The 9 Best Free Image Banks in 2024

✍️ Last modified on April 10, 2023

You’ve finished writing your WordPress blog post or comparison but you don’t have any images to illustrate it? Are all the images you find on the Internet copyrighted or are they paid for?

Don’t look any further, here we present you the 9 best free image banks.

These platforms offer you a very large choice of photographs or high resolution images on different themes. This makes it much easier to find visuals. The content published on image stocks is, in most cases, free to access and use for commercial purposes.

What is a free image bank?

It is a search engine for free photographs, videos or illustrations. When you arrive on one of these platforms, you just have to search by keyword or by theme to access thousands of creators’ contents for free and free to use(under certain conditions).

To benefit from this, we will present you the best free image banks through this comparison. Whether they are general or specialized in a theme, there will be something for everyone.

1) Pixabay : the largest choice available

Presentation

Launched in November 2010, Pixabay is certainly the most popular free image bank on the market. You can find on this tool photos, video clips, illustrations, vectors, images and even illustrations.

In 2020, the site had nearly 1,800,000 images! And all this available without registration!

URL: https: //pixabay.com/fr/

Why choose this free image bank?

Choosing Pixabay is choosing a community image stock with a very large choice. You can select the format of your visuals(PNG, JPG, etc.), but also their quality.

In this database you will find your happiness to illustrate your article and target your keywords in the best way. Your site will not lack graphic resources to stand out from the competition.

The strong points

✅ There are several million free images available for public download,

✅ This site is available in multiple languages, including French,

✅ The tool has beautiful high resolution photos.

2) Unsplash : the favorite of this selection

Presentation

This Quebec website offers its users images under free licenses. The community of this site is composed of 170 000 photographers who share their work in the database. In addition, the tool includes more than 5 million high quality photographs.

Its popularity and quality are praised by many media and people. In fact, Forbes Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNET, The Next Web and Medium have named the site as one of the best photo sites in the world. In addition to these media, many professionals, bloggers and photographers also consider it to be one of the best free image platforms on the market.

URL: https: //unsplash.com/

Why choose this free image bank?

By choosing Unsplash, you are choosing to access a site with one of the largest libraries of free and royalty-free images available.

In addition to quantity, there is also quality with the high resolution images available on the site. Every week you will find in this image bank the best photos to illustrate your WordPress articles or other.

The choice of a good image is even more important than the text. On the one hand for SEO, because it will allow you to better referencing. And on the other hand, the user experience. Indeed, your visitors will be more captivated by what you write if your illustrations are of good quality.

The strong points

✅ The images are under free license so they are free,

✅ There is a large amount of images available, several million,

✅ High quality of the photos offered.

3) Pexels : perfect for travel and beauty

Presentation

Founded in 2014 in Germany, Pexels is an online database that offers its users more than 3 million photos and images that are free to access and use. This site was acquired by the design tool Canva.

As the media is available for free download, the site relies on paid advertisements to live.

URL: https: //www.pexels.com/fr-fr/

Why choose this free image bank?

If you have several sites on the theme of beauty or travel, Pexels is the ideal platform for you. In addition, the company is committed to building a diverse data base by offering LGBTQ+ content, for example.

Besides this aspect, there is a large selection of free and quality images available that are added daily.

The strong points

✅ Over 3.5 million photos and images added daily,

✅ Quality photos thanks to a community of professionals,

✅ Covers several themes mainly beauty and travel.

4) FreePik: professional quality images

Presentation

This free image stock founded in 2010 in Malaga has its own content production company, which makes it one of the broadest offerings in the market.

The content available on the platform is diversified with mainly images, vectors or photos. Most of its content is available for free.

If needed, this company offers a paid registration in order to have access to a larger number of images.

URL: https: //fr.freepik.com/

Why choose this free image bank?

If you want to have access to quality photos, you’ve come to the right place. Indeed, as we told you before, Freepik has its own production company. What to get high quality content thanks to the achievements of its professionals.

The strong points

✅ You can download up to 10 free images per day,

✅ Content development by company experts, with daily updates,

✅ Guaranteed search results with effective filters.

5) PicJumbo : perfect for the nature and urban theme

Presentation

PicJumbo has a stock of free images that mainly target blogs and websites.

In addition to the free photos for download, the platform also offers a paid subscription in order to have access to a larger number of contents.

URL: https: //picjumbo.com/

Why choose this free image bank?

This platform was launched in 2013 by a professional photographer, Viktor Hanacek, which proves the quality of the beautiful images offered on the site.

The strong points

✅ Great quality of the photos online,

✅ Several million images for download,

✅ Covers a lot of topics.

6) FreeJPG : more than 10 000 royalty-free images

Presentation

This Argentinean website includes more than 100,000 free photos in free access. This means that you can use these same photos for commercial use(see the conditions of the image on the site).

URL: https: //en.freejpg.com.ar/

Why choose this free image bank?

If you have a very colorful site or one based on a particular color, FreeJPG is the perfect platform for you. Indeed, you will be able to search for images by color! This will give a coherent and unique design to your site.

The strong points

✅ Several thousand photos available to the public for free,

✅ Open access content that may be used for commercial purposes, under certain conditions,

✅ Ability to search by color, which will make your blog atypical.

7) StockSnap : to discover unique images

Presentation

StockSnap is an image bank mainly intended for professionals with beautiful images in free access. The photos found on this platform are licensed under Creative Commons CCO, which means that the authors of these contents have fully released the rights associated with them, so the use is total.

URL: https://stocksnap.io/

Why choose this free image bank?

Using StockSnap you will be able to search a large amount of high definition images, whether it is for landscapes, cities or even objects.

Moreover, it is a very easy to use and ergonomic site, you just have to enter your keyword to access hundreds of corresponding images.

Finally, any author can post his creations in the database.

The strong points

✅ Professional and therefore quality content,

✅ Very easy to use platform,

✅ Use images for commercial use.

8) StockVault: a large selection available

Presentation

StockVault is a platform that allows anyone to publish their new photos in free access for other Internet users. It has several tens of thousands of images available for download by the public.

URL: https: //www.stockvault.net/

Why choose this free image bank?

With StockVault you will have access to new photographs every day, thanks to their community of creators.

The strong points

✅ Free to use content, several licenses are set up depending on the creator,

✅ Quality and free images,

✅ Creative and talented community.

9) Burst: for beautiful royalty-free photos

Presentation

There are many free image banks, but it is important to choose the best ones. So here we come to the last one of this comparison, it is Burst. This platform is launched by Shopify, an e-commerce specialist, for web professionals.

URL: https: //burst.shopify.com/

Why choose this free image bank?

If you are a web professional, have websites or blogs, we advise you to have a look at this image bank. The photos are of excellent quality, available in different categories or in the search engine.

The strong points

✅ Collection of high quality photos, free of commercial uses,

✅ Platform for web experts,

✅ Very simple and optimized use.

Frequently asked questions

What is a royalty-free image?

It is a photo with a specific license of use, which makes it free.

On the other hand, unlicensed photos are protected by copyright, so in most cases they are paid images. If you don’t respect these copyrights, you risk a big fine of several thousand euros.

There are many free royalty-free visuals, it would be a shame to deprive yourself of these resources during the creation of your WordPress site .

How do I know if I have the right to use an image?

You can use the Google image search to see if the image is used and available in an image bank. This way, you can download it and use it as you wish, either by paying for it or by having the rights for free.

How to find good quality royalty-free images?

You can simply use one of the image banks on this list, but you can also do a search on Google Image.

All you need to do is :

• type the query of the desired photo in the search bar,
• then click on “Settings“,
• then “Advanced“.
• select “Creative Commons License” in the usage rights,

Why use an image bank?

Not everyone is a photographer at heart, it is an activity that requires a lot of time and enough expertise to get quality results.
In addition, having high definition images will set you apart from the competition. It will strengthen the image of your site or your brand.

Conclusion

In this comparison, we have presented you the best free image banks currently on the market. For us, this is the best way to find royalty-free photos and images, whether for personal use or for commercial purposes.

This list is not the longest available on the Internet, but it simply lists the best. You’ve probably found the free image bank you need with this.

Most of these image databases do not require registration, which saves you time. So don’t hesitate to switch between the different sites to find the illustrations that suit you.

You are a fan of image banks and you can’t do without them? Let us know which one you like best!