The visuals you use with your brand play a huge part in how people perceive your business. Now more than ever, the photography you use matters. Investing in high-quality and appealing photos that align with your brand and personal style should be a priority for any small business owner. 

Luckily, there are a ton of helpful resources available for you to source your photography from. As a designer, I’ve explored many of them. Here is a list of my favorite stock photo sites.

Free Stock Photo Sites

Don’t think that quality photos have to come with a price tag. There are a lot of sites that offer a fantastic selection of stock images for free. Free stock photo sites all have different licensing arrangements and requirements, so just be sure you’re clear on how you’re allowed to use their images. 

Unsplash boasts a library of more than 2 million photos from 200,000+ photographers! Their images can be downloaded and used freely for commercial and non-commercial purposes. While they encourage attribution, it’s not required!

Are you looking for images and videos? Pexels has you covered. Download photos and videos, edit them as you see fit, and have beautiful imagery for all of your marketing purposes.

Canva’s free membership offers hundreds of thousands of free photos and graphics. We recommend signing up for Canva Pro for $9.99/month, though, since that plan offers 75+ million stock photos, videos, graphics, and even audio! 

If you’re looking for more than stock photos, Freepik might be the site for you. Not only do they have an extensive library of free images, but Freepik has infographics, background, textures, and graphics. Freepik also has paid plans starting at $6/month, but the free plan is great as long as you don’t mind their attributions requirement.

Paid Stock Photo Sites

The benefit of using paid stock photo sites is that they usually have more variety in their photo libraries. Paid photo sites also often offer more size options for images, and you might find the quality of the photos to be better. 

My go-to resource for computer and iPad mockups is Moyo Studio. They specialize in styled stock photography, mockups, and digital templates for creative business owners. Moyo Studio’s 3-month memberships start at $149. While their membership option opens and closes from time to time, you can always purchase all their products in their shop.

Social media is a must for any entrepreneur, and Social Squares offers stock images perfect for posting. The site features square and vertical stock photos that are ideal for posting to any feed or profile. Their membership plans are $35 or $29 monthly, which is pretty reasonable for any business that prioritizes social media marketing.

There are stock photo sites out there for any business’ marketing budget. If you try one of the ones I’ve listed, please tell me about your experience with it. 

Now that you know where to get quality images, it’s time to create a beautiful brand you can be proud of. Download The Plan Behind Your Brand, my free PDF featuring the steps you need to take your business to the next level.