Good photography is one of the most utilized (and most effective) assets for any eCommerce store. Whether it’s a newsletter or blog post, having the right images can strengthen your message and make your content easier to read. Your images should also be as unique as your content.

Fortunately, it is easy to find stock imagery that is both relevant to your message and unused by other eCommerce blogs – if you know where to look.

That’s why I’ve created this list of 40 regularly-updated stock image websites including big aggregates, specific industry niches, and side projects from talented photographers. Most of these are Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licensed – meaning they are “no rights reserved”. You can use them as you wish but make sure to check with the specific site to confirm.

1. Visualhunt

Visualhunt aggregates mainly CC0-licensed photos from a wide selection of online sources, categorizes them and makes them super easy to search for. It also lists public domain photos from Flickr and lets you embed them directly from the Visualhunt website for speedier page loads. It has one of the better tagging systems of any free stock image website, provides extensive meta details and even offers a colour palette on the product image.

2. Adobe Stock

If you’re looking for high-quality, high-resolution images, then Adobe Stock is for you. For people who use the Adobe Creative Cloud, it offers a slick integration that lets you try out watermarked images before purchasing them. It is one of the few paid stock image websites on this list but they do have a 10 image free trial.

Source: Adobe Stock

3. Stocksnap.io

Snappa have created an easy-to-use stock image website that is updated regularly with images that are always free from copyright restrictions.

4. Death to the Stock Photo

Looking for photos that are a little different with a real sense of authenticity? Death to the Stock Photo features collections from videographers and photographers more reminiscent of photojournalism or an art collection than your typical stock image website. Both premium and free content are available.

5. New Old Stock (Vintage)

Need a more vintage look? New Old Stock showcases vintage photos from the public domain from places like Sweden and India. Free of known copyright restrictions.

Source: New Old Stock

6. Stock Up

Stock Up is one of the larger aggregates of stock images. It collects images from 31 websites with images in the public domain or with a CC0 license. You won’t find particularly inspiring photography here, but, with 15,628 photos so far, they are a good source for generic stock images.

7. Pexels

Pexels aggregates high-quality, CC0-licensed photos. They do a better job than most of tagging and filtering their photos, which makes them one of the best stock image websites. Their discovery features also let you find new and unique content faster.

8. Unsplash

Unsplash has become very popular due to their huge range of high-quality stock images and easy-to-use website. It makes finding awesome stock images as easy as it should be.

9. Unsplash Source (Developers)

Technically, this is still Unsplash, but it deserves a mention of its own. Unsplash Source is a simple stock image library API for Unsplash. This means you can include a tiny bit of code on your website to do things like grab a random image from a certain collection or update an image once per day. Your stock photography suddenly became a lot more alive.

Source: Unsplash Source

10. Pixabay

If you can’t find what you’re looking for in Pixabay’s 910,000 free stock images, it’s probably time to start taking your own stock images!

11. StockPhotos.io

Another great source of public domain and copyright-free images, conveniently grouped into very specific categories.

12. Makerbook (Startup)

Makerbook features a ton of resources oriented towards startups, but their stock photos section is particularly impressive. It features a hand-curated list of stock photos from 30+ stock image websites.

13. Foodies Feed (Food)

For food-related eCommerce stores, Foodies Feed has all the free and premium stock photography you need to make mouths water.

Source: Foodies Feed

14. Glyphs.co

Glyphs.co lets you search through a large collection of mostly royalty- and license-free photos and icons. Their colour wheel feature lets you search for photos containing a specific prominent colour.

15. MMT

Unlike other sites that aggregate public domain photos, MMT is the work of photographer Jeffrey Betts who uploads unique stock photos for commercial use every week.

16. Stick PNG (Transparent Backgrounds)

Stick PNG features free stock photos in PNG format with transparent background – perfect for when you need to combine multiple stock photos together.

17. Barn Images

Unique, “non-stock” imagery you won’t find anywhere else. Started by two photographers who now release new, free stock images every weekday by collaborating with other photographers.

18. Free Nature Stock (Nature)

For royalty-free stock photos of landscapes, ocean views, and treetops, Free Nature Stock is a fantastic resource.

19. Free Range Stock

Thousands of high-quality stock images licensed for commercial use. Used by websites like Smashing Magazine, Inc. and The Huffington Post.

20. Vintage Stock Photos (Vintage)

Unique stock photos of retro and mid-century photos that you won’t find anywhere else. It features a strong focus on scenery, travel, and landmarks.

21. TookAPic

Real photos, taken by real people, of real situations. TookAPic is a great resource if you’re looking for free stock images that are more life-like than your typical stock photograph.

22. Magdeleine

As well as featuring a free hi-resolution photo every day, Magdeleine has a fantastic library of CC0-licensed stock photos for you to use in your eCommerce store.

23. The Pattern Library

Rather than a library of stock images, the Pattern Library is a library of interesting patterns submitted by some very talented designers. A great design resource to use in tandem with stock photography or in countless other ways.

Source: The Pattern Library

24. Picjumbo

Picjumbo has a wide selection of free stock photography for you to use – ranging from business photos to nature and food photography. For more specific content galleries, they also have a premium version available.

25. Public Domain Archive

As the name suggests, Public Domain Archive updates their library every week with photos available in the public domain, which means they are free to use for personal or commercial use. Their premium version lets you bulk download all of their photos and gain access to higher resolution stock photos.

26. Super Famous Images (Nature)

Super Famous Images is the work of L.A designer Folkert Gorter. It features some stunning nature photography but is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license which means attribution to the author is needed.

27. I’m Creator

I’m Creator is a curated collection of web design resources available for commercial use. This includes icons but mainly features stock photography broken down into easy-to-navigate categories.

Source: I’m Creator

28. Picography

Picography features stock images taken by photographer Dave Meier. Photos are available for commercial use with a premium option available.

29. My Stock Photos

My Stock Photos has picked out beautiful free stock photos that you can use for personal or commercial use and featured them in a well-tagged stock image library.

30. Jay Mantri

Designer Jay Mantri has collected a large library of images largely involving travel, nature landscapes, and (occasionally) food. All are CC0-licensed and free to use commercially.

31. Gratisography

A well-respected source of unique stock images, Ryan McGuire has photographed all the images on Gratisography and made them available for you free of copyright restrictions. New photos are added every week.

32. Space X Flickr

What’s more exciting than a rocket shooting into space? Privately-owned space company Space X regularly posts images of their latest rocket launches (and landings!). Lots of high impact shots as well as some beautiful nature and oceanography stock photos.

33. Travel Coffee Book (Vintage, nature)

You won’t find a lot of people in these photos, but for gorgeous nature stock photos that put Instagram filters to shame, the Travel Coffee Book website has you covered.

34. KaboomPics (Hi-res)

KaboomPics comes from Polish web designer Karolina. She features her own photos in full resolution (5472px or 3888px).

35. Skitter Photo

Skitter Photo showcases both stock photos submitted by photographers and photos available in the public domain, making them ok for commercial use.

36. Startup Stock Photos

Brick coworking spaces and Macbooks on laps are common images at Startup Stock Photos. This website curates stock photos tailored for websites, blogs and everyone else looking to convey the startup chic.

37. Fancy Crave

Fancy Crave releases two new stock photos every day that you can use commercially – attribution free. Their photos are taken by real people so they won’t look like your typical cheesy stock photography.

38. Split Shire

This photographer realised he had thousands of photos that would otherwise never see the light of day, so he decided to start uploading them for people to use for free. Split Shire features thousands of stock images for you to use and makes it very easy to download and share.

Source: SplitShire

39. Life of Pix

Life of Pix lets photographers easily upload high-resolution stock photos for you to use and makes it just as easy for you to download them. Many, many free and high-resolution stock photos to choose from.

40. Iso Republic

Iso Republic focuses on providing stock photos for creatives. You’ll find stock images of textures, food, technology, nature and everything in between.

Even with such a comprehensive number of stock image websites available to eCommerce entrepreneurs, it can still be tricky to find the perfect image. Sometimes spending a few extra minutes in a photo editing app can make your photos much more relevant and unique. Better yet, why not start with a simple iPhone photography setup and see the difference taking your own images can make. And when you’re ready to start taking product photos, Pixc can help you get them retail ready.

Need to re-touch your product photos? Try Pixc for free!