TL;DR
If you’re sick of seeing the same handful of free stock images show up in every portfolio review and client deck, this guide rounds up seven sites worth bookmarking beyond Unsplash and Pexels, including ones built for editorial-style photography, business photography, and genuinely quirky, personality-driven shots. You’ll also get quick tips on licensing and on making free images look like they actually belong to your brand instead of someone else’s.
If you’ve spent any real time building out brand boards, you already know the drill. You open Unsplash, you open Pexels, and somehow you end up reaching for the same coffee cup, the same desk flat lay, and the same woman laughing at her laptop that every other designer on the internet has used too. Free stock images are supposed to save you time, but the well runs dry fast when everyone’s pulling from the same two sources. The good news is there are more sites out there than most of us bother to look for, and several of them are genuinely good.
Why You've Outgrown Unsplash and Pexels for Free Stock Images
Unsplash and Pexels are huge, free, and the first stop for nearly every designer, marketer, and small business owner online. That popularity creates a real problem: when millions of people pull from the same library, the odds of your mood board looking just like someone else’s go up fast. For client work, that’s a risk. For passion projects, where you’re trying to build out a visual signature that’s actually yours, it can flatten everything you’re going for. You need free stock imageswith their own point of view instead of the same recycled shot everyone’s already downloaded. That’s where the sites below come in.
The Best Sites for Free Stock Images Beyond the Obvious Two
Bookmark these. Each one brings something a little different to the table.
Pixabay is the closest thing to a one-stop shop on this list. The site’s library includes royalty-free images you can download and use without needing attribution, and beyond straight photography, you’ll also find illustrations and vectors, which is harder to come by on most pure photo sites. If Unsplash and Pexels are your go-to for lifestyle shots, Pixabay is worth adding for the days you need a graphic instead of a photo, or want to browse by color to match a specific palette.
Burst is built by Shopify, so its strength is business and ecommerce photography. Think product flat lays, workspace shots, and the kind of retail scenes a small business owner would actually post on their own site. The library is described as royalty-free with no attribution required for use, and the photos lean toward business context instead of generic lifestyle filler. If you design for clients running online stores or service-based businesses, this is one of the more useful free stock images sources on this list, since you’re not having to force a generic lifestyle photo into a commercial context it was never shot for.
Kaboompics is run by photographer Karolina Grabowska, and it’s become a favorite among designers for one specific reason. Every image comes from a curated photoshoot, and many photos include a complementary color palette extracted directly from the photo itself. That makes it one of the easier free image sources to use when you’re trying to match a specific brand palette instead of editing a brand’s colors to fit a photo that doesn’t suit them. The site’s license covers personal and commercial use with no attribution required.
If you’re already picturing how these images might fit into your next brand reveal, the Brand Presentation Template gives you a built, ready-to-customize framework for showing off logos, palettes, and mockups in one cohesive deck, so the free stock images you pull do more work for you instead of getting lost in a cluttered layout.
Life of Pix comes from the Leeroy creative agency, which built the site to offer true-to-life, high-resolution photos for download. The library is smaller than Pixabay’s or Burst’s, but the photos lean more cinematic, with strong natural light and framing instead of overly staged setups. It’s a solid pick when you want images that read more like editorial photography than stock photography, particularly for nature, architecture, and object shots.
Picjumbo has been around since 2013, started by designer and photographer Viktor Hanacek. He launched the site after his photos kept getting rejected by major stock sites for “lack of quality”, which is a little funny given how far the library has come since. New images get added regularly across categories like business, technology, nature, and food, and the photos can be used commercially without crediting the author, though it’s appreciated. The library is large enough that you’ll usually find more than one decent option in a given category instead of settling for the first photo that comes up.
Gratisography is the odd one out on this list, in the best possible way. Founded in 2011 by Ryan McGuire, the site is known for offering some of the quirkiest, funniest free stock photos around. It’s not the right fit for every brand, but if you’re working with a client whose personality leans playful or a little irreverent, or you’re building a passion project that needs some genuine character, it’s worth a look. You won’t find another site on this list quite like it.
ISO Republic rounds things out as a reliable backup search. The site has published thousands of CC0 licensed images since launch, with new ones added most weeks. Categories run wide, covering business, nature, objects, and technology, so it’s a good last stop when you’ve already checked the other sites here and still need one more option for a specific shot.
How to Make Free Stock Images Look Like They're Actually Yours
Finding good free stock images is only half the job. The other half is making them look like they belong to your brand instead of looking like they belong to everyone’s brand. A quick color grade goes a long way, since it pulls a photo’s tones closer to your palette instead of letting it sit next to your brand colors like a stranger. Cropping tighter, or from an angle other than the obvious one, also helps a photo read as less recognizable, since most overused stock shots get overused at their default crop. And for client portfolios or mockup-heavy presentations, free stock images often work best as a background or texture layer rather than the main event, paired with product mockups that carry the actual weight of the design. If mockups aren’t part of your toolkit yet, this roundup of free mockup sites pairs well with this list.
Licensing Basics for Free Stock Images
Most of the sites above license their photos under CC0 or an equivalent free commercial license, meaning you can use, crop, and modify the images for client work or personal projects without paying or crediting anyone, although credit is usually appreciated. CC0 specifically refers to a public domain dedication, where the creator waives their copyright to the fullest extent permitted by law. That said, license terms can change, and a few sites restrict reselling a raw, unedited photo as a standalone product. It’s worth a quick check of the license page on any site before using an image in paid client work, just so nobody runs into a surprise later.
Next Steps: Start This Week
Pick two or three sites from this list and actually bookmark them this week, not just star the email. Next time you open a new mood board or client presentation, pull from one of these before defaulting to Unsplash out of habit. And if you’ve got a brand reveal coming up, grab the Brand Presentation Template so the free stock images and mockups you’ve gathered have a polished, ready-made place to live.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are free stock images really free for commercial use?
Most of the sites on this list license their photos for commercial use without payment or attribution, though terms vary by site, so it’s worth checking the license page before using an image in paid client work.
What's the difference between CC0 and a standard free license?
CC0 is a public domain dedication, meaning the creator has waived copyright entirely. A standard free license still allows free use but may come with conditions, like a request for credit, even when it isn’t required.
Can I edit free stock images before using them?
Yes. Nearly every site on this list allows cropping, recoloring, and other edits. Editing is actually one of the best ways to make a free stock image feel less generic.
Are Unsplash and Pexels still worth using?
Yes, they’re still solid starting points with huge libraries. Pairing them with smaller, more curated sites like Kaboompics or Gratisography helps your work stand out from the crowd of designers pulling from the same two sources.
Do I need to credit the photographer?
Most sites don’t require attribution, but it’s usually appreciated and a simple way to support the photographers keeping these libraries free.
