Whether it's wallpapers for your Android phone or pictures for marketing professionals and new website owners who don't have the time to click great images, stock photo websites contain all kinds of images. However, many stock photos are expensive to license, which could be difficult to deal with if you're just starting as a content creator or establishing a business. There are many alternatives to paid stock photo websites. In this roundup, let's look at some of the best places to find free stock photos.

The websites mentioned below offer free, unlimited stock photos licensed under CC0 (Creative Commons Licensing). However, keep an eye on the details of the images while browsing websites other than the ones mentioned below, as some may require you to give image attribution or may not be free for commercial usage.

Our top picks for free stock photos

From nature to street photography, food, fashion, and technology, these websites have you covered. If you're a photographer, you can upload photos to showcase your portfolio.

1. Pexels

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Pexels is the go-to website for everything stock photos and videos, where you can download free, unlimited high-resolution stock content without signing up. Although, it might be a good idea to create an account to like or collect your favorite images for later use. Also, if you're a photographer, you can contribute and showcase your work for free.

Overall, Pexels' vast library of photos and the platform's simplicity make it one of the best places to find free stock photos. The platform is available on Android, iOS, web, as a Chrome extension, and more. Besides, all photos on Pexels are free to use and don't require attribution.

2. Unsplash

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While Pexels is better for individuals and small businesses, Unsplash is geared toward more serious companies and individuals wanting to establish their online identity. For starters, the search filters help you find the exact form factor and color you're looking for in an image. Besides, Unsplash's premium membership Unsplash+ gives you access to more stock photos and, more importantly, enhanced legal protection for $4 a month, billed annually.

Like Pexels, Unsplash also has collections to save your favorite images and allows you to upload pictures to show off your portfolio.

3. Pixabay

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The image library at Pixabay may not be as comprehensive as the websites mentioned above, but the platform makes up for it thanks to music, GIFs, sound effects, and vectors categories. It has a few more filters than Unsplash, such as the ability to sort by published date and image size.

All images on Pixabay come under the CC0 license (Creative Commons license), meaning they're free for personal and commercial usage, and no attribution is required, although appreciated. Overall, if you're a YouTuber or in a marketing team that makes pretty vectors using GIFs and text, Pixabay will make your work easier.

4. Kaboompics

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If you're a minimalist, we're sure you'll like Kaboompics. While the website is absolutely eye candy, its photo library is limited. The image categories are listed below the search bar, and the orientation options are located in the search bar. Plus, the website allows you to sort by newest, featured, and oldest pictures.

There's also an option to filter images by a dominant color, which could be great for finding images that complement your website's UI or content.

5. StockSnap

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Like other websites in this article, StockSnap has a decent collection of stock photos, all with a CC0 license. The top section of the website houses categories and trending images to help you browse and pick the right photo for your needs.

While StockSnap's photo library isn't as comprehensive as Pexels or Unsplash, you could treat it as a place to find photos that may not be available on other platforms.

6. NegativeSpace

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The name may give off a negative vibe (no pun intended), but NegativeSpace is an excellent platform for exploring stock images. It has, by far, the most number of categories out of all platforms on this list, and the photo library is quite broad compared to StockSnap.

However, if you're a photographer, you're out of luck because the website doesn't allow you to sign up and start uploading your work quickly.

7. Freepik

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The filtering options at Freepik make it one of the easiest platforms to work with. However, one of the biggest cons is that you need to credit Freepik, even when the platform explicitly mentions that the images are free for personal and commercial use.

Apart from free stock images, you'll find free vectors, icons, fonts, illustrations, and templates for social media, making it an excellent platform for people working in social media marketing.

Save time and improve visibility using free stock images

Starting a website, creating content, or copywriting is easy. What's not easy is finding pictures that grab people's attention and make them click and read your content, and that's where great stock images come to the rescue. A great stock image from one of the websites mentioned above can garner people toward your work for free.

While most don't require attribution, if you have a knack for photography, smartphone cameras have become so much better over time that it's easy to take awesome photos with your smartphone with a few tricks. Likewise, editing brings out the best in photos, and many great photo editing apps can help you achieve great results.