Photography is such an integral part of design and is so key to helping any brand come to life. Unfortunately, we’ve grown used to seeing super cheesy stock images of people in suits “casually” smiling while they go about their day (uhhhhhh hello, no one smiles literally all day long). Not only are these types of photos super cliche and gross, they can also end up costing a lot of money!

Thankfully for us, there’s seems to be more and more websites with beautiful stock photography popping up all the time. Best of all, many of them are free! Now don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely a time and place for purchasing stock photos and even hiring a photographer for a brand photoshoot. But if you’re working on a budget or simply needing photos just for the sake of a mockup, free stock photos are the way to go. 

In this post, I’ve curated a list of a few of my favorite stock photography websites.

A Quick Note About Photography Licenses

Most or all of these photographs are free from copyright restrictions or licenses which means you’re free to use them even for commercial work, without having to asking permission.

However, sometimes photos require attribution or have rules that are different for personal vs commercial use. I’ve done my best to research which sites require what (and these should all be completely free) but I would still advise you to do your own research as it’s always best to be extra careful, and website’s rules can change over time. 

Now let’s get into it!

5 Free Stock Photography Sites:

1. Pexels – All pexel photos are free to be used, edited, and distributed for both personal and commercial use with no attribution required. The photos are high quality and super easy to search. I’ve also found that they have a good mixture of both “more traditional” looking stock photos as well as more unique and trendy styles of photography. 
2. Unsplash – Aka my personal favorite free site. All Unsplash photos are free to be used, edited, and distributed for both personal and commercial use with no attribution required. When I first stumbled on unsplash, I was like for real?! These are all free? The photos are honestly gorgeous and so much more unique and curated  than any other site I’ve come across. 
3. Pixabay – Another great site where all the material is free to be used, edited, and distributed for both personal and commercial use with no attribution required. Sometimes some of the photos can lean towards the cheesy side but there are plenty of non-cheesy ones to choose from as well as free vectors which we love to see. (modifying pre-made vectors to be the style I need is one of my favorite hacks, especially for icon design). 
4. StyledStock – Another completely free website with “feminine” styled stock photography. They have an especially robust catalogue of food photography. 
5. StockSnap – Last but not least, StockSnap! Also completely free for both personal and commercial use with no attribution required. This is definitely the site with the most “traditional” stock photos. I went ahead and included it however because depending on the project, sometimes you need a photo with just a bit of cheese. 

I hope this was a helpful and informative list! Good luck with all of your photography needs!