Best Websites of Royalty-Free Images

Best websites of royalty-free images, as the name implies, are images that don’t have royalty; that is, rights to them have been sold. They are important tools for marketing, especially considering how 49% of marketers take visual images to be an important content form for business.

There are many things you can use royalty-free images for, including spicing up your social media posts. However, not all royalty-free images you find will have the same rights of usage; some will be private while some will be commercial.

There are hundreds of free and paid royalty-free images out there, and each one is created differently. The good news is that the paid ones are easy to purchase with a credit card or cryptocurrency. Thus, if you are a crypto enthusiast, you only need to buy ethereum or any digital coin and trade. However, to save you precious time in finding the right images, below are some of the best websites of royalty-free images to download.

Freerange

Freerange is free, but you will need to register for a membership (that is free, too) to access its library. Once you have registered, you have access to thousands of high-resolution stock photos that you can use for free.

You can use the images both for commercial and personal projects, and the site offers Google AdSense revenue for photographers who contribute. Furthermore, the site has about twenty thousand CCO photos that you can find with the right keywords and descriptions.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock is one of the richest, top websites for free images, boasting millions of free images with zero restrictions.

The site splits the images into categories to make them easy to find, and there is a search bar to search by keyword. Also, you can filter the image by image type, orientation, size, and many other ways to help you locate pictures easily. The only catch is that you must create an account and choose a prepaid plan to access and download images.

Pexels

Pexels started in 2025 as a reputable stock photo website that wants to help creators get access to quality photos. The website is unique in that it displays images from the website as well as from other high-quality websites.

All the images on Pexels are of high quality because it screens each one before including them in its library. The site boasts of exceptional photography with specific niches, although it can be hard to find a specific image.

Unsplash

Unsplash is a photo-only website with more than five hundred thousand high-resolution and free images, which are available for private and commercial use. The website provides an intuitive search that offers suggestions to help you find the exact image you are looking for.

The website does not require much commitment like Shutterstock; that is you don’t need to create an account or anything. Once you find your image, you only need to download it, and that is all – unless you want to credit the photographer.

Flickr

Flickr boasts an extensive library of high-resolution public domain images, although it is not solely focused on those. This royalty-free website is one of the best image libraries on the internet, with millions of images to download for free.

Also, Flickr is always updating its website with new features; for instance, you can order photo prints directly from the website. The only catch here is that not every image on the website is royalty-free or free for use.

StockSnap

StockSnap is another great royalty-free website, boasting an outstanding, extensive library of free stock imagery and hundreds of high-resolution photos added weekly. Every image on the website is free and you can use it for whatever you need it for, personal or commercial. StockSnap is one of the best free photo websites on the internet, with thousands of free pictures to choose from.

iStock by Getty Images

iStock boasts a large library of royalty-free images, videos, vectors, and audio files, with over four hundred thousand images. The website is very user-friendly; you can filter by quality or price, or by checking the newest results.

If you want to further narrow down your search, simply click the “refine” tab to find what you are looking for. You need an iStock account to download images from the site and the images are not all free.

Image Source

Image Source is a great source of high-quality royalty-free and rights-managed images, so check the image before you download it. The site has over one million original images that you can search by brand, viewpoint, setting, and more.

However, the site is not very friendly to beginners; if you are new to photography, you may find the site daunting. Also, the images are expensive, starting from $57 to about $583; the site is better suited for professionals.

Conclusion

There are hundreds of best websites of royalty-free images, with some of them specifically dedicated to these. With this list, you now have an idea of where to get free images, whether for personal or non-personal use. These websites don’t all offer free images, however, so ensure you check the photo to be sure. You don’t have to be overwhelmed with the variety of choices; simply focus on the most appealing and best-suiting.

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