Visual media is quickly proving to be very beneficial in internet marketing. Yes, content is king, but when complemented with the right images, it can conquer new territories. Whether it is for social media or content marketing, images add more appeal and draw your audience in to whatever you are trying to convey to them.
In fact, research backs the theory that our brains connect more to images than just plain text. When you share an image that relates to your content, you are allowing your reader to connect better with you. And there’s also the fact that when you share great images, they get re-shared more, and you get more traffic back to your website.
So, now that you know the importance of a good, relevant image, it’s time to go hunting for them. Or do you? There are dozens of websites where you can get free, high-quality, shareable images. In fact, just last year we did a post on where to find free images online for commercial and personal use, and it’s had very good response.
Over the past year, I’ve come across many more free image sources popping up on the internet which prompted me to curate this article. This post is a lot more comprehensive than the one that was published last year, and it has a lot more new (and relatively unheard of) websites where you can get great images to satisfy your visual needs.
Before we get into the list of free image sources, there is a bit of information you need to be aware of. Only public domain images can be used/altered as you please. Almost all other free images have a specific Creative Commons license attached to it which dictates how you can use that particular image. Do make sure you check out the individual licence of each image before you use it on your website or on social media.
Now on to the big list!
25+ Free Image Sources for Your Online Business
Unsplash
Unsplash publishes 10 free public domain photos every 10 days that you are free to use for personal and commercial purposes. You can also subscribe to their mailing list to get new image collections right in your inbox.
Gratisography
Gratisography updates its image database with new high-resolution photos on a weekly basis. These images are free of any copyright restrictions and can be used/altered for personal and commercial projects.
Pic Jumbo
Pic Jumbo is another great source for free public domain photos. All images are categorized, and there’s also a search function to help you get relevant images.
Photl
Photl has a large database of free images, and you can download up to 10MB of free stock photos everyday. Larger images, and commercial license will cost you a small fee.
4 Free Photos
4 Free Photos is a website where photographers put up their photos that can be used online for personal and commercial purposes. They have a variety of public domain photos, and some that require attribution.
Superfamous
Superfamous displays the photographs of Dutch interaction designer Folkert Gorter. All the photos used from this site need to include an attribution to the image creator.
Stock Photos For Free
Stock Photos for Free has thousands of free public domain photos that you can use for personal and commercial use. You need to have a registered account in order to download the photos.
Public Domain Archive
Public Domain Archive updates its database with vintage and modern stock photos on a weekly basis. All images are in the public domain and are 100% free.
Picography
Picographic has a good collection of free hi-resolution photos that are free of copyright restrictions. You can also subscribe to have new images delivered to your inbox every month.
Pickup Image
Pickup Image has a wide variety of free public domain images. The website also has a search functionality to easily locate the photos you are looking for.
Business Themed Stock Photos from Hubspot
Hubspot offers 160 free business themed stock photos that you can use without attribution anywhere you like.
75 Free Stock Photos from Hubspot
You can download another batch of 75 free stock phots from Hubspot by providing your contact and business details.
Little Visuals
Little Visuals offers 7 free, high-resolution, public domain images every week. You can download each week’s images as a zip file, or subscribe to have them delivered straight to your inbox.
Magdeleine
Magdeleine publishes one new high resolution photo everyday. Some of the photos fall under the public domain, while others require attribution.
New Old Stock
New Old Stock has a good collection of vintage public domain photos that you can use without restriction for personal and commercial purposes.
Hive Stock
Hive Stock uses a search algorithm to provide free images (public domain and creative commons) from around the web. Most of the free images we found on this site were from the Flickr Creative Commons repository.
Good Free Photos
Good Free Photos has a gallery of thousands of free public domain photos that can be used for commercial and personal use. The photos are also categorized for easy access.
Geek Philosopher
Geek Philosopher has a wide assortment of free stock photos, background graphics and desktop wallpapers. Attribution is required if any of the images are used online.
Gaderinge
Gaderinge offers both public domain images and creative commons images that are free for use. The latter require attribution and a link back to the website.
Free Refe Mobile Photos
This website offers free images from their premium Refe website. They are mostly high-resolution images that are all free to download and use.
Free Nature Pictures
Free Nature Pictures has a wide variety of free photos of animals, plants and scenery. All the images require attribution with a link back to the website.
Death to the Stock Photo
This website offers free photos on a monthly basis for personal and commercial use. You will have to sign up with your email ID to access photos.
Creativity 103
Creativity 103 has a wide variety of free image collections and design packs that are free to use, but require attribution.
Creation Swap
Creation Swap offers a wide variety of free Christian photos and church graphics for limited use.
Free Images
Free Images offers a huge collection of free stock photos for non-commercial use. Each image has a licence associated with it, which you will have to abide by.
IM Creator
IM Creator has a large curated collection of free images for commercial use. Whether you’re looking for photos of people, technology or nature, you’re sure to find it here.
I hope you’ve found this collection of free image sources useful! Do you have any more to add to the list?
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