Free photo banks are splitting the community. Some don’t allow them, others strongly discourage them. Everyone has to make up their own mind. Personally, I like to use them and in this article I will share with you the best ones.
Remember that you always need to carefully study the license terms that photo banks have.
1. Pexels
Pexels is a photo bank with the most beautiful photos I know. When I want a photo from a photo library, I head here without a second thought. The photos are often more artistic, which makes them not feel like “classic stock photos.”
It’s true that Pexels doesn’t have as many photos as Pixabay, for example, but the quality makes it the obvious choice for me.
Pexels also offers nice videos.
2. Pixabay
This is probably the largest free-to-use photo library.
Most of the photos on this platform really scream “I’m from a photo library”, however, you may have a lucky hand.
3. Unsplash
Unsplash is another photo bank I like to visit. In a way, it feels like a cross between Pexels and Pixabay.
Anyway, while there are a plethora of free photo sites, I never look anywhere other than these three.
4. Aggregators
Photo aggregators aim to have all photo banks in one place. They serve to allow you to search for your photos in one place and not have to switch between banks.
This doesn’t sit well with photo banks logically, which often results in them not letting you view their content on the aggregator, but redirecting you directly to themselves.
I used to have a good experience with http://thestocks.im, however, the platform seems to have changed and its use is more like a “list” of all the possible banks rather than being directly searchable.
Another aggregator is then, for example: https://allthefreestock.com.
5. unDraw (free illustrations)
unDraw by Katerina Limpitsouni is brilliant. The site is 4 years old, and although the illustrations can be seen in various places (including my site :)), the market is still not saturated with them.
In addition to a really large variety of illustrations, the database also has a great feature where you can choose your own complementary color for the illustrations to set yourself apart.
So if you’re looking for illustrations for your project, unDraw may be the perfect place to start.
6. Gratioshgraphy
The photos from Gratiosgraphy are original, pretty and free. However, it is true that they can now be seen quite often in various places…
But if you don’t think so, be sure to check it out:
Bonus – Google images
You can also search for images for your projects directly in Google images. However, as you can guess, most of the images you find will not have a license that allows you to use the images freely.
Therefore, you need to filter only those that have such a license:
Again, I strongly recommend finding out what each license allows. You can definitely use this extra knowledge for all the sites mentioned above…
Happy searching!
Those were my favorite photo banks. Let me know in the comments what your experience with the banks has been like!
