Top 10 Sites to Find Gorgeous Free Stock Photos

May 25, 2022

There's no way around it: every brand, every business, every online presence no matter how big or small needs cool imagery to stand apart in today's digital world. When used intentionally, images can tell a story, convey a feeling, and inspire to action, so naturally your photo choices matter whether we're talking about your brand identity, your website, or your social media accounts. Not everybody has the cash to throw down for elaborate brand shoots or pricey stock photo memberships, but luckily there are a slew of great sites out there offering up beautiful stock photography, free for use in all types of personal and commercial projects. The key is to know where to look.

So without further adieu, here are our picks for the top 10 websites to find elevated, non-cheesy, non-stocky free photography for your brand:

1. Unsplash

Unsplash is one of the largest platforms in the free stock community, with over 3 million photos and nearly 294,000 contributing photographers. It's one of the most well-known free stock sites out there, and while the catalog is massive, we love the ability to filter down by color, and to browse other users' collections.

2. Pexels

pexels homepage

The other major player in the free stock world is Pexels. Similar to Unsplash, they have an impressively huge catalog of free photos by some of the internet's leading creators.

3. Reshot

reshot homepage

Brought to you by the talented designers over at Envato, Reshot is amazing in that it not only has a gorgeous collection of free images that aren't as often seen as some of the ones off of Unsplash or Pexels, but it has free icons and illustrations as well. Bonus: the ability to download in svg or png formats. A true one-stop-shop for designers.

4. Kaboompics

kaboompics homepage

Kaboompics is the brainchild of photographer Karolina Grabowska. Her aesthetic is clean, minimalist, and modern, and the level of sophistication of her photos is high. The site allows you to browse by photoshoot, which is pretty cool, and each photo on the site comes with a matching color palette which is a great tool for designers and brands alike.

5. Rawpixel

rawpixel homepage

Rawpixel offers a mix of free and premium photography, illustration, and even fonts, but we come to this site for the amazing public domain art. This should be your go-to for cool vintage illustrations, patterns, and fine artwork.

6. Life of Pix

Life of Pix homepage

Life of Pix is a resource by Leeroy Web Design Agency. They feature new photographers each week, and we're particularly loving the outdoor, active vibe that a lof of the work has. They've recently partnered with Adobe Stock, so it will be interesting to see if we start noticing their pics out on the wild more frequently.

Helpful note: to make use of any photo filtering, you have to use the search function in the upper right. It took us a little bit to find this helpful functionality!