Free Image Resources for your Website

Getting the right image for your website is more than just an important step. As a matter of fact, it is extremely crucial especially if you want to create a website that stands out from the crowd. One of the biggest mistakes done by many bloggers and website owners is using free images from Google. They are unaware of the consequences that are bound to besiege them if they are not careful. For example, there is the possibility that the image may be copyrighted and using it without proper crediting could lead to lawsuit. Regardless the size of your website, you certainly want to avoid that at all cost! So, in this post, you are going to find the top 9 free image resources for your website.

  1. Gratisography

If I am given a chance to choose, Gratisography is my go-to site for royalty free images for my website. Images on Gratisography are free for download and use on your personal and commercial projects. What makes it unique is that the pictures there are unique and more importantly, high resolution. At this point of writing, Gratisography is free to use (you don’t have to create an account), and new images are often uploaded either weekly or monthly basis.

  1. Unsplash

You may have heard about this website. If you are not, this site (or project as they call it) is managed by Crew. Just like Gratisography, you are free to download images for use. The website’s disclaimer says that you can ‘do whatever you want’ with the photos and are not bound to any laws or restrictions. As for the update, Unsplash updates its gallery every ten days. You will get ten news images every ten days. If you want to be notified with new photos and images update, you can easily signup for their newsletters where you will receive updates delivered directly to your email. Unsplash is also free to use and what I love about it is the ‘nature-themed’ images.

  1. Pexels

Pexels calls themselves as “The best stock photos in one place.” All photos on Pexels are free for any personal and commercial purpose. Images on Pexels can be modified, copied and distributed indefinitely. At the same time, you do not need to provide credit or attributes to the source of the image (even though it is highly optional). Pexels allows you to download the free images, and even providing options such as voting it up (via like) or share it with your friends. Additionally, there are also information of the image at the middle/bottom of the download page for further reading.

  1. Pixabay

According to Pixabay, there are over 830,000 free stock photos, vectors and art illustrations that you can choose from (and download) from its website. Images on Pixabay are free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0 which means that you can download, modify, distribute and use these royalty free images for any purposes. If you are looking for images which are highly related to human (or human touch), you should check out Pixabay for more information. Besides that, Pixabay allows you to download the images with three different sizes:

  • Small
  • Medium
  • Original

Do note that the sizes of each image may varies.

  1. Pickupimage

Are you looking for a large collection of free images for your website? If you are, then you need to check out what Pickupimage has to offer. Unlike other free image resources, pictures on Pickupimage are very much based on outdoor related scenes. This is critical because there isn’t many free image resources that offer excellent outdoor related scenes like what Pickupimage is offering. The best part about Pickupimage is that you do not need to register for an account to start downloading the images.

  1. Compfight

Do you know that Flickr can be an excellent source for pictures? I use Flickr a lot, and Compfight is a Flickr image search engine. It uses Flickr API to find and locate images based on your license needs. Compfight is kind of cool since you can search photos based on types of license and even through specific tags. Searching images through licenses is a good way, but it doesn’t provide a very accurate result. On the other hand, searching images using tags only can provide more precise results but results are often cluttered together.

  1. Image Finder

If Compfight isn’t your ‘cup of tea’, then Image Finder is an excellent alternative to finding images on Flickr. This tool allows you to search for images or photos based on Creative Commons. Of course, there are many other categories to help you filter out specific results such as:

  • Commercial Use
  • Non-Commercial Use
  • Relevance
  • Interestingness
  1. StockPhotos.io

I recently came across StockPhoto.io and surprisingly, it is a Creative Commons-licensed (free and professional) stock photo sharing community. Currently, it has a huge 25,000 images in its database, and the figures are just increasing by the day. StockPhotos.io is unique as all its photos are displayed via Pinterest style. If you are using StockPhoto.io for commercial purposes, it is important to remember that you would need to provide proper credits to the authors (or owners).

  1. Canva

Do you know that Canva is also a great source of free image resources for your website? Canva allows you to search for the best pictures or graphics based on your specific needs. It is very powerful, and you can create a new design directly from it. At the same time, there are also many sample images and designs that you can choose from inside the Canva tool. You can either use it to create better pictures or simply as an idea to create your own, stunning images from scratch! Summary If you search for “free image resources for your website” on Google, you will be overwhelmed with hundreds of different options. While there is no image resource that ‘one size fits all,’ you should take the time to try each platform before finally making a decision. For me, my top favorite would be Gratisography, followed by Unsplash and Canva. What’s your favorite free image resource for websites?

About Reginald Chan

Reginald ChanReginald Chan is a professional content writer from Asia. Passionate with freelancing and digital marketing, he helps businesses to build visibility and boost sales. During his free time, he writes at ReginaldChan.net

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