Top 15 Websites That Offer Copyright and Royalty-Free Images

Maybe you're an aspiring photographer looking for inspiration.Or a budding entrepreneur trying to find a gallery of images to add to your website.

Whatever your profession, this list of the best stock photo gallery sites will ensure you always have access to copyright and royalty-free images.

How does copyright free images work?

Some sites allow you to download images for private use (such as background wallpapers), but not for commercial use.This includes instances such as business cards, websites, or posters.Images on the following sites are protected under Creative Commons CC0:

"To the extent permitted by law, the person who associates the work with this covenant dedicates the work to the public domain by relinquishing all his or her worldwide rights in the work under copyright law, including all related and adjacent rights. "

The following sites support or consist entirely of CC0 images available in the public domain.The owners of these images allow users to modify, edit and use their images without copyright objection.

Before diving into free image sites, there are two common etiquette issues to consider when working with CC0 images:

1. Although you don't have to give credit to the creator, we recommend that you promote the artist's efforts.

2. These sites usually have a donation page or splash screen.If you regularly use free image hosting sites, please consider donating to their cause.If everyone who uses a copyright-free image site donates the price of a cup of coffee, it will greatly benefit photographers and artists who offer their products for free.

Here are the sites where you need high-quality, copyright-free images for your collection:

1. Free range

once you are inFree rangeSign up for a free membership and thousands of high-resolution stock photos will be available to you for free.All images on this website can be used for personal or commercial projects.For photographers,Free rangeAlso offers Google AdSense revenue sharing.

In addition to thousands of unique images, the site has about 20000 CC0 photos, most of which have accurate keywords and descriptions.

2. negative Space

negative Space Provides you with thousands of beautiful royalty-free images in a variety of categories.Like some of the other top copyright free image sites, you can search using the color of the desired image rather than a specific search term or categorynegative Space.

New free images are being added all the time, so be sure to bookmark Negative Space for your next project.

3. Unsplash

Unsplash is a side project started by online marketing agency Crew, but has grown to become one of the largest and most used copyright and royalty-free stock image sites.It now has over a million images covering a variety of topics, with contributors uploading images from all over the world.

As Unsplash's library of stock images has grown, so has its search capabilities, you can search its database using colors, trends, favorites, and more.

4. libreshot

Libreshot is another handy source for slightly different royalty-free photography.Every shot on this site is the work of owner Martin Vorel.

Vorel uploads his amazing photography from around the world to Libreshot, allowing you to use them for free.He just asked, if you use his photo, please consider adding a link to the website.

5. Pexels

Pexels is a website that wants to help.Since 2015, it has grown into a famous photo gallery.Its mission statement best expresses its goals:

We help millions of designers, writers, artists, programmers and other creators access beautiful photos they can freely use, which enables them to create amazing products, designs, stories, websites, apps , art and other works.We call it: "Empowering creators".

Pexels is also unique in that it doesn't just display images located on the Pexels website.It also outsources images from other high-quality sites like Little Visuals.

Most importantly, Pexels screens its images to ensure the highest quality images available.There's a lot of great photography to be found on the site, and while in certain areas you'll have a hard time finding images, that's changing over time.Note that you can also download copyright-free stock videos from this site.

6. Gratisography

Are you looking for something more?Do you need a wacky free high-resolution photo?Then raster art is your best choice.

The site offers a bunch of "truly unique, often whimsical, forever free" copyright-free images and will enable you to make unique tweaks to your next project.

7. Flickr

While Flickr isn't dedicated to public domain images, it has an extensive library of high-quality public domain images. Flickr remains one of the greatest photo galleries on the internet, and with millions of high-quality public domain images, you're unlikely to run out of stock images in no time.

There are always new features coming out on Flickr too.For example, you can order photo prints directly from Flickr, which is great if you find a photo you like.

One thing to keep in mind on Flickr is that not every image on the site is free to use, royalty-free, or under Creative Commons.Before adding an image to your website, make sure you double-check the details of the image.

8. openverse

If you are looking for a royalty-free and copyright-free image search tool, thenopenverseis your tool.Developed and maintained by WordPress, you can useopenverseSearch the internet for copyright-free images.Even better, you can use Openverse to search for different Creative Commons licenses such as CC BY (credits the image creator) and CC BY-ND (credits the creator, no adaptations allowed).

One thing to be aware of with Openverse is that you have to click through to the image site to find the exact license to show, not just use the URL of Openverse.

9. life of pix

It's easy to get lost while browsing the beautiful copyright-free images on Life of Pix.

Created by Montreal-based LEEROY advertising agency, Life of Pix is ​​a haven for free public domain photography.Even better, its Life of Vids website contains even more impressive stock footage, all for free.Each week, Life of Pix selects a photographer to take center stage and get some extra publicity, while photographers can manage their Life of PIx profiles to ensure their best work is showcased.

10. KaboomPics

KaboomPics is an impressively legitimate job.From user interface design to a huge gallery of images or star images, you'll find yourself combing through images you don't even need.

If it were only about royalty-free images, KaboomPics' selection would already be top-notch.But it also has a color picker search engine and a palette of images.

This is just a fraction of what KaboomPics has to offer.From photo shoots to informative blog entries, it's one of the most impressive free stock photo sites around.

11. Pixabay

Pixabay is another image library that integrates images from other image hosting sites.It tries to collect the best free images for your own personal or commercial use.

Pixabay also allows easy access to "Camera Search," which allows users to explore pictures based on the camera they were taken with.This is a great resource for beginners and professional photographers alike.

12. StockSnap

StockSnap offers an excellent and extensive library of free stock images. With hundreds of high-quality photos added every week, StockSnap isn't your random photography outlet.

Created by the good people at Snappa, every image on StockSnap is free for you to use.You'd be hard-pressed to find a better picture gallery.

13. Wikimedia

Wikimedia Offers a truly stunning image gallery covering everything from lush landscapes to historical events.

Wikimedia With over 3400 million free-to-use media works, including video and sound, it's a must for graphic designers, photographers, and artists looking for free, high-quality images. Wikimedia is also part of a larger organization dedicated to free images, education, and information.

14. Burst

Some things work just fine when you barely notice, they say, and that's exactly what Burst offers.Like Unsplash, Burst not only provides a smooth interface for you to explore, but also a very wide range of images and categories to choose from.

Even better, it offers copyright-free low-quality and high-quality images, depending on whether you're adding the images to your website or using them for graphic design.

If you need a huge online library of free high-quality images, bookmark Burst today.

15. Reshots

Your final selection of royalty free images is excellentReshots.If you want truly unique pictures,Reshotsis one of your best options.

The development and creative teams review every royalty-free image uploaded to the site to ensure only the best images are available to you.This means that Reshot showcases a very high standard of photography, which will also be reflected in your work.

The great thing about Reshot is that you can also use it to find unique icons and illustrations for your next project, as well as search for images with different image orientations.

More copyright-free media for you to use

With so many sites dedicated to providing you with high-quality free images, you might feel overwhelmed by the choice.There are even websites for free illustrations and vector graphics.

However, we recommend focusing on the most attractive sites and browsing through the range of copyright-free images available until you find something appealing.