40 Best Royalty Free Stock Images Sites For 4K Pictures Downloads

Everyone wants to give their website extra power by using images. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to use any image we like, however much we would like to. Fortunately, tons of websites offer royalty-free images for free. Yes, you read that right: free photos, which you can use on your website. In this article, you will discover which sites these are and what to look out for when looking to search for free images on the web.

How Exactly Does It Work With Free Stock Images?

You are creating a website; you only need a few images. But how exactly does that work?

Using royalty-free images makes it pretty unclear at times. Which photo/image can you use now, and which not? Never just use an image that you found somewhere online. You can get into a lot of legal trouble if you use an image you shouldn’t.

Copyrighted images

Copyright rests on almost every image. It doesn’t matter whether it is a logo, illustration, photo, graphic design, infographic, or something else. You’d better assume that it is copyrighted. Keep in mind that you first investigate whether you can use an image before you use it.

Also, don’t use images from social media. Many people think that these photos can be used, but that is not the case. If you post a picture on social media, you give that platform permission to share it. However, that does not mean that everyone can use those images just like that. Copyright still applies to these images. Check out Creative Fabrica to obtain incredible stockphotos.

When can you use an image?

You now know what is not allowed and that you can hardly use any image just like that. Always do good research when you want to use an image to determine if you can use it. However, there are some exceptions, so you can still use images.

Embed the image

Embedding an image is allowed. The image remains on the website where you found the image. You place a code so the image remains visible on your website. The downside is that it often takes much longer for the image to load, and if the image is removed from the original website, it will no longer be visible on yours. Do you want to embed images? Make sure you don’t change the image at all.

Creative commons

Fortunately, it often happens that people are permitted in advance to use images for free and royalty-free. Creative Commons licenses are then used. Nevertheless, there are still rules; for example, you may not use some images commercially. And you are not allowed to edit some images. Pay close attention to this before using an image.

Take Advantage Of Websites That Offer the Best Free Stock Images

Nowadays, we see more and more photographers allowing the use of their images for free. Often, even without attribution, you are also free to edit the images. You may not resell the images in most cases, but you may use them for commercial purposes.

Pay attention!Because this differs per website (and sometimes even per image), it is advisable to check this carefully in advance on the relevant website.

To make it a bit easier for all of you, we have investigated. We have listed the websites that we often use for you. And of course, there are more than just the websites we use.

40 Best Websites For Beautiful And Free Stock Images or Photos

Of course, the most beautiful images are the images you make yourself or are made by a photographer. It makes sense that you will not hire a photographer for every image, so the following sites will help you find the most beautiful images.

Pexels

Pexels is arguably one of the most well-known sites for downloading royalty-free images. The site offers beautiful images of good quality. The only downside to Pexels is its fame. Due to the website’s popularity, the images may also be used by others.

All images on Pexels can be used for free, both commercially and non-commercially. Giving credit to the photographer/owner or Pexels is not necessary but always appreciated.

Unsplash

Unsplash offers a lot of high-quality images. Via Unsplash, you can download all images for free, and no source reference is required. On Unsplash, they recommend mentioning the photographer’s name as a thank-you.

As they put it themselves, “Unsplash grants you an irrevocable, non-exclusive copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, export, and use photos from Unsplash, including for commercial purposes, without the permission of or by the photographer or Unsplash. to point out. “

Pixabay

Besides Pexels, Pixabay is a very well-known website, where you can download images for free. A significant advantage of Pixabay is that it offers illustrations, vector files, and videos. What is ideal about Pixabay? You can search in Dutch!

Furthermore, Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives sharing copyright-free images and videos. All content is released under Creative Commons CC0, making it safe to use without asking permission or giving credit to the artist/image creator/photographer – even for commercial purposes.

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Iso republic

New images every day! ISO republic uploads new images every day, from food to landscapes, and from work related to travel. You can go to ISO republic for almost all categories.

life of pix

Sometimes you come across toppers, and this is another one! Life of pix offers the photos of countless photographers. View the photos by category, or view the work by photographer. Add photographers to your favorites list so you are always up to date on their work!

PicJumbo

Picjumbo offers new photos every day that you can use for free on your website or blog. You can also purchase paid packages specially put together for bloggers, designers, and companies.

Styled stock

Via Styled stock, you will find all kinds of images you can use as a female entrepreneur. Everyone is, of course, free to use the images, but you can see that the images have a feminine style.

Gratisography

Gratisography: Here you will find lots of images that sometimes you need a little humor to like. But in principle, you will also find enough images that everyone can use!

Splitshire

Splitshire is a website operated by a graphic designer and photographer. This is reflected in the fact that you come across all kinds of images on this site. From abstract images to fashion and animals, you will find it all!

Dreamstime

Dreamstime wants to promote paid photos by offering free images. The free images are of lower quality but still good enough to use on your website or blog post.

Barn images

Since 2015, two photographers from Latvia have made their material available. You can use the images for free, but they also indicate that donating is allowed.

Kaboompics

A wide variety of images, high-quality photos, and many categories. You can find it all on Kaboompics. You may use the images for commercial purposes, but you may not sell them.

Free stocks

Again, a website full of beautiful images, divided into different categories. Worth it if you want to look elsewhere for your images.

Fancy crave

Fancycrave is committed to providing photos that you won’t find anywhere else. They provide beautiful photos; unfortunately, not everything is available to everyone. For some photos, you need a premium account. What are the particular excellent particulars that all images are placed in categories, which makes searching easy!

Foca stock

The photos on this site are divided into different collections, including Work + Tech and Getting Work Done. In addition, the site offers many nature photos, and excellent, at Check-in, which is a nice fact that the same person took all the photos.

Foodies Feed

Are you looking for images of food? Then take a quick look at FoodiesFeed. This website is full of images of food and drink. Not all photos are of the same quality, but there are many. You would get hungry just by looking at all those beautiful images.

Negative Space

New photos every week? Then you have come right place at Negative Space. Every week, the collection is supplemented with new stock photos. Friendly and especially handy, you can filter very easily and quickly. For example, filter the gallery by category and color.

Stocksnap

You may have heard of this site, or maybe you haven’t (of course, you can). StockSnap offers incredibly versatile photos, as well as photos that you really won’t find on every website. Are you going to take a look? Then be careful not to keep scrolling through these photos for too long.

Skitter Photo

This website offers a wide range of photos from various photographers. As a photographer, you can sign up to share your work, and as a user, you can download the most beautiful images. You can even use the images commercially, but always check this carefully in advance!

Stick pic

When you open this page, you get a good feeling right away. The photos have a soft color, which radiates a particular atmosphere. All images are shown in different categories. We really like images with people in them, and we can have fun here. Stokpic offers many photos where people can be seen! But even if you are not looking for photos with people in it, you can undoubtedly succeed here!

Creative Commons

On Flickr Creative Commons, users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license. For you, that means that you can use them on your website or your blog. Have a look at the thousands of images on offer.

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Google LIFE’s Image Archive

You have already seen several gems in this list, but this is very special. A collaboration with Google and LIFE has manifested itself in this database. You will find all the old photos here, and by old, we mean old. You will find images from the year 1750 to the present. Best of all, you can use the images freely! You can search the entire database, but you can also add the source: Life in the search bar.

Rijksstudio

This is quite a gem; we found out during the search for the best websites. Perhaps already known to some, but we (unfortunately) did not know this website existed. Through this website, you will find all kinds of images of the Rijksmuseum. You can compile entire collections or search the collections of others. It is a matter of taste, but you can determine your style and be much more unique than others.

Travel Coffee book

Do you want photos taken all over the world? Travel coffee book has them! The website offers a variety of photos from different trips. From Europe to Asia and America, you will find it all!

Morguefile

#Morguefile. This website has divided all photos into hashtags. Looking for images of robots, search for #robots. Do you want pictures of small animals? Then search #babyanimals.

Picography

Are you looking for beautiful photos taken and collected by photographers? Then take a look at Picography.

PicNoi

One of our favorites is PicNoi. This site is a collection of portraits, featuring all kinds, from street to posed, and from individuals to entire groups. PicNoi wants to see a better reflection of society in stock photos, and they try to convey that through the photos they offer.

Cupcake

Are you looking for beautiful nature photos? Then take a look at the Cupcake website. In addition to all the beautiful nature photos, you will find countless other photos.

Life of Vids

This article is about images, we know. But we didn’t want to keep this from you. Via Life of vids, you can download free videos to use for whatever you want. If you use the videos, leave a link now and then, which is nice anyway.

Iconfinder

This one may not quite fit the list of images, but it is worth checking out. Nowadays, we use many icons. An icon often makes the whole a bit more visual and more apparent. Super handy and fun to use!

Free Images

Free Images offers more than 400,000 photos. You will find everything, from nature to people and from art to fashion and beauty. Free Images is widely used by sites such as NU.nl and Frankwatching. Worth taking a look at!

Freepik

Have a look here if you are looking for graphics. You will find all kinds of images that you can use as a background.

Imagecarrier

Via this website, you can easily share images on Facebook and Twitter. Check in advance what you can do with it and whatnot. For all photos that apply, you may not include them in your collection for distribution.

Burst

Burst provides images for entrepreneurs. It was founded to help entrepreneurs improve their products and websites that are open. Very and marketing campaigns. There is work by photographers, but most is self-made. The images are divided into different business categories.

Realistic Shots

You will find all kinds of images via Realistic Shots. Very handy! They offer an email service. You will receive an email with photo suggestions every week. You don’t always have to search for yourself.

RGB Stock

Again, a website full of beautiful photos. You do need an account to use the images royalty-free. But… creating the account is also free so that you can use these photos without too much effort.

Open Photo

You do not need an account for this website, but you must carefully examine each photo to see if you can use it. The license can differ per photo, so pay attention to this. The open photo offers the photos of collectors, which is very nice to have a look at

Jay Mantri

Jay Mantri has assembled an impressive gallery of high-quality images. This site is worth a look. Oh yes… There are also some fantastic images to use as backgrounds!

Moveast

This is the website of a traveling Portuguese man. He travels the world and takes the best pictures. Good luck, fantastic, we can use them for free! You will encounter everything from landscapes to people and much more.

The Graphics Fairy

Are you looking for vintage illustrations and beautiful old-school images? Then take a look at The Graphics Fairy. You will find all kinds of illustrations with a vintage look here.

Reduce the file size of your image.

A tool that we usually use ourselves is Optimizilla. All you have to do is upload your file. The tool does the rest itself. Your image will be resized without losing quality. It is also helpful to know that you can make some adjustments yourself. If you want the file to be even smaller, increase the percentage. You can compare the large and small images to assess the quality easily. As soon as it decreases, it is wiser to stop reducing or reduce it less.

Reduce the resolution of your images.

It often happens that the image you downloaded is at a high resolution. Some images even reach a resolution of 6000 × 4000 pixels. Most monitors, including yours, achieve a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels.

Using an image that far exceeds this is of no use at all. The image is so large that it takes longer to load. So, occasionally, it is necessary to change the resolution of the image.

You can use various websites for this. This website is self-explanatory. You upload the image and follow the steps. What’s the best thing about this website?

You can also specify a file format, quality, and maximum file size.