Storyblocks Review 2023

What Makes Storyblocks so popular?

With the advent of video marketing, the demand for video editors has risen. Modern storytellers need unlimited downloads to keep up with the competition. In my experience, freelancers, influencers, and creative team members benefit most from Storyblocks. But it’s a fitting solution for beginners too.

1. Unlimited downloads

An endless supply of stock footage and audio simplifies the creative process. For starters, you don’t have to care about downloading a “wrong” video. If it’s not right, get another one free.

Second, counting downloads kills creativity. To me, it’s the most annoying issue when I work. So, having unlimited downloads makes it more enjoyable for me. And the clients love the results.

2. Large collection of stock footage with unlimited downloads

I’ve already mentioned the Storyblocks’ unlimited downloads. But it’s not the only site offering such services; there are four others. Yet, these sites come nowhere close in the number of available videos.

For example, some offer only 10k videos, meaning there’s a much smaller variety of footage. Compare that to more than 1 million videos at Storyblocks, and we get a clear winner.

3. Royalty-free license for all content

Everything you download from Storyblocks has a royalty-free (RF) license. This means you can use the content for commercial and personal use. And once you download it, you may use it forever.

The only thing you MUST NOT do with the RF license is to resell the content. Likewise, you may not use it for any defamatory or harmful purposes. But short of that, you’re free to do anything.

What is Storyblocks?

Storyblocks is a website offering royalty-free footage, audio, templates, and special effects. It’s an excellent source for beginners starting their YouTube or video editing careers. Best of all—you can start with a minimal budget.

To me, Storyblocks is the best way to start because you get everything you need for video editing. Stock footage fills gaps of what’s missing, music sets the mood, and special effects connect the video. Finally, if you don’t have a video editor, you get free with the Unlimited All Access plan.

In short, Storyblocks has everything a content creator needs. And the flexible licensing ensures you never get a copyright strike on YouTube.

Pricing

Storyblocks is one of the few stock video providers that offer unlimited downloads. Other stock video agencies need you to choose a fixed monthly download amount. Besides increased cost, it puts a lot of pressure on you. For example, you may underestimate the number of videos you’ll need. Or your needs might change in the future.

So, choosing Sotryblocks’ unlimited downloads is both budget-friendly and smart.

All Storyblocks’ plans include:

• Royalty-free licensing. You can use the assets (4K/HD footage, After Effects, and Premiere Pro templates, music, images, sound effects) anywhere and forever. RF license works for commercial and personal projects.
• Live customer support: If you ever run into trouble, help is only a minute away.
• Cancel anytime: Some agencies bind you to a yearly contract if you want the best prices. In contrast, you can cancel Storyblocks anytime.

By purchasing a Storyblock plan, you get access to:

• 1+ million HD & 4K footage, After Effects and Adobe Premiere templates, motion backgrounds;
• 74,000+ music tracks and sound effects;
• 433,000+ photos, vectors, and illustrations.

You can choose between Unlimited All Access, Video Only, and Audio Only plans.

Unlimited All Access Plan ($30/month)

The Unlimited All Access plan is ideal for content creators such as freelancers, digital marketers, and influencers. By getting this plan, you get unlimited downloads of:

• HD and 4K Footage;
• After Effects templates;
• Music & sound Effects;
• Photos, vectors, & illustrations;
• It allows full access to Maker, a video editor (more about it later).

Storyblocks offers a monthly and yearly plan. The annual plan grants you a whopping 55% discount and costs $30/month or $360/year. The monthly plan is more expensive, costing $65/month, but it allows you to cancel any time.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether you need content for a month (choose monthly) or for a year (choose yearly).

Here’s a tip: If you’re sure you’ll need Storyblocks content for at least 6 months, go for a yearly plan anyway. Why? Thanks to the discount, it’s cheaper than paying for 6 monthly plans.

An Unlimited All Access plan is available for individuals and enterprises. The main difference between the two is the license. Read more about it in the License chapter.

Video Only Plans

You can choose between Unlimited and Basic video plans. Both come with the same Individual license I explained earlier.

• Unlimited Video plan ($20/month or $240/year). Unlimited downloads of HD & 4K footage and After Effects Templates.
• Basic Video plan ($10/month or $120/year). 5 downloads per month of HD footage for $10/month.

Nowadays, there’s a rising demand for 4K videos. So, even if you work on a small project, the Unlimited Video plan is the obvious choice.

Audio Only Plans

You can choose between Unlimited and Basic Audio plans. Both plans come with an Individual license.

• Unlimited Audio plan ($15/month or $180/year). Unlimited music and sound effects downloads.
• Basic Audio plan ($10/month or $120/year). 3 downloads per month of music.

Sound Effects are niche-specific, but almost every video editor uses them. Having unlimited access to quality audio and sound effects is an invaluable resource. And it only costs $5 more per month, which is not a lot.

Verdict: The Unlimited All Access plan is the best choice for any creative individual or team. Unlimited downloads remove worries about ever running out of downloads. In short, Storyblocks costs $30/month for unlimited access to all content, $20/month for videos, and $15/month for audio.

Storyblocks License

Individuals vs Business license

Storyblocks license is a royalty-free license. It means you keep downloading videos forever without any further payments. Even if you start a new project, you’re allowed to reuse them. The license doesn’t pose location or time restrictions, either.

There are two licensing options at Storyblocks:

Feature	Individual License	Business License
Licensed to	Individual	Organization
Production budget	Unlimited	Unlimited
Legal indemnification	Up to $20,000	Up to $1,000,000
Distribution	Unlimited distribution for print, digital, and production	Unlimited distribution for print, digital, and production

To sum up, the Individual license only grants usage rights to the license holder (the person who licensed/downloaded the content). In contrast, the Business license may be used and shared across a team or an entire company.

Learn even more about the Storyblocks license:

Does Storyblocks have a free trial?

In April 2020, Storyblocks removed their free trial when they changed pricing. But you don’t need a free trial anymore because you get unlimited downloads for only $30.

The now-gone Storyblocks free trial allowed you to download watermarked content for free. You can get unwatermarked videos, audio, and images for a low price. And you can download as many as you can.

Storyblocks Discount

First of all, Storyblocks doesn’t offer a discount code. Anyone saying otherwise is trying to scam you.

Yet, you still get a Storyblocks discount by picking the annual plans instead of monthly. Monthly Unlimited All Access plan costs $66/month, while the yearly costs $30/month or $360/year. And this is how you get a 53% discount at Storyblocks.

Storyblocks Maker Review

Maker is a video editing tool developed by Storyblocks. It lets you create pro videos within minutes, even without video-making experience.

It works in 5 easy steps:

1. Pick the aspect ratio

Pick between 16:9 (wide), 1:1 (square), and 9:16 (vertical) aspect ratios.

Keep in mind that every social media platform supports different aspect ratios. And Storyblocks Maker lets you know about it.

2. Choose a template

You can choose from hundreds of beautiful templates from several categories.

3. Upload your logo, videos, photos, and more.

A logo is essential for branding, so everyone immediately knows whose video it is.

4. Add stock videos, images, audio, and effects from the Storyblock library.

The best part about the Maker is the option to upload content from the Storyblocks library. It works like Adobe Stock and Creative Cloud.

5. Customise with animations, intro and outros, and unique overlays.

Maker already has dozens of animations, overlays, text styles, intros, and outros.

But always use them sparingly, as you don’t want to create a flashy and cluttered video.

6. Download your video in various preset sizes, ideal for social media.

You decide between 480p, 720p, and 1080p resolution options on the export. Also, to remove the watermark, you need a paid plan.

You get full access to Maker for $20/month. It allows you unlimited video project exports.

The Best Alternatives

• Artgrid
• Envato Elements
• Shutterstock
• Adobe Stock
• Artlist
• Epidemic Sound
• Motion Array
• Pond5
• Pexels

These stock footage sites offer similar services to Storyblocks but with different plans and licenses.

Storyblocks vs Envato Elements

Storyblocks and Envato Elements offer unlimited download plans, but Envato Elements ($16.50/month) is cheaper than Storyblocks ($30.00/month). Envato Elements has a more extensive library of files (3.2+ mil videos) than Storyblocks (1+ mil videos). Also, it offers courses, tutorials, and other digital assets with the subscription plan.

On the other hand, Storyblocks’ license is much easier to use. Once you get it, you may use it forever, while the Envato Elements license only lets you use it for one project. You must get a new license if you want to reuse it for a different project.

Storyblocks vs Shutterstock

Unlike Storyblocks, Shutterstock does not offer unlimited download plans. You get a fixed number of monthly downloads by subscribing or buying an on-demand pack. Shutterstock offers 5 videos for $99/month, 10 for $159/month, or 20 for $199/month. Or, you can choose packs of 5, 10, or 25 SD, HD, or 4K videos, starting at $52/video.

Shutterstock’s library contains images, while Storyblocks’ library consists of videos. But, because Shutterstock is the biggest stock agency, its library houses 22 million videos, too. Shutterstock’s Standard license is similar to Storyblocks’ license.

Read my Shutterstock review.

Storyblocks vs Adobe Stock

Both Storyblocks and Adobe Stock support and promote creativity. Each in its way. Storyblocks offers stock media at low prices with unlimited download plans. But, costly Adobe Stock simplifies your creative process with the integration.

It’s integrated into Creative Cloud apps, such as Photoshop or Illustrator. When you work on a project, you don’t have to license images first. The integration allows you to try images or videos for free and only buy them when your project is ready.

Videos at Adobe Stock are only available with credits. Videos cost between 8 and 20 credits based on their quality. And credits cost $8.00.

If price is the most critical factor for you, I recommend Storyblocks. Conversely, Adobe Stock is ideal if you prefer a smooth workflow regardless of the pricing. But, don’t forget that Storyblocks has a video editor called Maker that works similar to Adobe’s Creative Cloud.

Read my Adobe Stock review.

Storyblocks vs Artgrid

Artgrid pricing is like Storyblocks pricing, but it’s more costly. There are three subscription plans: Junior HD ($24.92/month), Creator 4K+ ($39.92/month), and Pro RAW/LOG ($49.92/month). They differ in video quality (HD vs 4K-8K vs RAW files), but they all give you unlimited downloads.

Yet, Artgrid only offers footage while also being more expensive than Storyblocks. So, if you want videos, images, audio, and various templates and effects at lower prices, Storyblocks is the way to go.

Read my Artgrid & Artlist review.

Storyblocks vs Artlist

Artlist is the same company as Artgrid but offers Music and SFX instead of videos. Unlimited downloads are available with three plans: SFX ($12.41/month) for SFX, Music ($16.60/month) for music, or Music + SFX ($25/month) for music and SFX.

The combination of Artgrid and Artlist gives you Storyblocks. But subscribing to Artlist and Artgrid would cost you $75/month, while at Storyblocks, you get everything for $30/month.

Storyblocks vs Epidemic Sound

Epidemic Sound offers 35,000 tracks and 90,000 sound effects but no images or videos. You can get unlimited downloads with a Personal subscription plan ($15/month or $144/year) or a Commercial plan ($49/month or $299/month). However, a Personal subscription is only appropriate for your use.

Although renowned creators trust epidemic Sound, I choose Storyblocks. Their pricing and content favor productivity, while Epidemic Sound’s does not.

Storyblocks vs Motion Array

Motion Array licenses Adobe After Effects, Adobe Templates, images, stock audio, and stock video. The pricing is the same as Storyblocks’. You can get a free plan, which allows you to use free files, a monthly plan ($29.99/month), or an annual plan ($249.99/year).

In all aspects, Storyblocks and Motion Array are pretty similar. To make the best possible decision, I recommend you check the variety of content they offer in your niche. Then, pick the one that is best suitable for your needs.

Storyblocks vs Pond5

Pond5 offers high-quality footage, music, aftereffects, sound effects, images, and 3D models. But you cannot get unlimited downloads at Pond5. Furthermore, Pond5 is costly. To get content from Pond5, you need to buy credits that you can then use to license stock content.

In conclusion, if you want high-quality stock footage, music, or after/sound effects, Pond5 should be your go-to choice. But it won’t be cheap. But, if you want unlimited downloads for a low price, Storyblocks is for you.

Read my Pond5 review.

Storyblocks vs Pexels

Pexels is a great free Storyblocks alternative. Many people don’t realise that Pexels is a website for free stock photos and a source of free and high-quality stock videos.

FAQ

Summary

In conclusion, I recommend Storyblocks to editors looking for cheap but quality videos. You will also find great audio, images, and after-effects.

The best feature is unlimited plans, which unlock your creative potential. Because you don’t have to worry about running out of videos, you can focus on quality.

Thanks to inexpensive subscription plans ($30/month), Storyblocks is one of the cheapest and best stock videos sites.

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