The Best 20 free and essential image banks for your publications
Discover our selection of 20 free and royalty-free image sites. Never run out of ideas for your social media posts or blog posts again.
To make it easier for you, we’ve brought you a selection of the top 20 sites with royalty-free and free images that are perfect for personal or commercial use.
But first of all, why use images for your articles and publications?
As our dear Aristotle said, “A picture is worth a thousand words. “ Starting from this observation, it is therefore essential, for each content creator, to have a large choice of free image banks in stock.
Pictures convey emotions and messages more easily than words. They more easily catch the eye of Internet users and boost the engagement rate.
When a face or a person is present in a photo, our gaze is immediately directed towards it. We can thus very easily use it to transmit emotions, in connection with the message we want to convey.
However, be sure to read the terms of use for the images you choose.
The terms of use, let’s talk about it!
Small reminder on the different rights of use to clearly identify what we have and what we are not allowed to do with an image.
Let’s take a look at the different types of Creative Commons copyright and licensing:
- Attribution (By): the author authorizes the exhibition of his work, provided that he is cited.
- No commercial use (NC): the right holder does not authorize the use of the work for commercial purposes.
- No derivative works (ND): the use of the original work is authorized but it is forbidden to create derivative works.
- Share alike (SA): the work must be shared under the same license (previous version).
- Public domain (CC0): the author of the work waives all rights to it.
Before getting to the heart of the matter, here are some sites that we love to use at Clef2Web:
- Unsplash (2 million free and royalty-free images and photos).
- Pixabay (1.9 million free and royalty-free images and photos).
- Pexels (3 million free and royalty-free images and photos).
The best 20 free image banks to know for ANY content creator
Here is our non-exhaustive list of 20 sites that offer free images that are free to use.
1. Pixabay
We no longer present it: Pixabay is THE reference in terms of royalty-free image banks. With over 1.9 million images, videos and illustrations (under a Creative Commons Zero license), it is perfect for the most specific research.
2. Unsplash
The Canadian site Unsplash has made itself known and established itself on the market by becoming a reference. This one has over 2 million free images licensed under Creative Commons Zero, which means you can do just about anything and everything with it.
3. Pexels
If you are looking for quality images for your Facebook posts, Pexels is a third alternative. Like Pixabay, this one offers extensive search functionality. You will be able to find images for the general public but also more specific images for niche markets.
4. IM Free (IM Creator)
IM Free lists many free images for your Facebook posts or blog posts. But that’s not all, it also provides free templates and resources for web designers.
5. 500PX
Known for its diversity, 500PX aims to bring real diversity to the market for free and royalty-free image banks. This is regularly fed by its community. However, be very careful because not all images have the CC0 license.
6. Freestocks
Created by 3 professional photographers, Freestocks is stocked frequently with royalty-free images. The photos available on the site are taken by them, during their free time. What to bring a touch of originality to your blog articles!
7. PicJumbo
Created in 2013, PicJumbo has to date more than 8 million downloads. You will be able to browse a multitude of categories grouping together hundreds of images perfect for networks.
8. Freepik
Known primarily as a resource site for graphic designers with millions of icons and illustrations in PSD and SVG formats, Freepik also offers images for free. This contains more than 8 million photos free of rights (be careful, however, because in the free version, an attribution of the author is required). What makes Freepik’s strength is above all its versatility and diversity.
9. StockVault
Several tens of thousands of images are available on StockVault . High quality and royalty-free, you can download them without even having to create an account. The interface counts hundreds of different categories and offers an intuitive search. She will be a perfect ally for any personal or professional project!
10. Negative Space
Negative Space offers new royalty-free images (CC0) every week. You can easily find what you are looking for thanks to the, particularly well-thought-out categories.
11. Free Images
Does the name mean anything to you? You don’t have to be a genius to guess: this site also offers free and royalty-free photos. With an impressive collection of images, Free Images is an essential image bank for web designers and community managers.
12. Burst
Burst is a high-resolution image bank that belongs to the Shopify e-commerce platform. The images offered are very popular and prized by e-merchants to illustrate their professional projects.
13. StokPic
Based on the initiative of photographer Ed Gregory, Stokpic is provided with a dozen high-resolution photos every 2 weeks. The photographer makes his royalty-free photos available for free!
14. Kaboom Pics
Do you like “lifestyle”, “daily routine” and “minimalist” photos? Then Kaboom Pics is for you! It has a large collection of royalty-free photos that will inspire you for your next posts on social networks.
15. Split Shire
Originally composed of photos that Italian photographer Daniel Nanescu no longer used, Split Shire quickly became popular. Each image gallery is made up of hundreds of high-quality, high-resolution photos, always royalty-free.
16. Life Of Pix
Life Of Pix has a large collection of images made royalty-free for free by the Leroy Advertising agency. Indeed, all the images on this site are under Creative Common Zero license (they thus fall in the public domain).
17. Nappy
Nappy is a free image bank that strives to provide quality, high-resolution photos for your branded visuals. The team aims to highlight minorities in workplaces, start-ups, SMEs, etc.
18. Iso Republic
At Iso Republic , there is only one watchword: providing quality images and videos for web designers, bloggers, and community managers. With a very large research panel on topics like sports, technology, animals, travel, etc., the site quickly became popular among content creators.
19. Foodies Feed
As you might have guessed from the name, Foodies Feed is a free stock photo site that offers a gallery of high-resolution food images. Ideal for embellishing your Instagram feed and bringing a new breath of fresh air to your publications.
20. Moose (Icons8)
Are you looking for unique images with a clean look? You will find what you are looking for at Moose Icones8 ! This also provides you with a small photo editor. You can have fun changing the background color, cropping the image, etc.
