Top 10 Resources Where to Find Free Images for Blogs
We continue our comprehensive guide on how to start a blog. I have two more articles to share with you. At this stage, your blog should already have a great web design. You should also know how to promote it right, and traffic is increasing every day. Today I am going to share with you my favorite resources of free images for blogs.
Any website promoted in search engines should contain not only solid text but also other types of content. I mean here graphics.
Images also play an important role in SEO:
- Texts are easier to read with images;
- They improve the usability of the site;
- Positively influence behavioral factors (users take longer to study the page, etc.)
But there is one BUT — images must be unique. If you just download a picture from the Internet, there is a possibility of copyright infringement.
What to do?
The easiest option is to use free photo stocks. Such services allow you to use the downloaded images at your discretion. Sometimes they have certain nuances, but in most cases, there are no restrictions. There are many sites of this type, so you can always find web resources.
To make this task easier for you, let’s look at my collection. I’ve selected the best free photo banks with unusual free images for every taste. You can use them for your blog and social networks too.
When to Use Free Photos, and When Is It Better to Buy Images?
If you aren’t sure what to do — to buy or not to buy. Here I described some of my thoughts to help you decide.
Free images for Blogs are your option when:
- Your blog is young, small and not very popular yet;
- Image quality does not matter;
- You don’t need images of people, brands, and logos;
- Limited budget or no money at all;
- You are looking for an image on a common topic;
- Enough time to search — finding a suitable free photo is not easy, and sometimes you have to browse hundreds or even thousands of pictures before downloading the one you need;
- No need to do a grandiose advertising campaign using photos.
It is better to buy images if:
- You need an exclusive and original image;
- High quality. As a rule, images for sale have a resolution of 3000 pixels or more;
- Content is most often licensed with a royalty-free license;
- It is important to use a photo or picture as you wish (editing, cropping, the basis for other compositions).
Barnimages
Collection: Unknown (but a lot!)
License: Free for commercial and non-commercial use
Type of photography: Landscapes, architecture, travel, people, and more
Search by category: No
Search by keywords: Yes
Updates: Every week
Price: Free
Barnimages was founded in 2015 by Latvian photographers Igor Trepeshchenok and Roman Drits. They are pursuing one goal — to offer you beautiful pictures away from classic stock photography. They are available in high resolution and completely free to use. A search for images is very convenient – by keywords. Different creative artists give intimate and personal insights into their view of the world with pictures here.
The website doesn’t provide a CCO license. But you can use them for free by indicating authorship.
New images are added every day, and in newsletters, you can receive a bundle of fresh images.
ONE by TemplateMonster
Collection: over 1,8 million
License: Free for commercial and non-commercial use
Type of photography: People, nature, architecture, travel, cars, and more
Search by category: No
Search by keywords: Yes
Updates: Regular
Price: $229 per year – $849 lifetime
The next resource isn’t a stock images website. It is a membership of a big marketplace TemplateMonster. This paid membership offers unlimited access to thousands of WordPress themes, various CMS templates, and different types of graphics. Recently, they have added almost 2 million images for blogs, websites of any type, and social media profiles. They are all represented by Unsplash.com. This means that they are royalty-free stock photos with CCO license. More information you will find here.
In a nutshell, if you sign up for ONE by TemplateMonster, then besides gaining access to thousands of first-class design resources, you can also access free Unsplash photos. This is a very advantageous offer!
Pixabay
Collection: over 1,7 million images and videos
License: Creative Commons Zero (CC0)
Type of photography: Business, nature, computer, food, flowers, family, and more
Search by category: Yes
Search by keywords: Yes
Updates: Regular
Price: Free
Pixabay is a large platform of photos, illustrations, music, and videos that users can freely use. The search works by word, phrase, or manually by category. Here you can set not only the theme but also the size, color, and orientation of the image. When downloading, you can select the desired size
Registered users rate images, comment, add to favorites, download in different sizes. You can select your favorites and subscribe to them to track new works. There is also an opportunity to support the author. You can pay him any amount for the photo — this is optional.
Reshot
Collection: Unknown
License: Free for commercial use and unlimited digital use
Type of photography: Business, fashion, baby, coffee, nature and more
Search by category: Yes
Search by keywords: Yes
Updates: Regular
Price: Free
Reshot is a huge library of hand-picked royalty-free photos for blogs. In a wide assortment, you will not find “ordinary stock images”. Novice photographers post their work here. They are free to use for commercial and editorial purposes – attribution is not required.
The authors of this resource claim that they have a mission, and it is to provide novice photographers with a platform on which they can share their work with those who need it. The collection is original, no doubt, the photos are funny.
StockSnap
Collection: More than 10 000
License: Free for commercial and non-commercial use
Type of photography: Wallpaper, beach, love, flower, nature, and more
Search by category: Yes
Search by keywords: Yes
Updates: Weekly
Price: Free
StockSnap.io is a large selection of beautiful and original photos. On the main page, under the search form, links to popular search queries are shown, as well as an opportunity to rank the search by date, views, number of downloads, trends, number of favorites.
By entering the category, you will find on the top two rows of Shutterstock watermarked photos, but don’t worry — this is just a promo. Scroll down a page and look for what you need among local free photos.
Pexels
Collection: Over 150 thousand photos and videos
License: Free for commercial and non-commercial use
Type of photography: People, interior, architecture, travel, computers, and more
Search by category: Yes
Search by keywords: Yes
Updates: Every day
Price: Free
Pexels is another worthy stock with free photos and videos. Every day they add images. There is a search by words, categories, photographers, color, and popularity.
The photo stock has both its own materials and images from sources such as Pixabay, Gratisography, Little Visuals. You can immediately configure and download the desired image size.
SplitShire
Collection:1,124 images
License: Free for commercial and non-commercial use
Type of photography: Animals, fashion, nature, people, and more
Search by category: Yes
Search by keywords: Yes
Updates: Almost every day
Price: Free
SplitShire is a photo stock with a beautiful design. Each photo has a name. The collection is not very large — 1,000+ free stock photos. But they are popular, they have been downloaded over 2 million times. There are many categories: animals, fashion, nature, people, etc.
Content is available for commercial use: on websites and in mobile applications, advertising materials, social networks, etc. The only thing is that they can not be sold and used in projects that promote violence, racism, discrimination, etc.
Shutterstock
Collection: over 200 million
License: Standard and Enhanced
Type of photography: People, nature, baby, travel, cooking and more
Search by category: Yes
Search by keywords: Yes
Updates: Regular
Price: From $49/month or per pack
This photobank is a great solution for those who regularly buy a lot of images. A resource is unlikely to be suitable for buying 1 photo. Content is always relevant, high-quality, constantly updated.
The price variates from $49 for a prepaid package of two images or annual subscriptions from $49 for 10 images per month. You can find here also free bundles every week, but you need to have an account.
Picjumbo
Collection: 3000+
License: Free for commercial and non-commercial use
Type of photography: Technology, food, people, animals, architecture, and more
Search by category: Yes
Search by keywords: Yes
Updates: Regular
Price: Free
Picjumbo.com is a photo stock without registration. Images are free and available for personal or commercial use.
For $15, a creator offers to download the entire selection of the site in one archive (about 20 GB).
The site has the opportunity to buy a premium membership, which gives you many privileges. But even without a premium membership, you can find almost anything your heart desires here.
Rawpixel
Collection: over 1 million
License: Free for commercial and non-commercial use
Type of photography: Fashion, nature, medicine, people and more
Search by category: No
Search by keywords: Yes
Updates: Regular
Price: up 10 images for free from a free collection
Rawpixel is one of the leading creators of stock images in the world. Here you can communicate with creative people, share ideas, collaborate, and inspire each other. This recourse has both paid and free images for blogs with CC0 license. Both sections present photographs, vectors, layouts, templates, icons, conveniently divided by topic. In a month, one user can download no more than 100 works.
When you hover over a picture in a category or on the results page and links to similar images pop up on it, there are three types of membership — Free, Casual, and Premium.
Resources Where to Download Free Images for Blogs Summary
Above I have listed the best photo stocks, which are popular among webmasters, designers, photographers. With their help, you can once and for all solve the problem of finding free images for blogs. Almost all photo stocks are free, and some of them offer premium products. Try different services and bookmark the best of them. Believe me, when working on internal website optimization, these photo stocks will come in handy more than once.
Using the photo stocks from this selection, you will surely find high-quality thematic free images for blogs or social media advertising.
Photo by Ian Espinosa on Unsplash
Lana Miro is an expert in Visual Social Media. Lana falls in love with beautiful web design, social media profile designs etc. She likes to share her experience and explore something interesting. She also cooperates with TemplateMonster for helping everyone to find their best solutions for their own online projects.
