We all know that the best things in life are free, but don’t give these to the birds and bees — instead use them on your website!
Here are 15 great sites where you can find royalty-free images for use on your website and other marketing materials. Don’t forget to ensure you’re attributing the images properly, ensuring the creator gets the credit for their image, and if your image is informative instead of decorative be sure to add in an image alt tag.
Unsplash is our favorite site for royalty-free images. It’s a fantastic place to find royalty-free images, features over 1 million high-resolution images and has some great collections you can start with. The Unsplash license is pretty straightforward – all photos on Unsplash can be used for free and for either commerical or noncommerical purposes. No credit is required, but credit is always appreciated.
Photo by Steven Libralon on Unsplash
Pixabay offers over 1.7 million images you can use, download, copy, modify or adapt for either commercial or non-commercial purposes. You don’t even need to credit the photographer, but best practice says that you always should. Be aware that the Pixabay license does specify that you shouldn’t use their content with identifiable brands, so don’t use these images to promote the library or specific resources, but instead for things like events or staff lists, book reviews or blog posts.
Photo on Pixabay
Burst was created by Shopify to help their users create the best website they could, but has now grown to a fantastic collection of commercial-style free stock images. They offer a well curated collection of images, with helpful categories to make finding things easier. Their license is a bit complicated, so keep an eye on the image you’re choosing. Most images use the Creative Commons Zero CC0 license, but they also have a nonexclusive license for some photos. Their licensed photos can still be used for free in commercial and noncommercial uses, and attribution is not required, but is always welcome.
Photo on Burst
Over 1 million royalty free images are available here, and they are safe for commercial use, and do not require attribution. Their license allows free use for commercial projects, including on websites and other marketing materials. PikWizard has an agreement with Adobe Stock, so be aware when browsing if you see the word “premium” listed, as those images require a paid subscription to access.
Photo on PikWizard
Freerange features both photos and illustrations, along with backgrounds and textures. These images are available for commercial and non-commercial use, under the Equalicense license. Some of their images are also available under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, so keep an eye on what you’re using. Attribution is not required under the Freerange Stock license, but is always welcome.
Photo on Freerange Stock
Pexels is more of an aggregation site, although there are royalty-free photos that have been submitted by artists here, they also aggregate images from other free photo sites. These images are all usable under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. No attribution is required, but is always appreciated.
Photo on Pexels
Rawpixel has a free account, a casual account and a business account you can register for. The free account is limited to 10 images per day from their free collection. The site features thousands of lovely images, backgrounds, images, and illustrations, many of which are unique to this site. Just make sure you check the ‘free’ box when you’re searching. Their license is different if you have a free account, or if you go the Commercial license route, so make sure you check before using images.
Photo on Rawpixel
This site features gorgeous and very artsy photos all available for commercial use, with no copyright restrictions, as all their photos are in the public domain.
Photo on Life of Pix
This site, originally created by artist Ryan McGuire, features a small, but beautiful and very quirky collection of high-resolution images that are free of charge. These images can be used commercially, adapted, and modified. The license here is similar to the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, but keep an eye on the specific image you’re choosing. Attribution is not mentioned in the license, but is always a good idea.
Photo on Gratisography
This is another smaller collection of photos from photographer Daniel Nanesou’s collection. These photos are interesting, trendy and a bit whimsical too. The only problem here is that there aren’t enough photos! The license is fairly basic, but similar to the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, photos can be used on websites, marketing collateral, as well as personal and commercial works.
Photo on SplitShire
PicJumbo is associated with iStock, so some of the images will ask you to register and access their Premium collections for a fee. However, if you can navigate through that there are some lovely images here that can be used for commercial purposes. Keep your eye on the images you do choose to use, as not all of their images have a model release. Attribution is not required, but is always welcome.
Photo on PicJumbo
Photo on RGBStock
As the name suggests, this is a site of free to use good stock photos. This is another small collection of photos from a single photographer, but features some great shots and all the images have a more editorial feel to them. The license is fairly standard and allows free use for commercial purposes, attribution is not required, but appreciated.
Photo on GoodStockPhotos
MorgueFile is related to iStock, but still features royalty free stock photos that can be used for commercial purposes. Most of these images have a more DIY, at-home vibe to them, so it really depends on what you’re looking for if you use this site. You must give attribution to the artist when using these images.
Photo on MorgueFile
Libreshot offers thousands of lovely free stock photos from Martin Vorel. All photos here can be used without attribution, free for commercial or personal use. This isn’t a huge collection, but there are bound to be some gems here you’ll be able to use for the library.
Photo on Libreshot