Stock Photo Reviews
When choosing a stock photo site, it's important to consider factors such as the quality and variety of the photos available, the pricing and licensing options, and the user-friendliness of the website. You should also carefully read the terms and conditions of the site to make sure you understand how you can use the photos and whether there are any restrictions. Additionally, it's a good idea to read reviews and compare different sites to find the one that best meets your needs.
All stock photo reviews
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Shutterstock is the best stock photo site and is worth a try if you’re looking for a large collection of stock images, videos, music, and editorial content. Subscriptions are the cheapest way to get royalty-free images, while image packs offer the most flexibility. You can also test it for 30 days using the free trial.
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99designs has a rating of 5.0 out of 5.0 and ranks 1st among crowdsourcing design platforms, indicating that most customers are satisfied with their purchases. Consumers are satisfied with 99designs because of the affordable prices, high design quality, and great customer support and user interface. 99designs is great specifically for one-time projects.
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Adobe Stock is a valuable stock photo site for graphic designers who use Creative Cloud applications like Photoshop or Illustrator. Since it is very affordable and has a royalty-free license, it is a practical option for any buyer who needs high flexibility and low prices.
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Depositphotos has a rating of 4.8 out of 5.0 and ranks 4th among stock photo sites, indicating that most customers are satisfied with their purchases. Consumers are satisfied with Depositphotos because of the affordable prices, high image quality, and great stock images and videos selection. Depositphotos is great, specifically for bloggers and small businesses.
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iStock stands out with its collection of Essential (standard) and Signature (Premium) images, both of which you can get with subscription at affordable costs. But extended licenses are very expensive.
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Envato Elements is worth a try if you’re looking for an affordable source of stock videos, images, music, templates, fonts, and other visual assets. The best way to test it for yourself and decide based on your experience is with the 7-day free trial that gives you full access.
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With cheap subscription plans and unlimited downloads, Vecteezy is a good option for beginner graphic designers. Vectors are gorgeous, images are okay but lack variety and quantity, and stock videos are not the best.
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Pexels is an outstanding resource for anyone seeking a vast collection of high-quality, free images and videos for their projects. The platform's user-friendly interface and generous licensing policy make it an ideal choice for creators on a budget. However, the significantly smaller collection and no legal coverage, may force marketers to look to paid stock photo sites instead.
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Stocksy is a royalty-free and rights-managed stock image and video agency that offers high-quality visual content. However, it’s more expensive than the competition without offering many advantages. There are also no subscriptions or free trials.
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While Freepik offers a decent selection of resources, it falls short compared to Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, and Envato Elements, which provide more extensive libraries, advanced features, seamless software integration, and flexible pricing plans, making them better options for professionals and users with diverse creative needs.
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Photocase is a solid choice for artistic photos that you may use in commercial and editorial projects. However, to remove the obligatory credit line, you must pay an additional $90, which is too expensive for most customers. Therefore, we recommend cheaper alternatives to Photocase, such as Shutterstock.
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Getty Images is a fantastic stock photo agency for enterprises and large businesses, but it’s not the best option for individuals and businesses with smaller budgets. The main reason is that Getty Images’ pricing is very expensive compared to its alternatives, mainly because there are no subscription options.
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Dreamstime has a large collection of stock images, but we don’t like the quality of these images, which are often overedited. While Dreamstime can be a good option, we advise you to pick one of its alternatives.
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Alamy has a vast collection of stock images and videos, but the quality is mediocre, and prices are inexplicably high compared to competitors. Additionally, licensing terms and prices are complicated, and the company does not offer license indemnity. Customer support is relatively quick, but some customers have reported longer wait times.
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Gratisography is a great option for designers and marketers looking for unique and creative images. While the selection of images is not as extensive as other sites, the site's images are distinctive and can add a playful or whimsical element to any project. However, if users need a wider selection of images or require images in different file formats, they may also want to explore other free stock image sites.
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We do not recommend CanStockPhoto, mainly because of the daily downloads that do not carry over to the next day and the poor image quality. Moreover, the support team does not answer questions even after a month of waiting. Finally, even with the extended license, the maximum legal liability is $10,000, while other sites offer up to $1 million.
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We do not recommend PxBee for stock photos because it costs the same as the best stock photo sites, and it has significantly lower-quality images and worse licensing terms. In addition, there is no free trial, and the subscription images may only be used during the valid subscription plans. Finally, numerous grammatical errors on the website made us doubt its legitimacy.
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FreeImages vs. stock.xchng FreeImages, previously known as stock.xchng or SXC, was a website that offered free-to-use stock photography and illustrations.
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With vague licensing terms, uncompetitive prices, and below-average image quality, we think you shouldn't download stock images or videos from Pixta. Instead, we recommend you pick one of the numerous trustworthy alternatives, including Shutterstock and Adobe Stock.
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Crestock provides a decent selection of royalty-free images with flexible licensing options and pricing plans. However, its limitations, such as a smaller image selection compared to competitors, Standard License restrictions, and credit expiration, make it a less attractive choice. While it may cater to some users' needs, there are other stock photo websites on the market that offer a more comprehensive and satisfying experience.
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We do not recommend Death to Stock to anyone because of the unresponsive customer support, unclear pricing, awfully small image collection, and non-functional website.
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Stock Photo Secrets is a small and low-quality stock photo agency with overpriced images and poor selection. At higher prices than Shutterstock, Stock Photo Secrets offers 50 times fewer photos, less comprehensive licensing, and poor customer support. We do not recommend it.
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StockUnlimited is a paid stock photo site with a small collection of 1 million stock photos that are of lower quality than their free counterparts. At the moment, the website is not working properly, so you can't even buy images. We recommend Envato Elements as the best unlimited downloads alternative.