Best Business Stock Image & Video Websites [2024]

We’ve all been there – frantically searching for that perfect image to complete our project, only to end up empty-handed or facing legal troubles. Using random images from Google can lead to unintended copyright issues. So, what’s the solution?

Enter the world of stock images & videos – a lifesaver for anyone looking to enhance their website, social media, or any creative project without breaking the bank or worrying about lawsuits. The best part? Many of these images are completely free to use!

There are fantastic websites dedicated to providing royalty-free stock photos with a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license, meaning you can use them for personal or commercial purposes without any attribution or fees.

To make things even better, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best websites offering an extensive collection of stunning and diverse royalty-free images. These websites are a treasure trove for content creators, designers, and anyone looking to enhance their visual game.

So, whether you’re a blogger, a small business owner, or someone who wants to spice up their social media feed, creative projects, etc, these royalty-free image databases will be your new best friends.

So, what are you waiting for???

Bookmark these sites and elevate your visual content game to new heights! And you know some AI powered software development platforms are there that enable you to build a royalty-free image website within few minutes.

Yes, it’s true…. There is no need to juggle with coding to create your own website for royalty-free images and videos.

Did you know that marketers use video-based content more than other sorts of content in their marketing strategy? Source

How Royalty-Free Images & Videos Are Making Online Presence Worth

Captivating visuals are important in capturing the audience’s attention and conveying your message effectively. In such a scenario, royalty-free images and videos offer several advantages:

• Cost-effective: Royalty-free images and videos offer a financially savvy solution for individuals and businesses aiming to enhance their online presence. The cost-effectiveness lies in the one-time payment structure, which grants unlimited usage rights without recurring fees. This means you pay once and can use the asset as many times as you need without worrying about additional charges.

This model is useful for those with limited budgets, as it provides access to high-quality visuals at a fraction of the cost. Moreover, it is a less expensive alternative as compared to hiring professional photographers and videographers.

• Legal protection: Royalty-free media provides a safe and worry-free option when it comes to copyright compliance. By opting for royalty-free assets, you can rest assured that you’re respecting the intellectual property rights of others. These assets typically come with a license that grants you legal permission to use the content without the risk of copyright obligation or costly lawsuits. This aspect is essential, as using copyrighted materials without permission can lead to legal troubles and damage your reputation. Royalty-free media simplifies the process, ensuring you have the right to use the assets in your projects.

• Accessibility: The rise of stock image and video platforms has revolutionized access to visual content. Users can now easily explore a vast library of royalty-free images and videos, all from the comfort of their devices.

These platforms offer endless options, ensuring that users can find content that aligns with their specific needs and preferences. The convenience of these platforms lies in their user-friendly interfaces, which allow for seamless browsing and searching.

Whether you’re a small business owner, a blogger, or a creative professional, you can quickly find high-quality visuals without spending hours browsing the internet. This accessibility saves time and effort in the content creation process. Thus, making it more efficient and streamlined.

• Versatility: Royalty-free images and videos are incredibly versatile, covering a wide range of themes, topics, and styles. They cater to various industries and niches, ensuring that users from diverse backgrounds can find relevant and suitable visuals. Whether you’re in fashion, technology, healthcare, education, or hospitality, royalty-free media has got you covered. The versatility extends to the types of content as well, including photos, illustrations, vectors, and videos, each offering unique advantages for different purposes.

• Professionalism: High-quality visuals are integral to enhancing overall professionalism. Royalty-free images and videos are often crafted by skilled photographers and videographers to boost the aesthetic appeal and engagement factor of your digital presence.

These visuals help convey your messages with clarity and impact, ensuring that your audience remains captivated and attentive. By using royalty-free media, you can consistently deliver polished and impressive content that strengthens your brand identity and sets you apart from the competition. Whether it’s a stunning hero image on your website or a compelling video testimonial, high-quality visuals build trust and establish your brand as reliable and authoritative.

• Adaptability: Royalty-free media is designed to be flexible, allowing users to customize and adapt the visuals to align with their unique branding requirements. The ability to modify these assets ensures that you can maintain a consistent brand image and effectively communicate your message to your target audience. Whether you’re adding text overlays to promote an upcoming sale, resizing images to fit specific dimensions, or applying filters to create a cohesive aesthetic, the adaptability of royalty-free media knows no bounds.

This flexibility empowers users to create tailored visual content that resonates with their audience and supports their branding strategies.

• Global Reach: Royalty-free images and videos also showcase various cultures, locations, and lifestyles, enabling businesses to expand their reach and establish connections worldwide. Whether you’re a global enterprise or a small business with international aspirations, royalty-free media helps you tap into new markets and connect with audiences on a deeper level.

These visuals transcend borders, fostering a sense of inclusivity and helping businesses build a global community. These visuals transcend borders, fostering a sense of inclusivity and helping businesses build a global community.

Businesses can showcase their inclusivity and build a stronger connection with their worldwide audience by representing diverse cultures and lifestyles.

As per Allied Market Research, the global stock images market size is forecast to reach $12.2 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 6.8% from 2023 to 2032.

How To Find The Best Websites With 100% Free Stock Photos

Undoubtedly, there are numerous royalty-free websites with a plethora of images and videos. But with so many options, it’s difficult to choose the best stock-images website with 100% free stock images. But, worry not…. Here are the criteria that will help you:

1. Uncompromising Quality: The selected website should boast a collection of high-resolution images that can seamlessly integrate into your projects, whether they be digital or print-based, without sacrificing visual appeal or clarity.
2. Diverse and Expansive Collection: A truly exceptional stock-images website should offer a diverse and expansive collection, catering to a wide range of themes, subjects, and styles, ensuring that you can find the perfect visual representation for your unique needs.
3. User-Friendly Navigation: Navigating through a stock-images website should be an effortless and intuitive experience. The platform should feature advanced search filters, allowing you to refine your search based on specific criteria, such as keywords, categories, or image dimensions, streamlining the process of locating the desired visuals.
4. Unrestricted Usage Rights: One of the paramount considerations is the website’s licensing terms. The ideal platform should offer images that are truly free for commercial and personal use, without any hidden fees or restrictions, empowering you to utilize the visuals across various projects without limitations.
5. Regular Updates: A stock-images website should consistently replenish its collection with fresh and relevant content, ensuring that you have access to the latest visuals that align with current trends and themes.
6. Community Engagement: While not a mandatory criterion, a vibrant community surrounding the stock-images website can be a valuable asset. User-submitted content, ratings, and feedback can provide valuable insights, assisting you in making informed decisions when selecting visuals for your projects.

By adhering to these criteria, you can confidently navigate the vast landscape of royalty-free stock-images websites and identify the platform that best suits your needs, providing you with a rich and diverse collection of high-quality visuals to elevate your creative endeavors.

AI-Generated Images Vs. Stock Images: Which Should You Use?

AI is changing many online spaces, including stock photos. With AI image generators like Midjourney, one can now create unique, often high-quality photos by simply describing what they want. The ability to generate fresh new photos that match exact needs might mean that traditional stock photos could become less popular in the future.

However, AI image generation isn’t perfect yet. Not everyone has the time or skills to create the right prompts to get the desired results from AI generators. Even then, the quality and relevance of AI-generated photos can be inconsistent. There are also some ethical and copyright concerns around using AI-generated images.

So stock photo sites are still useful—at least for now. When testing different sites, it was noticed that many stock photo websites now offer only AI-generated photos, while others have a mix of AI-generated pictures and traditional stock photos. Bonus points were given to sites that incorporated AI tools—including image generation—in a useful way.

AI Image Generation vs Stock Photo Sites

Best Royalty-Free Images & Videos Websites (Free and Paid)

1. Unsplash

With over 1.8 million high-resolution photos, Unsplash is a popular choice for royalty-free images. All images are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, allowing you to use them for any purpose without attribution.

• Features: Extensive library of high-resolution images, curated collections, active community of photographers, user-friendly search.
• Pricing: Free
• Licensing: It lets you modify, distribute, and use photos for any purpose, including commercial projects, without attributing the photographer.
• Other Details: Great for finding trendy and modern photos. Offers a mobile app for browsing.

2. Pexels

Pexels offers both free and premium stock photos and videos. Their vast collection includes over 1.8 million assets, all licensed under the Pexels License.

• Features: Large collection of free stock photos and videos, easy search by category and keyword, and an option to edit photos with built-in tools (paid plans).
• Pricing: Free – All content is released under the Pexels License, which allows most commercial and non-commercial use with attribution required. While paid plans unlock additional features and remove attribution requirements.
• Licensing: Pexels License grants a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, modify, publish, distribute, and sublicense the content. Attribution is required.
• Other Details: Offers a good balance between variety and quality.

3. Pixabay

Pixabay features over 1.9 million royalty-free images, videos, and illustrations. You can use their content for personal and commercial projects without attribution, thanks to their Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.

• Features: Vast library of royalty-free images, illustrations, vectors, and music. Various advanced search filters by color, orientation, and size.
• Pricing: Free.
• Licensing: Pixabay License. Similar to Pexels License, allowing for free modification and distribution with no mandatory attribution.
• Other Details: The extensive library caters to diverse needs. It might have a higher percentage of older or less trendy photos as compared to Unsplash or Pexels.

4. Freepik

Freepik offers a wide range of free and premium vector graphics, photos, PSD files, and illustrations. With over 24 million assets, it’s a go-to resource for designers and content creators.

• Features: Extensive library of premium stock photos, illustrations, vectors, and video clips. Offers a limited selection of free resources.
• Pricing: Freemium model. The free plan allows access to limited downloads per day/month with attribution required. Paid plans offer higher download limits and remove attribution.
• Licensing: The free plan uses Freepik’s free license, requiring attribution. Paid plans offer extended licenses for more flexible use.
• Other Details: Primarily a paid resource, but the free plan can be helpful for occasional needs.

5. Stockvault

Stockvault is a community-driven platform featuring over 100,000 royalty-free stock photos and illustrations, contributed by photographers and designers globally.

• Features: Decent collection of free stock photos, illustrations, and textures. Offers basic search functionality.
• Pricing: Free. All content is released under various licenses, so it’s important to check the individual license for each image.
• Licensing: Varies. Some images are free for commercial use with attribution, while others have stricter limitations. Be sure to check the license details before using any image.
• Other Details: Smaller library compared to others. Requires careful attention to licensing terms.

6. Vecteezy

Vecteezy offers a vast collection of free and premium vector graphics, illustrations, and stock photos. With over 9 million assets, it’s a great resource for designers and content creators.

• Features: Primarily focuses on free and premium vectors, icons, and illustrations. Offers a limited selection of free stock photos and videos.
• Pricing: Freemium model. The free plan allows access to a limited number of downloads per day/month with attribution required. Paid plans offer higher download limits and remove attribution.
• Licensing: The free plan uses Vecteezy’s free license, requiring attribution. Paid plans offer extended licenses for more flexible use.
• Other Details: Primarily a vector resource, but the free stock photo/video selection can be helpful for specific needs.

Benefits of Building A Royalty-Free Stock Photo and Video Website

1. Passive Income Opportunity: A well-curated and populated stock media website can generate passive income through subscription fees, pay-per-download models, or licensing agreements. As the collection grows, the potential for revenue increases.
2. Cater to a Diverse Audience: Stock media is in demand across various industries, including marketing, advertising, publishing, design, and more. You can cater to a wide range of professionals and businesses – All by offering a comprehensive library of high-quality visuals.
3. Flexible Business Model: Stock media websites can adapt to different monetization strategies, such as offering subscription plans, credits-based downloads, or one-time purchases. This flexibility allows you to experiment and find the most suitable model for your target audience.
4. Scalability and Growth Potential: As the demand for visual content continues to rise, a stock media website has the potential for significant growth. With each contributor adding new assets, the library expands, attracting more customers and generating additional revenue streams.
5. Contributor Network and Community: By building a platform where contributors can upload their work, you can foster a vibrant community of artists, photographers, and videographers. This network can become a valuable asset, ensuring a steady supply of fresh content.
6. Competitive Advantage: Many businesses and individuals seek affordable, high-quality visuals for their projects. By offering a royalty-free model, you can provide a cost-effective alternative to expensive licensed media, giving your website a competitive edge in the market.
7. Discoverability and SEO Benefits: A well-optimized stock media website can rank highly in search engines for relevant keywords, improving visibility and attracting potential customers organically. Additionally, the abundance of visual content can enhance the website’s discoverability on image search engines.
8. Potential for Partnerships and Collaborations: A successful stock media platform can open doors to partnerships and collaborations with other businesses, agencies, or content creators, further expanding your reach and revenue streams.

All the potential benefits of creating a royalty-free image and video website create an attractive business opportunity for those passionate about visual media and entrepreneurship.

Create Your Own Royalty-Free Image & Video Website With CodeConductor.AI

Now that you have a comprehensive understanding of the top websites offering royalty-free images and videos, it’s time to take your content creation game to the next level by building your own royalty-free images and videos website without coding.

With AI tools, you can effortlessly create a visually stunning and functional website within few minutes.

AI powered software development platform like CodeConductor, provide a single-line text editor that allows you to design your website with ease – all just by writing your idea in one line. By using CodeConductor, you can:

1. Curate a personalized collection: Create a curated selection of your favorite royalty-free images and videos, showcasing your unique style and preferences.
2. Streamline content discovery: Organize your curated collection in a user-friendly manner, making it easy for visitors to browse and find the perfect assets for their projects.
3. Enhance your brand identity: Build a visually appealing and consistent website that aligns with your brand’s aesthetic, further establishing your presence in the content creation world.
4. Increase efficiency: Save time by having a centralized hub for your favorite royalty-free assets, eliminating the need to search multiple websites.
5. Share your expertise: Share your knowledge and insights about using royalty-free images and videos in content creation by creating blog posts, tutorials, or other engaging content on your website.

Also read Top 7 No-Code Blogging Platforms in 2024

By creating your own website for royalty-free images and videos, you save time and effort in content discovery and establish yourself as an expert in the field.

So, what are you waiting for???

Start building your own royalty-free images and videos website today and elevate your content creation process to new heights!