Free and royalty-free photos to illustrate articles, posts and documents.
Published on November 22, 2021
Summary
Whether we're bloggers, graphic designers or marketing professionals, we often need beautiful photos to illustrate our activity or reinforce a brand's image. The first reflex would be to use Google Image to find (steal) the JPEG file from another website. This is a common practice, but it's forbidden because most photos are subject to copyright. It is always possible to request prior authorization from the author of the media, a time-consuming procedure with no guarantee of results.
There are many image banks that provide creative people (webmasters, graphic designers, community managers) with royalty-free photos. Some image banks charge a fee (iStockPhoto, Adobe Stock, Shutterstock...), while other platforms offer totally free files.
Foodiesfeed.com
★★★★★ | Thousands of photos on the theme of food. Fewer photographs than on other platforms, but a theme - that of food and gastronomy - well exploited and images of very high quality.
Foter.com
★★★★☆ | The images available here are mainly taken from royalty-free photos from the Flickr community, others come from WordPress plugins. Pretty good quality and a wide choice of High-Resolution files on many themes.
Freeimages.com
★★★☆☆ | Photos of very uneven quality arranged by theme: architecture, automobiles, fashion and beauty, landscapes and nature, transport, etc. All are freely usable for personal, commercial or professional use.
MagDeleine.co
★★★★☆ | More original photos with a strong identity not found on the big photo banks. Very LifeStyle shots downloadable free of charge and without registration.
isoRepublic.com
★★★★☆ | Over 6000 free photos to use freely. A classic interface with the option to search by keyword or by exploring the suggested themes: people, nature, technology, landscapes, textures, sports, etc..
Pexels.com
★★★★★ | Another reference platform consulted by almost 15 million visitors every month. An efficient keyword search makes it possible to find and download high-quality photos without registration.
Pixabay.com
★★★★★ | 1.8 million free photographs, plus high-quality vector images in SVG or AI (Adobe Illustrator) formats. An efficient search engine and numerous categories: technology, education, travel, textures, etc..
Startupstockphotos.com
★★☆☆☆ | A themed platform around startup and business. Relatively little choice, but more original photos not found on the big image banks.
Unsplash.com
★★★★★ | One of the most popular platforms in France, with over 2 million photos of excellent quality, free of charge and free of copyright. A wide range of themes: travel, fashion, animals, sports, atmospheric photos....
Stockpholio.net
★★★★☆ | An image bank made up of royalty-free photos published on Flickr. Quality varies, but the images are more authentic than those offered on other platforms. Each file can be downloaded in a wide range of resolutions.