25 Free Stock Photo Websites For Creative Commons Images

Great marketing doesn't have to mean breaking the bank. There's a wealth of visual content out there graphic designers, web designers and social media marketers can use to bring their campaigns to life.

User-generated content can be a good way to find an curate images that speak to your audience. If you don't have the budget (or the resources) to bring your efforts in-house, there are plenty of outlets to spark your creativity.

Here's some of our top picks for free stock image resources, and opportunities for creators to upload and share their own creative commons content too.

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Along with being a quick, go-to solution for free design templates, Canva hosts thousands of stock images to help with your graphic design needs. They also have a collection of affordable icons and images you can buy per use (some images can cost a dollar or two), as well as regular premium plans.

Flickr is a hosting service and community for user-generated media. Users can upload their own photos, connect with other photographers, and “like” images they enjoy. Not all the content on Flickr is creative commons, but a good search will help get you started (and connected) to the creators and content you're looking for.

Pexels is home to a large collection of creative commons images, submitted by a collection of photographers. What we like about Pexels is that it's gamified -- the site hosts regular photo competitions, and has a “leaderboard” where the most popular photographers are ranked. These aren't your typical stock photos either -- expect a softer, more youthful vibe over stark white background images

Want to go old school? Viintage is the way to go. Browse through a collection of classic images, posters, icons, and more -- all attribution free. It's like a thrift shop, but for digital media.

Take a trip around the world by browsing through a collection of more than 7,000 creative commons travel photos curated by photographer Pete Rojwongsuriya. Looking for images of a specific country? Just select it on their built-in map.

If you like Pexels, Unsplash offers a similar aesthetic, offering a collection of free images from their photographer community.

If you need a custom image size, Kaboom makes it easy. Just, choose the photo you want, and enter in your dimensions. Their search options also make it easy to narrow down specific image types, with filters for color, topics, and dimensions.

Free Nature Stock is a collection of creative commons images taken by nature photographer Adrian Pelletier. A new photo is added every day, so this is one to check back on.

A collection of user-submitted creative commons images. You can freely browse their categories, or check out their curated list of trending images to see what other content creators are downloading most.

Pixabay boast a collection of more than 1.4 million free stock images, so you won't be at a loss here. Categories range from nature, to medical, beauty, science, transportation, and more.

Thousands of free stock images spanning a variety of categories. Trending photos are ranked on their homepage, so you can see what's hot right now.