Best Free Stock Images for Commercial Use

Stock Images are a great way to liven up your online material. However, to many people they’re synonymous with cheesy and inauthentic photos…

…well maybe except this one.

A good stock image has the power to significantly improve the aesthetic appeal (and conversion rate) of your content. It can reinforce a message, help form a connection with users or even just add a bit of excitement to what is normally a bland or text-heavy page. The power of a high quality image is something we can all agree on, after all they do say that a picture is worth 1000 words. Something else we can all agree on is that we don’t want to have to break the bank in order to get access to these pictures (which has been the case for many years cough iStockPhoto cough). Well, we’ve got good news right here in this post. Over the last few years a large range of sites have popped up that provide free stock images for commercial use, and we’ve put together a guide that will help you find the one that’s right for you. Plus some growth tips on putting the pictures you find to good use, so lets jump in!

Pexels offers a vast library of high-quality free stock images for commercial use. With intuitive search by keyword, category, photographer, or even colour, it's perfect for finding visuals that align with your brand, online store, or marketing strategy.

All content is licensed under CC0, making it safe for use in small business blogs, campaigns, or social media — no attribution required. They also provide free stock videos, ideal for ad creatives or online courses.

Burst, created by Shopify, provides high-resolution free stock images tailored for entrepreneurs, bloggers, and startup businesses. It’s a great source for product shots, lifestyle scenes, and branding visuals.

Images are released under a CC0 licence, so you're free to use them commercially without attribution. You’ll also see optional photographer credits if you want to explore more of their work.

Burst is especially useful for ecommerce and small businesses looking to quickly build up a cohesive, branded image library.

Picjumbo offers a large collection of high-resolution free stock images for commercial use, with no attribution required. It’s especially strong in lifestyle, business, and food photography — ideal for small business websites or content creators.

Just note that redistribution isn’t allowed, as the site is ad-supported. You can download and use the images freely in your marketing strategy, as long as they're not resold or re-hosted.

Picjumbo also provides useful technical details like resolution, shutter speed, and focal length, making it helpful for design teams and content marketers.

Unsplash is one of the most popular platforms for free stock images, offering a massive library of high-resolution photos across categories like nature, business, tech, and lifestyle.

All images fall under the Unsplash Licence, allowing commercial use with no attribution needed. The platform is especially strong in editorial-style and natural imagery — ideal for startups, blogs, and social media creatives aiming for a more authentic look.

If your marketing strategy leans on visual storytelling, Unsplash offers polished yet relatable imagery that elevates content without added cost.

StockSnap provides a wide range of free stock images under the CC0 licence, making them safe for commercial use with no attribution required.

You’ll find everything from landscapes and tech to people and food — perfect for social media, ads, or your next marketing strategy. Their trending gallery and intuitive search help surface fresh content quickly.

Each image page includes dimensions, file size, and creator info — useful for teams maintaining consistency across visual assets.

Pixabay is a comprehensive platform offering over a million free stock images, videos, vectors, and music — all released under the Pixabay Licence for unrestricted commercial use.

Whether you need visuals for blog content, small business ads, or even online courses, Pixabay makes it easy to filter by topic, colour, orientation, and more.

Just be aware that the first row of results includes paid Shutterstock ads — scroll past those to access the truly free content.

Gratisography offers a smaller, quirky collection of free stock images that stand out thanks to their unique, humorous, or surreal style. It’s a fun option if your marketing strategy calls for something less conventional.

There’s no search function, and the library is smaller than other platforms, but if you need to add humour or character to a startup business landing page or social post, it’s a great choice. All images are free for commercial use and don’t require attribution.

The Stocks is a handy aggregator that pulls together multiple free stock image sources — including Pexels, Unsplash, Pixabay, and more — into one central hub.

Rather than offering its own library, The Stocks embeds the original sites directly in its interface, saving you time when switching between sources during content creation.

Beyond stock photography, it also links to useful creative resources like mockups, icons, fonts, and videos — perfect for small businesses or startup teams building campaigns on a lean budget.

In addition to free stock photography, The Stocks also features curated resources for mockups, icons, fonts, videos, and colour palettes — giving your marketing team or startup business a full creative toolkit in one place. Whether you're working on a pitch, improving your brand’s visual identity, or sourcing assets for a new product or service, this site makes building your content library easier and faster.

Videvo is a go-to platform for free stock videos, motion graphics, and sound effects — ideal if you're working on ad creatives, explainers, or online courses that need multimedia support.

Most assets are royalty-free and can be used in commercial projects, though some clips require attribution. You can filter by license type for ease. It’s a great way for startups and small businesses to boost their video production without blowing the budget.

Looking for even more variety? Here are some additional platforms that also offer high-quality free stock images for commercial use. These are fantastic complements to the sites we've already covered and can help round out your visual content library:

• Kaboompics – A beautifully curated site focused on lifestyle, interior design, and modern workspaces. Great if you're looking for stylish imagery with consistent colour palettes and orientation filters.
• Reshot – A growing library of unique, non-stocky images perfect for startups, creators, and freelancers who want visuals that don’t feel overly corporate or staged.
• Life of Pix – Stunning high-resolution photography donated by a Montreal-based agency. Especially strong in nature and urban photography, with a clean and minimal interface.
• ISO Republic – A quality source of free stock images and videos across various categories, including business, lifestyle, and tech. Perfect for professional content creators.
• Foodiesfeed – The go-to site for beautiful, realistic food photography. Ideal for food bloggers, recipe creators, or hospitality businesses looking to add flavour to their content.

Each of these platforms provides imagery that is free to use (even commercially), so you can confidently create better blog posts, campaigns, or product pages without worrying about licensing issues.

Stock images aren’t just visual fillers — they’re powerful tools that can elevate your content and marketing performance. Here’s how to use them effectively in your marketing strategy to attract your target audience and grow your business.

We’ve found that ads perform significantly better when they include emotional stock imagery that helps users visualise the outcome of your product or service. For example, this ad creates a subtle connection between growing your business and having more downtime to enjoy the outdoors. It’s a relatable outcome that resonates on an emotional level.

It’s one of the most engaging ad creatives we’ve ever run, especially on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, where imagery leads the scroll.

Do you Capture emails on your website? Then your forms need to look professional, engaging, and visually on-brand. A strong stock image can make a huge difference by drawing attention and setting the right tone.

The same emotional appeal from your ads can be used here — use stock images that show happy customers, aspirational outcomes, or product moments that resonate with your target audience.

The form above converts at 8% — and it took less than 5 minutes to build using Gleam.

Ever landed on a blog post that’s just a wall of text? It feels unfinished. Adding a high-quality feature image instantly improves the visual appeal, grabs attention, and boosts credibility — especially important for startup business blogs.

Most CMS platforms like WordPress allow you to upload a dedicated post thumbnail or banner. Use tools like Canva or Snappa to create these in minutes with templates that work for social, mobile, and web.

These images help your content stand out in blog feeds and previews, increasing scroll depth and time-on-site.

A strong feature image is just the beginning. To maintain reader engagement, you should continue using relevant stock images throughout your post to illustrate key points and break up heavy blocks of text. Visuals help explain complex ideas, evoke emotion, and reinforce messaging. Even a simple product or service description can become more compelling with the right supporting photo. Writing about healthy eating? Include a vibrant shot of nutritious food.

Talking about the great outdoors? Add a stunning landscape to trigger wanderlust.

No matter your topic — from tech to lifestyle to productivity — there's a free stock image out there to help communicate your message more clearly and memorably.

When people share your content, the preview image plays a critical role in how it performs on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. A great stock image can increase your clickthrough rate simply by making your post more eye-catching in crowded feeds. Emotional cues matter here — images of people laughing, families bonding, or someone expressing curiosity or surprise tend to perform better. They connect with the target audience’s emotions and draw attention to the message.

This post, for example, consistently drives strong engagement and clickthroughs across channels thanks to its strong visual hook:

Make sure your site’s metadata includes a properly formatted Open Graph or Twitter Card image so these visuals show up correctly when shared. It’s a simple but powerful way to grow your audience and amplify your content with free stock images.

Let’s be honest — most case studies are a bit dull. Even if the results are impressive, walls of text can be hard to digest. Adding stock photography can bring them to life and create a more engaging experience for your readers. At Gleam, we’ve found that mixing in free stock images helps break up dense sections and adds emotion or context to real-world stories. It also gives readers visual cues as they scan through tips or outcomes. We often pair case study content with 4–5 supporting visuals that highlight the results or user journey. This keeps things digestible and improves on-page engagement — especially helpful when sharing with journalists, partners, or potential customers.

If you're working on a marketing strategy for lead generation or outreach, these enhancements can significantly improve your case study’s readability, shareability, and overall impact.

A great landing page doesn’t just rely on strong copy — the visuals matter just as much. We've seen major conversion lifts on our own landing pages just by adding high-quality stock images as full-width header backgrounds or section dividers. This works especially well when using the following CSS rule: background-size: cover; This ensures the image fills the space without distortion, creating a modern, full-bleed effect that draws attention and reinforces your message.

Whether you’re building pages for lead capture, product launches, or seasonal promotions, using free stock images for commercial use can save design time and increase visual impact — especially for a startup business working on a tight budget.

Long-form content can be overwhelming without proper structure. Using sub-headers with relevant stock images helps guide the reader, improves skimmability, and reinforces the theme of each section. This technique works particularly well when your blog post covers multiple topics or campaign stages. Adding a contextual image alongside each heading makes the post feel more polished and helps retain attention — a great tip for anyone running a small business blog.

The example above comes from our YouTube contest guide, where we paired each major section with a themed image. This not only boosted time-on-page but also improved social sharing — both important indicators for SEO and user engagement. Keep in mind: while every site mentioned in this guide is fantastic in its own right, the best one for you will depend on your brand’s tone, audience, and content goals. Try a few out, explore what resonates with your style, and start building a powerful visual library to grow your business.