Top 10 Stock Photo Sites to Streamline Your Content Creation (Free & Paid)
Social media has become the primary marketing platform for small businesses, and it's all visual, so image really is everything in this case (not to be vain, of course).
However, quality stock photos can be a struggle to find. You want your brand to look curated and consistent online, but sourcing the right photos to match your aesthetic can be a full-time job!
Your iPhone can certainly take beautiful, professional-looking photos, but do you have the props (let alone the time) to create your own content?
If you're anything like me, then I'm guessing probably not.
You need a stock photo library that's easy to find stock photos that are on-brand and preferably free.
In this blog, I round up the top stock photo sites I use to create better, on-brand content for my business.
5 Best paid stock photo sites
If you're looking to buy stock photography for your website or social media platforms, start looking on these business stock photo sites.
1. Social Squares
Pricing: $39/month, $109/quarter
Social Squares is a subscription-based stock photography company for female entrepreneurs. Their stock photo gallery is organized by color, which makes finding your brand's aesthetic easy. They also offer monthly digital marketing training for members led by Shay, the founder of Social Squares, and a guest speaker.
One of my favorite parts about my Social Squares membership is the monthly IG caption templates paired with various stock photos. It's so helpful to refer to that resource when I don't know what to write in an Instagram caption!
2. Haute Stock
Pricing: $139/quarter, $399/year
Haute Stock is another monthly stock photo subscription for woman entrepreneurs. Along with curated stock photography, they offer Canva templates to streamline your social media content creation. One unique feature of this stock photography membership is their collection of graphics such as icons, backgrounds, patterns, and stickers to add a creative flair to your content.
3. Moyo Studio
Pricing: $15-$60/bundle
Moyo Studio is my go-to resource for high-quality stock photos and mockups. I primarily use their content to source customizable scene creators to professionally share my brand and web design work. The photos they sell are minimal, professional, and absolutely beautiful. Moyo makes it easy for creative entrepreneurs to showcase their design work and attract ideal clients.
Download 50 free photos and mockups for creatives—compliments of Moyo Studio.
4. Creative Market
Pricing: $5-10/image, $19-40/bundle
Creative Market has a stock photo gallery of over 3.5 million high-resolution images. You can search their stock photo library by price, category, or what's currently trending. Bundles are the best investment because you can ensure that your Instagram or website's image aesthetic stays consistent.
Due to the vast selection of images and graphics, searching on Creative Market for on-brand stock photography can be overwhelming—especially if you don't know what you're looking for.
5. Canva Pro
Pricing: $12.99/month
Canva Pro is a graphic design platform built for non-designers. If you pay for their Pro membership ($12.99/month), you get access to over 100 million premium stock photos, videos, audio, and graphics. So if you're already using Canva to create content for your business, it's worth upgrading to their paid membership.
5 Best Free Stock Photo Sites
If you're sourcing stock photos on a budget, these are the best free stock photo sites to elevate your brand online.
1. Unsplash
I can't write a blog on the best free stock photo sites without mentioning Unsplash. It's my go-to resource to find stock photos for free. Unsplash is hands-down the king of royalty-free photography. They also have great sorting options, so you can easily find the types of images you're looking for to share on social or put on your website.
2. Pexels
If Unsplash is king, then Pexels is the queen of copyright-free stock photos. One of Pexels' unique features is they also have art-forward, curated video content for commercial use. Since social media highlights video content over static images, this is a valuable resource for small business owners who need engaging content for their social feeds.
3. Pixabay
Pixabay is a combination of Unsplash and Pexels, boasting over 2.4 million high-quality stock photos, videos, and music shared by creatives. They also have vector illustrations available for download. You can use these assets without asking for permission or giving credit (although that's always nice to do if you can) for personal or commercial purposes.
4. Rawpixel
Rawpixel has both paid and free stock photography options. It's similar to Pinterest sorting in that you choose the topics you're interested in, which is how they curate your home feed. Rawpixel has an extensive collection of free and paid mockups, stock photos, graphics, PNGs, and more to support your creative needs.
5. Picjumbo
Picjumbo is a free stock photo site created in 2013 by photographer, designer, and entrepreneur Viktor Hanacek. He was the first person ever to sell a bundle of photos on Creative Market, which was a huge success. From there, he decided to get his photos on popular stock photo sites but kept getting rejected, so he started Picjumbo.
I like the story behind Picjumbo and think it's a good place to find unique, high-resolution stock photos that aren't on other top stock photo sites.
Source better business stock photos today
And there you have it, the top 10 stock photo websites to elevate your brand imagery online! If you just started your small business, these are helpful resources to get your visual aesthetic started for free.
Of course, as you grow, I recommend paying a professional for a brand photography shoot, but that's a blog for another time.
Happy browsing!
