24 Free Image Banks to Enhance your Website

Yet there are hundreds of image banks, large and small, available to the public! However, people don't take the time to search and always go to the first ones they find, which are usually the biggest, because they're the ones that appear first in search results.

With that in mind, to make your life easier, we've gathered all our favorite resources in one place so you can save the article and come back to it whenever you need to illustrate your website, articles, social network posts, newsletters and more!

We've divided the 24 suggestions into 2 main categories: must-haves and small image banks.

Here are some image banks containing thousands of images, offered completely free of charge. In some cases, creators ask to be credited for their images, but in most cases this is not required.

The Foter image bank offers hundreds of thousands of Creative Commons images, mostly from Flickr or Wikimedia Commons.

StockVault's image bank contains over 125,000 free images! So you're virtually guaranteed to find an image that suits your needs.

In terms of image quality, it's hard to beat Unsplash. This platform allows users to upload their photos for public viewing. Images must respect a certain aesthetic and be in high resolution.

Here's another bank with over 1.5 million quality images. Basically, Canva is a tool aimed at professionals working in the graphic design field, which implies a certain level of quality when it comes to images.

You can consult the Albumarium database by launching a keyword search query, or by browsing through the various albums that serve as categories. You'll see just how diverse the albums are, from photos of Buddhas to mouth-watering shots featuring Tiramisu cakes.

Stocksnap is a simple, easy-to-use platform featuring thousands of good-quality images.

Pixabay's image bank is one of the most popular and useful available on the web. The images are of good quality, and it's easy to search for them by entering several complementary keywords.

Pexels is another free image bank that's a must-have. Like Unsplash, Pexels offers aesthetically pleasing photos that complement web content.

The Burst platform is owned by e-commerce giant Shopify. Most of the images are therefore focused on marketing and selling commercial products.

In addition to the large platforms presented above, there are hundreds of small image banks run by small teams or individual photographers who present their own photos.

We've put Flickr in a category of its own, because this massive platform doesn't just serve as an image bank for those who want to use photos. In fact, people can also use it to host their own photos that they don't necessarily want to offer to others. So Flickr isn't an image bank like the others.

That said, it's perfectly possible to find available images and download them for your own use. However, you need to make sure you respect the licenses and search in the Creative Commons category.

Free image banks are practical and very interesting for people who don't have the means to spend money on creating original images or buying photos. However, there are a few things you need to know to make good use of this kind of platform.

First of all, it's important to know that not all platforms use the same types of licenses. As a user, it's up to you to consult the conditions of use and find out what kind of use you can make of the images. Image banks often use Creative Commons licenses. Here are the different types of CC licenses:

CC BY: This license allows you to distribute and modify an image, provided that it is credited to its author.

CC BY-NC: This license is similar to the previous one, but does not allow commercial use of the image.

CC BY-ND: This license allows the image to be used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes, but without modification. It is also mandatory to credit the image.

CC BY-NC-SA: This license allows you to use an image for non-commercial purposes. The source must be credited. A derivative version of the image does not carry the same conditions of use.

CC BY-NC-ND: This is the license with the most restrictions. It does not allow commercial use or modification of the image. Users can download the image and share it, but must absolutely credit the source.

CCO: CCO images are copyright-free and can be used freely.

These are not the only types of licenses that exist, but we thought it would be important to mention them in this article so that you have a better understanding of the ways in which you have the right to use the photos in these banks. When you upload a photo to a site, please consult the terms of use and the FAQ (if applicable). There you'll find precise instructions and information about the images and the rights associated with them.