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The 10 Best Websites for Downloading Free Stock Photos

Websites for downloading free images
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One of the best ways of making attention grabbing presentations is to use eye-catching visuals. The most convenient way to do that is to make use of readymade presentation templates and high-resolution images. However, many websites offering stock photos can cost a fortune. Not only are the annual packages quite expensive but it is also quite annoying to pay a dollar each time you need to grab an image for a slide. This is why we have compiled a list of 10 best websites for downloading free stock photos for presentations. These websites offer free stock photos that can be used for personal and commercial use.

 

1) Pixabay

If you’re looking for a website that offers free stock images and videos related to any keyword you can imagine, then Pixabay is just what you need. Unlike expensive websites like GettyImages or Shutterstock, Pixabay offers high-resolution stock photos and videos for free without any strings attached. Images downloaded via Pixabay fall in Public Domain, which makes them free for use without attribution.

 

Pixabay image

 

2) Unsplash

This is the next best alternative to Pixabay. Unsplash provides a collection of high-quality stock photos for free. The website is driven by a pool of expert photographers from around the world who have made their collection free for use for personal and commercial purposes. Unsplash uses the Creative Commons Zero License, which means that the images can be used without any restrictions or attribution to the photographer.

While Unsplash has a wide archive related to a plethora of topics, perhaps it’s the best place for downloading more nature themed images.

 

Image from Unsplash website

 

3) Death to Stock

Death to Stock delivers high-resolution photos directly to your inbox. You can subscribe to receive images that are periodically provided to subscribers free of cost. Furthermore, some photos can be directly downloaded off the website. While the photos provided by Death to Stock via email are free, you can optionally subscribe for a premium account for receiving exclusive images.

While Death to Stock does not require attribution for their photos, it might be best to read the end user license provided at the website to better understand the terms of use.

 

Image from Death to Stock website

 

4) Public Domain Archive

As the name suggests, Public Domain Archive provides photos that are in the Public Domain. These are images for which all copyrights have been waived. You can modify, distribute, and copy images for personal and commercial use without any restrictions.

 

Image from Public Domain Archive website

 

 

5) Picjumbo

Picjumbo is another great website for downloading perfectly captured images for your presentations. The website offers a combination of free and premium images. While the archive at Picjumbo isn’t as vast as many other websites, the image quality is exceptionally good. The proof of that is perhaps the fact that there were two and half million images downloaded from the website in the 2 years since its inception in 2013.

Picjumbo images don’t require attribution, however, as the website states, attribution/credit is appreciated.

 

Image from Picjumbo website

 

6) Gratisography

Not everyone needs stock photos with business professionals in their tidy attire making those funny faces. Some presenters might want to tap into their wild side and impress their audience with some odd visuals. Gratisography is one website that provides just that. And the best part is that all images are free for personal and commercial use. You can search photos by keyword or go through some of the main categories to find what you’re looking for.

I personally think the images at Gratisography are not for the average presenter. When going through their archive I often think of the words ‘hauntingly beautiful’!

 

Image from Gratisography website

 

7) Morgue File

Morgue File is a giant archive of free for commercial use images that contains over 350,000 stock photos. While the stock photos are free to use, you might want to see the terms of use, as you cannot sell, distribute or sublicense images without modifying them.

 

Image from Morgue File website

 

8) Free Images

While the name of the website is Free Images the most important thing you should bear in mind is free does not always imply free of strings attached. If you’re downloading an image from this website, make sure you see the license to check if you need to provide attribution to the owner of the images. Furthermore, the website comes littered with premium images in search results so you will have to look around a bit to find the free ones from the premium links being displayed.

To see the complete requirements, make sure you go through the Image License Agreement on the website. Apart from that, the website is great for downloading high-resolution images, where you can get information right down to the camera, lens, focal length and other precise details tied to the image you’re downloading. All this information comes listed on each photo’s download page.

 

Image from Free Images website

Image Credit: FreeImages.com/Artist’s Marie Jeanne Iliescu

9) Picography

Picography offers free and premium images, and you can also choose to sign up to receive free pictures periodically in your inbox. The website is a project from a Dublin based company known as ‘Hidden Depth’, which specializes in web design related services. This is perhaps the reason the available images appear quite creatively captured. If you’re a designer or presenter looking for inspirational images, you should pay Picography a visit.

 

Image from Picography website

 

10) Little Visuals

Due to the untimely demise of the founder of Little Visuals in 2013, it is no longer updated. However, the website still contains some amazing images that you might find worthy of your presentation slides. Photos at the website are in the Public Domain, which makes them free to use for commercial use without any restrictions.

 

Image from Little Visuals website

 

We hope you find our list of websites for downloading free stock photos useful. And if we have saved you a dime and added some joy to your life in the process, don’t forget to share our post with fellow presenters.

Editor’s note: While there are millions of images to choose from, remember to choose wisely. For more information click here.

Farshad Iqbal

Farshad Iqbal

Content Editor at FPPT.com
Farshad is a technology enthusiast and an IT professional from Pakistan. Over the years he has been associated with various technology blogs and is currently the Content Editor of FPPT.com.
Farshad Iqbal
15 Comments

15 Comments

  1. Rosie Hoyland

    27th April 2017 at 12:08 pm

    Another one worth checking out is Pexels. All photos on Pexels are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license and so are free to use for any legal purpose.

    • Oliver Hauss

      3rd May 2017 at 1:33 pm

      There’s also a nice PowerPoint add-in for Pexels allowing you to search for pictures directly from PowerPoint, without having to switch to your browser. It also allows you to mark favorites, so that you can find pictures you already used again quickly.

      • Rosie Hoyland

        4th May 2017 at 8:46 am

        Oh wow – that sounds good – I’ll need to check it out. Thanks

  2. Roya

    17th July 2017 at 12:06 am

    Thanks for the great list! Please also check out the world’s largest collection of free, public domain/CCO images, https://snappygoat.com/, with 14 Million Public Domain/CC0 stock images, clip-art, historical photos and more, all in one searchable database. It includes an easy to use meme-maker.

    • Admin

      17th July 2017 at 8:37 am

      What a huge resource! We’ll certainly check it out. Thanks for letting us know.

  3. Focus Fitness

    17th July 2017 at 2:08 pm

    I love this list! You may want yo checkout my site https://www.focusfitness.net/stock-photos/ if you’re looking for health and fitness stock photos

    • Admin

      18th July 2017 at 8:50 am

      We certainly will – sounds useful!

  4. William

    10th August 2017 at 12:15 am

    Thanks for the informative blog! You and your readers might also like our new website, https://free-images.com/ (not to be confused with free images on your list) It searches through millions of high quality free stock photos, art and vector images. All images are public domain or CCO and commercial use is OK. No login or attribution is required. You can search separately for black/white, stock, vector or art images. Please consider recommending this website as a resource for free stock photos.

    • Admin

      10th August 2017 at 9:29 am

      That sounds useful – we’ll check it out – thanks for sharing it.

  5. John Zimmer

    13th November 2017 at 5:01 pm

    Good list Farshad. Unsplash and Pixabay are my top two choices, in that order. Compfight (http://compfight.com) is another interesting site as it lets you search the millions of photos on Flickr. And, you can narrow your search by license if you are searching for specific usage rights.

    Cheers!

  6. Micheal Brennan

    7th February 2018 at 12:10 pm

    One more I’d like to add to the list would be Pikwizard: https://pikwizard.com

    • Rosie Hoyland

      7th February 2018 at 12:13 pm

      Some great images on it – looks useful – thanks for sharing Micheal.

  7. Denise Hilton

    26th September 2018 at 3:37 pm

    I was able to find some more websites in this guide: https://www.webemployed.com/websites-for-copyright-free-images/

    • Rosie Hoyland

      11th October 2018 at 9:27 am

      Very useful list Denise – thank you for sharing

  8. Max Scott

    12th October 2022 at 8:03 pm

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