Images are very important to a website. They can set a tone for the visitor, convey an idea, draw the visitor in to your content, or simply make the website more interesting to look at.

One caveat about images is that someone has to create them, and for your website, they have to be good quality. Unless you’ve got the skills to go out with an expensive Canon camera and  numerous telephoto lenses, you’re probably relying on someone else to take these high quality photos that you’re going to use on your website, and those photographers usually expect to be compensated. Photographers can expect anything from a simple caption near the image giving credit to them, to payment for use of that image. Copyright does play role here as well. Anyone who claims that you are using their image without permission can demand compensation, possibly resulting in legal action, and no one wants that.

So, what if you’re looking for great images to use on a website, but you’re working on a tight budget? There are some options! Here are my favorite places to go where I can get beautiful images to use on my website, and pay nothing.

Unsplash

Unsplash is probably my first stop when I’m looking for free stock images. The quality is great, and they have a lot of different categories to choose from. You can search using just about any keyword and hundreds of images will show up in your result. You can also create collections, where if you’re searching for a particular type of image you can create a repository where the images that you like are stored, and then you can come back later and download those images that you have in your collection. Unsplash is one of the most popular stock imagery websites.

Pixabay

Pixabay offers a lot of different media: Images, drawings, videos, and even sound effects. Along with all those offerings, they are usually a great source for any kind of imagery that you are looking for. They also have a lot of filter options, so you can really narrow down your search to a specific size and color of photo if you’re wanting to get that granular. As of September 2021 they boast 2.4 million photos in their arsenal, so there is a lot to choose from.

Stocksnap

Stocksnap is another place where you can find top quality photos. Their selection tends to be a bit limited, and on results pages they show you pictures that actually need to be purchased from Shutterstock. However, they have a lot of categories to choose from, and all the photos on the site require any payment or attribution. Simply download and use wherever, whenever.

Reshot

Reshot provides icons, illustrations, and photos, all for free. When it comes to photos, their selection seems to be pretty limited, and not that high quality. They actually have a better selection when it comes to icons and illustrations.

Pexels

Pexels is a website where you can download photos and videos. You can search a particular topic by orientation, size, or color. They also serve up related topics that you might be interested in searching. Their photos and videos are really high quality and Pexels is a good option for when you are searching for media to use on your website.

Armed with this arsenal of media websites, you should find plenty of good images and videos to use on your website that don’t cost a dime. Happy hunting!