20 Recommended Free Stock Image websites for your blog -

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Last Updated on November 19, 2020 by scottkandh

Stock Image sites arranged in order of preference

This reflects my opinion on which sites I might be going to use first (over another) to find an image suited for a pin I want to put on a post. My go-to website for stock images is Canva. This blog post is a list of websites that offer free stock images. As a blogger and Pinterest user, I’m always looking for that one image that’s going to be the perfect mate to a blog post and make a perfect “viral pin” marriage. If you’re a new blogger, be sure to check out the blog post “Day 3” from my blogging journey. In addition, new bloggers should also look at 25 Blogging Tools for WordPress.

25 Blogging Tools for WordPress

20 Recommended Free Stock Image websites in order of preference

Canva – It’s time (for me) to let go of just using principally one website (Canva) for using images and to start exploring other websites that offer free stock images as well. Chances are that if your blogging you’ve already heard about this terrific program to make your pins. Make no bones about it, the Canva program scores a 20. Highly, highly recommended.

To learn more about Canva, visit: “Why you need to use Canva for creating Pinterest pins.” For example, the lighthouses for this blog post (Blogtober 3 – Top 20 Lighthouse photos) were taken from Canva.

Skitterphoto – I like this website because when you’re looking at a photo you can instantly see the # of views, the # of downloads, and the # of likes for a particular photo. Highly Recommended – 10.

Burst – Shopify – I almost missed out on this free stock image website – Wow. Easy to use, has search capability, and a whole bunch of categories to quickly look at images within that category.
Highly Recommended – 10

Flickr – Find your inspiration. | Flickr – allows you to follow and select your favorite photographer. You’ll need to sign up for the free access to images. Provided a wealth of photos, this could easily be my #2 favorite stock image website. Especially useful if your looking for a copyrighted name like Tailwind, Pinterest, etc. to use an image for free.
Highly Recommended – 10

Kaboompics – Free stock photos – Kaboompics – allows you to find and sort photos by: Featured photos, Newest photos, or Most downloaded. On a scale of 1 – 10, I give this a rating of 10 for its excellent photos.
Highly Recommended – 10

Lifeofpix – I give this a rating of 10 for its superb photos.
Highly Recommended – 10

Pexels – This program might not be able to be reached at www.pexels.com. If that’s the case retry at https://www.pexels.com/search/stock%20footage/ – This website scores high – I’d give it a 10 for the beautiful pictures. Highly Recommended – 10

Stocksnap – Free Stock Photos (CC0) – StockSnap – Capability to look at photos by the number of: Views, favorites, and downloads. Highly Recommended – 10
Rawpixel – has a limit of 10 free images per day. Definitely worth putting this website at the top of your Free Stock Images collection – perfect 10. Highly Recommended – 10
Picjumbo – has a nice array of photos. Highly Recommended – 10

Mt. Multnomah Falls on the outskirts of Portland. — Since I have such a hard time putting how wonderful this place is into words, I thought I’d just share another image of Multnomah Falls this time shot at a wide angle. For a sense of scale, checkout the umbrella-wielding spectator on the cliff to the left of the bridge.

Reshot – Highly Recommended – 10! For it’s unique photos.
Unsplash – lots of beautiful free images. Easy to navigate and find photos. Highly Recommended – 10.
Pikwizard – has a vast array of photos. However, intertwined with the “free” photos are “premium” photos that require a standard or extended license. For the reason that there are more premium photos than free photos, I’m giving this a rating of 9.
Stockvault – a lot of nice images, but giving this a cursory look and not planning to use it on a regular basis I give this a rating of 9.
Styled Stock – caters more to women bloggers. Most of the photos appear to be feminine in nature.
Barnimages – despite the name, the site has more than just images of barns. Pulled up a good array of photos for SEO (see below).

Gratisography – if your looking for photos that are out of the ordinary this is the site you’ll want to visit.

Albumarium – you can select from one of 24 predefined albums. However, you can’t search for a specific type of photo.
Getrefe – Refe – Natural Looking Photos – has a lot of nice photos but you have to hunt and peck for the photo your trying to find. Disregard the companies name on the photo, once you select download the file, that name will disappear. My guess is your limited to a total of 55 free downloads. Stick to the Free Photos and Categories tabs at the top of the page and you should be fine to get your free photo.
Freestocks – freestocks.org – Free stock photos for commercial use – list of categories to choose from are listed below (they also have a few tagged items to select from). The name says free stocks, but a few of the images I selected weren’t free. You might have to stay within the confines of the categories to get free images.