There are many posts on various websites that list a plethora of free stock photo sites. While these lists are helpful, I found them to be a bit overwhelming. In order to create a list that is actually useful I visited dozens of free stock photo sites, and ranked them both on the quality of photos and ease of use. If a site takes too long to load, or if it’s difficult to navigate through the photos then it isn’t very helpful. Ultimately there were five stand out sites. Use this high quality (and short) list to find the next photo for your project.

Not only are the photos within each of the following sites stunning, but you can use them any way you want, including commercially, without attribution or asking permission. Welcome to the carefully curated holy grail of free stock photos.

Unsplash

Unsplash is the first site that I check when I need an image. The images are extremely high quality. The images are so good that I will sometimes slowly scroll through them just for fun. When you visit the site you will notice that while the images are awesome, it takes a long time to make your way down the page. In order to take in more images at once I recommend using the grid view. New images are added every 10 days.

Snapwire Snaps

Among creative types Snapwire is a well known site that has both a photo marketplace, and a service whereby photographers will snap a photo based on the request of a buyer (for a fee of course). Snapwire Snaps is curated by the same company, and offers free high quality stock photos through their tumblr blog. The only downside is that there is no grid view, so it can take a while to scroll through the photos. Alternatively you can download bundles by week, this will allow you to view the images more quickly on your computer. New photos are added every week.

Gratisography

Gratisography has a very decent set of images, many of which will make you grin. While it does not have the sheer volume of images that Unsplash has, there are some gems. Go to them first if you need something slightly comedic. New images are added every week.

Life Of Pix

While it can take a bit of digging (and many clicks on the ‘next’ button), Life Of Pix is another solid resource. Unfortunately there seem to be many more average photos than truly stunning photos, but you can find them if you take the time to look. New photographs are added weekly.

Death To The Stock Photo

Death To The Stock Photo has a free service where they email you 10 super high resolution photos once per month. In every batch there is normally one or two that you can get excited about. The downside is you only get them once a month, not really useful if you need a wide selection to chose from right now. You can get access to their complete photo library for 8 bucks a month.

What Do You Think?

Leave a comment and let me know which site is your favourite, as well as where you like to source photos for your projects! Lastly, I would greatly appreciate it if you help spread the word about these free stock photo sites, and this post. Just click to tweet ☺