Free image banks are essential to complement the illustration of any project. In creating content, they become a tool that can be noticed because it is pleasant for users and allows for increased brand visibility.
However, access to that quality plugin is diverse, and choosing an option can be unclear. Don’t worry; you can count the variety of images you need, and you’ll know if it fits your goals.
Top of the best free image banks
Choose from the best free image banks, knowing the advantages and disadvantages of each. This way, you can count on the ideal images for any purpose. From Insiderbits, we have made the following list:
1. Jay Matri
Jay Matri contains a great diversity of free images and stands out for the filters it provides to find the most visited images during the month. At the same time, it maintains a high quality among its options by theme so that creativity prevails.
Advantages
· Collection of free images, no need to pay per license.
· The download process is simple.
· The photos are of high visual quality.
· It has multiple categories of different themes.
Disadvantages
· It is a very frequented image bank, so you must choose well to get a visual resource that has yet to be used so much before.
· You should invest enough time in finding an image that speaks for your project.
2. Morguefile
Morguefile was created in 1996 to share and exhibit artistic works for free. Over time, it grew and increased the categories available to become one of the largest free image banks.
Advantages
· It is an intuitive website with easy-to-interpret navigation.
· The quality of the images is compatible with digital marketing projects.
· Variety of images that fit different kinds of projects.
Disadvantages
· It is only available in English.
· The website has advertisements.
· Some photographs may have restricted use.
3. Little Visuals
Little Visuals specializes in providing landscape or product photography. At the same time, the catalog consists of up to 15 million photographs of different categories.
Advantages
· It is helpful for specific topics, such as nature, travel, or others.
· The aesthetic level of the images is high.
Disadvantages
· The variety of themes available is limited.
· The number of photographs per theme is small.
4. Openphoto
Openphoto, a collection of images from amateur photographers, also offers the option to save or share any visual element in Dropbox. Initially, it was created by Michael Jamstrenski in 1998 to share his aesthetic work.
Advantages
· Quality visual content.
· Categorization of images in a specific way.
Disadvantages
· Limited amount of images available, compared to previous banks.
· The website occasionally crashes.
5. Startup Stock Photos
Startup Stock Photos leads the generation of images by and for startups to provide more visual appeal to blogs or other digital spaces susceptible to marketing.
Advantages
· The interface is straightforward to understand and use.
· It has a wide availability of images of various marketing themes.
Disadvantages
· Fewer categories.
· Some images require attribution from the authors.
6. Flickr
Flickr stands out among the free image banks because it is also a social network. It works as a solid community of users who share their images.
Advantages
· Search tools to make it easy to get the images you need.
· Active community to provide feedback on images.
Disadvantages
· It is not a modern platform.
· During navigation, advertisements appear.
7. Libreshot
Libreshot is one of the free image banks with the most excellent preference for SEO-related roles. This website is young compared to those mentioned above, but it has a certain level of popularity, as a famous photographer created it.
Advantages
· Free use of images without attribution.
· Keyword-based search.
Disadvantages
· It does not offer an active community of users.
· The number of images is less vast than the previous banks.
8. Dreamstime
Dreamstime consists of 12 categories of images in which all the available photographs are exposed. It is differential because it has real pictures in various size scales.
Advantages
· Numerous collections of images.
· User community enabled.
· Extensive download options with various formats and sizes
Disadvantages
· Some images are not free.
· There is a lot of competition when using the images on this website.
9. Negative Space
The composition of these photographs focuses on illustrating marketing content. Negative Space is structured with 16 categories related to popular themes.
Advantages
· Provide negative space in images to add text.
· The categories are distributed in a specific order.
· Supports contributions from the community.
Disadvantages
· The marketing context limits the topics available.
· Search results are not generic.
1. 123RF
123RF features up to 38 million useful images for personal and professional purposes. The collection of the pictures is carried out by topics to facilitate the search of the users.
Advantages
· Content with high visual quality.
· Active community of users who share photos.
· Advanced search tools to locate images.
Disadvantages
· Registration is required to download images.
· Updating the image catalog is slow.
How do I choose the image bank for my project?
More than 100 free image banks are online, making choosing or recognizing which suits your project difficult. It is best to create a list of alternatives. So you can find different or little-used designs.
On the other hand, you can also explore the theme or category with more photographs to know if it is compatible with the needs and objectives of your project.
For example, some websites mentioned are ideal for
Digital marketing tasks. That way, you can identify the images you are most likely to find.