging from 1 to 50. For instance, a Rights Managed Standard image costs 3 credits, while a Royalty Free Classic Extended image costs 10 credits. By using packages you can save up to 60% on IMAGO’s prices. The more you buy upfront, the more you save.

IMAGO accepts payments with most credit cards, PayPal, direct debit, and instant transfers. However, payment by invoice is available only to companies from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Prices are available in US dollars and euros and do not include the sales tax.

IMAGO also offers two types of refunds: you can get your credits back if you licensed the wrong file or you can get your money back for single license and package purchases within 7 days, though it’s subject to their internal review first.

Compared to other premium stock photo sites, IMAGO is most akin to Getty Images in terms of content and licensing options, though it’s more budget-friendly. Getty charges $80–$500 for rights-managed and $140–$500 for royalty-free licenses. IMAGO also provides the same unlimited indemnity as Getty and has a larger collection of editorial content. Another option is Shutterstock, with 50 million editorial images and videos priced at $99–$199. They also offer premium royalty-free assets from their Offset and Select collections for $249–$349, while standard images cost from $0.22 to $14.50. Alamy is yet another agency offering similar buying options as IMAGO, though there are several issues plaguing the company.

Most other stock agencies have media marked with “editorial use only”, but these don’t contain newsworthy content. Rather, these feature logos or lack model/property releases and are licensed for just $0.20–$30 with standard image subscriptions.

Key takeaway: IMAGO offers a variety of flexible image and video licensing options, but the complexity may be initially confusing for new users. Prices for creative images and videos are on the higher end of the range, while editorial prices are more affordable than average.

User experience & content search issues on IMAGO

IMAGO might initially resemble other stock media sites, but its interface, particularly the crucial search function, needs improvement. The design has some odd quirks, but my main issue lies with the filters, an essential part of any image browsing experience.

To access filters, you click “filter results,” opening a clumsy overlay that obscures your images. Closing it requires hitting “Apply filter,” forcing a page reset. Using the filters is frustrating since you must constantly open and close this slow panel. Worse, the filters aren’t reliable. Searching for “AI-generated content” yields an editorial photo of Elon Musk simply because his AI projects are mentioned in the description.

Let’s look at another example highlighting interface problems. Searching for “landscape” with the “square” filter applied, I still got a mix of image orientations, including some very vertical or horizontal ones. Additionally, some photos simply won’t load, and this issue persists across different devices and internet connections, indicating a problem with IMAGO itself.

On the bright side, IMAGO told me that they’re working on an improved search, which should become the default in a few months. For now, you can access it here: https://www.imago-images.com/search/v2.

As a German company, IMAGO offers English and German versions. Oddly, your language choice dictates whether you pay in euros or dollars. If you’re European but want English content, you’ll be stuck paying in dollars. Further, even major currencies like the British pound, Canadian dollar, or Australian dollar aren’t supported.

Content: a large collection of mainly editorial images

IMAGO offers access to a massive library of 384 million images and 64 million videos. The number of media assets is growing rapidly with over 200,000 files added daily. However, you can’t find audio, templates, 3D, or any other media types because IMAGO’s main aim is editorial content, although there are also creative images and videos.

IMAGO partners with major agencies like Shutterstock, POND5, and Alamy to expand their reach and offer content in different markets. These partnerships mean some images might also be available on other platforms, so it’s worth comparing prices between IMAGO and their partner sites. IMAGO aims to be highly competitive while offering a fair 50/50 revenue split with its partners.

Ultimately, it means that IMAGO probably has the most comprehensive collection of editorial content. However, I should also add that their creative collection is not bad, but there are more affordable options.

IMAGO’s picture desk has a team of experienced editors carefully curating collections around trending topics. You can find these publicly on their website, or they can be delivered through newsletter or FTP for business clients.

They can also help you with specific research requests by providing custom image selections through their Content Research service. Depending on your requirements, you can get free research of up to 30 images and videos, or pay $2.50 per media to get into the priority queue, not have your collection published, and be able to get unlimited files.

If you need a photographer, IMAGO’s vast network covers nearly every region. Since photography assignments are often complex, pricing is determined on a case-by-case basis. Factors like location, travel costs, and distribution rights all contribute to the final price.

Customer support

IMAGO offers customer support through an AI chatbot, email, and phone call (+49 30 7737897 19). The AI chatbot is useful only for basic preset questions, such as What does IMAGO offer? while it won’t answer more advanced questions (see the screenshot below).

Luckily, customer support through email is very quick (I got a response in 5 minutes). The downside, though, is that support through email and phone calls is available only from Monday to Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM CET. However, for urgent matters, you can reach IMAGO from 6:00 AM to midnight every day at +49 30 47480748 or info@imago-images.de.

Is IMAGO worth your money?

IMAGO is an underappreciated source of editorial images and videos. Editorial media comes with a similar license to Getty Images but at a fraction of the cost. You can get editorial images for as low as $12 by using packages, while Getty will cost you at least $80 and Shutterstock $99. By partnering with other agencies, IMAGO has one of the largest collections of editorial content but it’s not as great for creative images, which start at $4 and cost up to $349.

I recommend IMAGO to anyone who needs editorial images and videos, especially if buying in bulk, which can save you up to 60%. Because of that IMAGO is perfect for large media outlets, documentaries, and other informational purposes.