Where is the Cheapest Place to Buy Stock Photos in 2021–2022?
By: Sonit Goswamy
Tags: Cheapest Price, Stock Photos, Photos, Bloggertips, Blog

Do you have a blog or website? You need high-quality images to make it look professional. But instead of paying for expensive stock photos, why not find the cheapest place to buy them in 2021–2022?

In this article, I’ll show you where to go and what to watch out for so that you don’t get ripped off.

First, I’ll tell you how much your average stock photo costs these days — and then I’ll list the best places on the internet to buy them at a low price.

When it comes time to pick a subscription for yourself, be sure not only to consider price but also storage space and the number of downloads allowed per year.

That way if one site has cheaper prices than another but your number of downloads is restricted, neither one will ultimately be the cheapest. And if you only pay for what you use, there should be no need to stock photos anywhere else — which means no overages or hidden fees!

Ready to see the cheapest place to buy stock photos in 2021–2022? Let’s go!

First, I’ll tell you how much your average stock photo costs these days — and then I’ll list the best places on the internet to buy them at a low price.

Different sites that are cheapest in 2021–2022

Unsplash

Unsplash is an excellent site for high-resolution, free stock photos. Browse their search bar to find clear, creative images.

Pexels

Another excellent site for high-quality, free stock photos is Pexels. Pexels offers many more free stock photos than Unsplash does. This makes them a great choice if you’re looking to save money and offer your visitors as much free content as possible.

Pixabay

Pixabay is a third excellent site for high-quality, free stock photos. Like Pexels and Unsplash, Pixabay also offers many more free images than other sites. If you’re looking to save money and offer your visitors as much free content as possible, Pixabay is your best bet.

Creative Commons

Another plus for Pixabay is that you can search by license type. This allows you to find images with a Creative Commons License, which means they’re credited properly. Other sites only show the largest resolution offered, but Pixabay takes it one step further and lets you choose from multiple sizes — even if they aren’t free.

iStock

iStock is one of the most popular stock photo subscription services, but it’s actually pretty pricey. Subscriptions cost anywhere from $31–149 per month.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock subscriptions start at $19/month — but they only offer images that are restricted to editorial use. This means you can’t use them for commercial reasons, which means they won’t be the best choice if you’re looking to resell or redistribute prints.

Getty Images

Getty Images is the most expensive stock photo site in 2021–2022, with subscriptions starting at $49/month.

Are there any hidden fees I should watch out for? Yes! If a website doesn’t say that they charge extra for each download, watch out! Some sites will limit the number of downloads you can make in a year and charge you per download once you’ve gone over your allotted amount. That way, if you end up needing to use more than what you paid for, they’ll add on an extra fee. Make sure all websites you’re considering list how many downloads are included in their fee.

How to Pick the Right Subscription

When it comes time to pick a subscription for yourself, be sure not only to consider price but also storage space and the number of downloads allowed per year. That way if one site has cheaper prices than another but your number of downloads is restricted, neither one will ultimately be the cheapest. And if you only pay for what you use, there should be no need to stock photos anywhere else — which means no overages or hidden fees!

For example, let’s say you decide on Unsplash because they offer 10 downloads per month at $20.00 per year, which is the cheapest out of all the subscription prices I’ve found so far, and they let you download high-resolution photos.

If you’re using Unsplash, remember to only download images that are larger than necessary for your site/blog posts! Why? Well, let’s say you download the medium size of a photo. That would be great for a blog post with an 800-pixel wide sidebar, but what if your site is 1200 pixels wide? If you have Unsplash’s free subscription, this means downloading an image twice — which will cost you money.

Now let’s say instead of Unsplash you decide on Pexels, which offers the same monthly downloads at $15.00 per year, but they only let you download small-sized photos. If you go with Pexels and accidentally download the medium size of a photo meant for small (which is what happened to me), it will also cost you money to download it again.

iStock and Shutterstock are two of the most popular stock photo companies in the world. Both offer high-quality photos and illustrations for a steep subscription cost. iStock offers a monthly subscription for $149.99, while Shutterstock offers a yearly subscription for $169.00. This can add up quickly if you need to purchase photos frequently for your business or blog.

Comparing Plan Size

As you’re comparing the size of subscriptions at different stock photo sites, remember to also compare their prices! For example, let’s say you decide on Unsplash because they offer 10 downloads per month at $20.00 per year, which is the cheapest out of all the subscription prices I’ve found so far, and they let you download high-resolution photos.

If Pexels offers the same number of monthly downloads at $15.00 per year but only lets you download small-sized images, it will be more expensive than Unsplash because Unsplash’s smallest size is free. It would cost you $25.00 per year to use Pexels.

Cheapest Subscription Option in 2021–2022

As of 2017, the cheapest place to purchase stock photos is Pixabay.

Pixabay offers downloadable high-resolution images for $10.00 per year, which is $5.00 cheaper than the $15.00 Unsplash charges for 10 downloads per month of high-resolution images — and Pixabay also has more free images available than Unsplash does.

Pixabay is a third excellent site for high-quality, free stock photos. Like Pexels and Unsplash, many of Pixabay’s images are Creative Commons Licensed. However, unlike Pexels and Unsplash, images on Pixabay don’t all have the same licenses — some of them do and some don’t.

So if you’re looking for images with a specific license but aren’t sure which ones will work for your site, search through their terms of use page first — rather than just using the images and having to worry about copyright infringement later.

Another way Pixabay stands out from Pexels and Unsplash is with its mobile app. Pixabay’s app makes it easy to find high-quality photos on your smartphone, whether you’re searching for a specific image or need to pull something together quickly.

What if I told you that there is a brand new site, little known but very high quality?

Yes, Depositphotos!!!

Depositphotos is different from both iStock and Pexel because it offers a wider variety of photos. For example, if you’re looking for a specific type of photo that you can’t find on other sites, Depositphotos is likely to have it.

Depositphotos also offers lower prices than both iStock and Pexel. For example, their subscription for 25 downloads per month is $49.99, which is much cheaper than the $149.99 per month iStock charges. Or even better, you can try their new $9.99 per month plan where you get 10 images/mo.

The final difference between Depositphotos and other stock photo companies is that Depositphotos offers a wider range of licenses. This means that if you’re looking for a photo that can be used for commercial purposes, you’re more likely to find it on Depositphotos than you are to find it on iStock.

The advantages of depositphotos over the other choices mentioned above are that they offer a wider variety of photos, cheaper prices than both istock and Pexels or Unsplash. They also offer higher-quality images with more licenses to choose from.

If you’re looking for the cheapest place to buy stock photo subscriptions in 2021–2022, Depositphotos is your best bet!