People rely on visual media to get their attention, tell a story, connect with their audience, and ultimately drive more sales through the pipeline.\u00a0 Check out these 11 stock photo sites which can provide content to use in your blog posts, pages and articles, or inspire you with ideas to create your own.\u00a0 Did we mention they’re FREE?<\/strong><\/p>\n Research by 3M revealed that visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text<\/strong> and that an average person only remembers about one-fifth of what they hear. Eye-tracking studies also show that online readers focus on information-carrying images<\/strong>.<\/p>\n According to a post published on HubSpot, readers spend more time checking relevant images than going through the text on a page. The article further revealed that Facebook posts with images get 2.3 times more engagement<\/strong> than posts without photos and that posts with a picture once in every 75 to 100 words got double the social media shares than those with fewer images.<\/p>\n If your business has a large ecommerce<\/a> site demanding substantial dedicated resources, check out the 100% fully managed dedicated servers at KnownHost<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Having sufficient server resources that are fully committed to just your site is the ultimated in dedicated hosting security and performance.\u00a0 We proudly have the best uptime in the industry<\/strong><\/a> year after year.<\/p>\n 1) Unsplash<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Pros –\u00a0<\/strong>high quality, mobile application, handy search tool, images are modern, artsy and vibrant style<\/p>\n Cons – <\/strong>Crowdsources photos from anyone<\/p>\n Unsplash adds ten new images every ten days \u2013 and with thousands of images to select from, you are likely to find one that matches your preferences while browsing through the site. The platform also features a search tool that allows you to find an image fast. You can even check the groups of images categorized by other users into themes like Street Life, Into the Wild, Light, and Shadow.<\/p>\n Licensing:<\/strong> Unsplash has its own custom license, allowing for free use in business projects without attribution needed, but prohibiting image compiling.<\/p>\n 2) Pixabay<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Pros – <\/strong>biggest selection of photos and illustrations, adds community features<\/p>\n Cons – <\/strong>Quality is variable, sometimes hard to find what you’re seeking<\/p>\n Pixabay images are stunning and visually stimulating and are ideal for blog posts and professional use. With more than 1.6 million royalty free stock images and videos available, you are sure about finding something that works for you. Note that both talented and generous community photographers submit these images.\u00a0 Although Pixabay accepts submissions from any person, they have an experienced curator that reviews the images and gives a green light before they are pushed live.<\/p>\n Licensing:<\/strong> Pixabay uses Creative Commons Zero (CC0) \u2013 free to use for commercial reasons, without attribution.<\/p>\n 3) Gratisography <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Pros – <\/strong>Consistently high-quality images, fun but unique images<\/p>\n Cons – <\/strong>Relatively small collection<\/p>\n Gratisography provides free high-res photos for both personal and commercial projects. It adds new amazing photos every week that are free of copyright limitations. All Gratisography images are captured by Ryan McGuire, a talented artist and web designer. The Gratisography collection consists of some of the most evocative pictures online today. The 500 high-res image collection may seem small, but their intimate and unique nature is what differentiates them from the rest.<\/p>\n Licensing:<\/strong> Gratisography has a custom license that works like the Creative Commons Zero \u2013 free for commercial use, but adds a sensitive clause and advice due diligence concerning additional rights like trademarks, brands, model releases.<\/p>\n 4) Pexels<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Pros – <\/strong>Images arranged by theme, large collection of photos, UI mockups for designers, cool add-ons applications and Photoshop plugin<\/p>\n Cons – <\/strong>Some images are limited use, takes user submission and aggregate images from other sites<\/p>\n Pexels offers high-res and completely free stock images. All photos are properly tagged, searchable, and easy to explore through their discover pages. Pexels adds ten new images daily, and every picture features metadata as well as details like aspect ratio, size, shutter speed, camera, and so on.<\/p>\n Pexels boasts of thousands of royalty-free stock photos in high resolution added from other free stock sites or submitted by artists. It has a wealthy catalog, and all the images in it are free to download and use.<\/p>\n Licensing:<\/strong> Pexel images are under the Creative Commons Zero: free commercial use without attribution.<\/p>\n 5) StockSnap.io<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Pros – <\/strong>vast collection of high-res images, current photos, user submission<\/p>\n Cons – <\/strong>not the largest selection available<\/p>\n StockSnap.io offers an extensive selection of beautiful, high-res free stock images. It has handy search functionality that makes it easy to scan through the thousands of available photos. It also monitors views to determine the most popular photos available. StockSnap.io adds hundreds of photos every day.<\/p>\n Licensing:<\/strong> all images are released under Creative Commons Zero, free commercial use, no attribution needed.<\/p>\n 6) Burst (by Shopify)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Pros – <\/strong>Highly commercial and trendy images, huge selection of high-res images, authentic styled images<\/p>\n Cons – <\/strong>Has two almost identical licenses which complicate the life of users<\/p>\n Burst is a Shopify resource that offers free stock images for business people. The platform was launched to help entrepreneurs make better websites, products, and marketing campaigns. A majority of images included in Burst are unique and are themed around the trending business niches. However, you can also find general photos for other uses on the site.<\/p>\n Burst offers a big library with thousands of high-end photos with trending style covering vast commercial topics like technology, fashion, lifestyle, and so on. The images are sourced from user submissions and hired photographers \u2013 you can use these images freely at any place.<\/p>\n Licensing:<\/strong> Burst uses two licenses: custom license and Creative Commons Zero. Both allow you to use the images for commercial purposes. Other than a no compiling term, there aren\u2019t any copyright restrictions.<\/p>\n 7) PicJumbo<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Pros – <\/strong>Commercially valuable imagery, pictures by expert stock photographer, multiple themes<\/p>\n Cons – <\/strong>Excessively commercial<\/p>\n PicJumbo is another incredible free stock photo site for inspiration and images and carries a wide selection of images for individuals and companies alike. Most of its support comes from advertisement, but if you\u2019d like to give directly, you can sign up for premium membership that provides additional images. However, you often won\u2019t need to do this because the platform has enough volume of free content for you to find what you are looking for.<\/p>\n PicJumbo is the best place to find high-res, royalty-free, commercial-ready stock photos for free. The site has more than 2,000 photos by Viktor Hanacek, a stock photographer, and covers a vast range of themes. People in these photos are intentionally unrecognizable.<\/p>\n Licensing:<\/strong> PicJumbo uses Creative Commons Zero (CC0), free for commercial use, but cautions about due diligence when using trademarked subjects and brands.<\/p>\n 8) PikWizard<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Pros – <\/strong>Online photo editor available, no awkward cheesy poses, balanced mix of commercial and artistic style imagery<\/p>\n Cons – <\/strong>Web design is a bit lacking<\/p>\n If you need natural looking images of people, then PikWizard should be your stock photo site destination. PikWizard provides thousands of free stock images across a vast spectrum of subjects. The quality is impressive, which is uncommon for free stock image sites and has numerous photos showing people in natural poses. The collection of urban photography is fantastic too \u2013 so, if you need a city landscape, the site is a great place to look.<\/p>\n The best part is you can get creative without leaving your browser because the site offers links to an online photo editor.<\/p>\n Licensing:<\/strong> PikWizard offers images under their custom license allowing free commercial project usage, but comes with a sensitive use clause. The platform doesn\u2019t permit resale or use in resale products like posters or t-shirts.<\/p>\n 9) NegativeSpace<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Pros – <\/strong>Work from upcoming photographers, frequent updates<\/p>\n Cons – <\/strong>Some subjects are copyright protected<\/p>\n NegativeSpace aims to give amateur photographers a place to share their creativity with the world. So, ideally, anyone with a camera can contribute to the platform. You can subscribe to their newsletter for updates whenever new content is published, and since the images are refreshed pretty fast, it will be worth checking out from time to time for new photos if you are working on a project.<\/p>\n NegativeSpace features lots of free stock photos covering different topics and styles. Although many images are taken by new photographers, you are sure to find high-quality images because all submissions go through reviews before they are published.<\/p>\n Licensing:<\/strong> NegativeSpace uses Creative Common Zero, free for commercial use.<\/p>\nStock Photo Sites<\/h2>\n