Best Getty Images Alternatives of 2024

Image quality & variety: At over 434 million stock images and thanks to the strict review processes, Shutterstock’s image quality and variety remain unmatched. In our experience, images are rarely similar to each other and do not come from the same photoshoot. Shutterstock adds over 100,000 new images weekly, ensuring that the library remains fresh. Currently, Shutterstock has 242 million photos, 92 million vectors, and 143 million illustrations (some of these overlap), as well as over 50 million editorial images covering news, sports, entertainment, and archives.

Price: Compared to other stock photo websites, Shutterstock is not expensive at all, being on par with most alternatives. The recently-updated Shutterstock pricing unified buying images, videos, and audio tracks under one subscription plan. All-in-one subscriptions are available with monthly, annual, and annual prepaid commitments and in six sizes, costing $25 to $249 per month (equivalent to $0.22 to $4.99 per image). Another option is to use on-demand packages, where images cost $9.16–$14.50 and $67.96–$99.50 for the Enhanced license. More: Shutterstock pricing explained

Licensing: All Shutterstock images are licensed under a comprehensive royalty-free (RF) license (it’s included with every purchase, even the free trial). There are two types of RF licenses available: the Standard and Enhanced. The Standard license is ideal for commercial use and on websites or social media, providing a $10,000 indemnity, while the Enhanced license is the best for merchandise, providing a $250,000 indemnity. More: Shutterstock licensing explained

Customer support: Shutterstock customer support is available through live chat, phone calls, and email. You can also find help through the help page, which answers the most common questions. All types of customer support respond very quickly. However, we noticed that the sales team often tries to upsell a higher-tier package than needed.

Additional features: Most notably, Shutterstock offers Creative Flow access for free with an active subscription. This is a tool similar to Canva but less comprehensive. Shutterstock also has API for developers, a WordPress plugin, and an Adobe Creative Cloud add-on.

Free trial: 30-day free trial, during which you can download 10 royalty-free images. You keep the images even if you cancel the trial and pay nothing.

Discounts: 20% discount if you buy an annual subscription instead of a monthly subscription, and a 33% discount if you make an annual prepaid commitment. 32.4% discount if you buy 5 standard images on demand instead of 2, and 37% discount if you buy 25 standard images with demand plans. 10% discount if you buy 5 Enhanced images instead of 2, and a 32% discount if you buy 25 Enhanced images. More: Shutterstock coupons

Content quality & variety: With over 18 million assets across photos, videos, audio, graphics, fonts, templates, add-ons, and more, Envato Elements offers a diverse library of high-quality creative assets. New assets are added daily across all categories. Currently, Envato Elements has over 9.8 million stock photos, 4.6 million stock videos, 168,000 music tracks, and 652,000 sound effects, ensuring plenty of options for creative projects. You can also find templates, fonts, plugins, and themes. Although it’s not the biggest collection, it’s ideal for creatives who need a variety of assets under one low fee.

Price: Envato Elements offers monthly and yearly subscription plans for individuals, students, and teams, with discounted pricing available for students and multi-user teams. Individual monthly plans cost $39/month or $16.50/month for a yearly subscription, while students pay $33/month or $11.50/month yearly. Team pricing starts at $58/month for 2 users on a monthly plan or $29/month yearly, with additional discounts for more users up to 5, after which custom enterprise pricing applies. All plans offer unlimited downloads with a commercial license and can be canceled anytime. More: Envato Elements pricing explained

Licensing: Envato Elements uses a straightforward, royalty-free license called the Envato Elements License that allows unlimited commercial use of downloaded assets in a single project with no extra fees or royalties. The license must be acquired separately for each project an asset is used in, even if it’s the same asset. Licenses are perpetual, so you can continue using assets from an expired subscription in existing licensed projects. However, liability coverage is very low compared to other stock agencies.

Customer Support: Envato Elements provides customer support via email and a help center with FAQs and tutorials. Support responds quickly, usually within 24 hours. However, we have found the support team to be less knowledgeable about licensing specifics than other stock sites.

Additional Features: Envato Elements offers useful features like mockup generator Placeit, fonts, WordPress themes and plugins, icons, presentation templates, and more niche assets you won’t find on regular stock photo sites. The library is optimized for creatives on a budget.

Free Trial: You can download 12 free assets each month that will be licensed under the Envato Elements License. You can use them even commercially; however, Envato chooses which 12 assets are free each month.

Discounts: 57% off if you pay annually instead of monthly. Extra 30% off for students, paying just $11.50 per month. Teams get up to 35% off for additional members. Buying yearly is the best way to save money on Envato Elements. Photutorial readers save 70% on the first month when buying a monthly subscription, paying just $11.70/mo. More: Envato Elements discounts & coupons

Content quality & variety: Adobe Stock provides high-quality stock photos, vectors, illustrations, videos, music, 3D models, templates, and fonts to customers. Its library includes over 205 million photos, 80 million vectors, 41 million illustrations, 26 million videos, music tracks, 3D models, templates, and fonts. Adobe Stock also offers premium content (3.4 million) and around 1 million free assets. The variety of content makes it useful for graphic designers, web developers, video editors, and other creative professionals.

Pricing: Adobe Stock offers monthly and annual subscription plans ranging from $29.99 to $249.99 per month, allowing 10–750 image downloads for $0.26–$9.99 per image. It also sells credit packs (5–150 credits for $49.95–$1,200) to purchase individual assets on-demand, costing $8–$9.99 per standard asset or $96–$199.99 for premium. Subscriptions provide cheaper access to standard images, templates, 3D assets, and music, while credits allow more flexibility to buy premium content, extended licenses, and editorial images. Videos cost extra compared to images. Overall, pricing is affordable for individuals but adds up for heavy commercial use. More: Adobe Stock pricing

Licensing: Adobe Stock offers Standard, Enhanced, Extended, and Limited licenses to use their stock assets. The Standard license allows limited use for $0.26-$9.99/asset, while the Enhanced license removes print limits for $8-$119.99/asset. The Extended license adds merchandise rights for $79.99/asset, and the Limited license only permits use in Creative Cloud Express. All licenses are royalty-free but vary in usage rights. You obtain a specific license by purchasing assets through subscriptions or credits. More expensive plans and assets come with broader rights. More: Adobe Stock licensing explained

Customer support: Adobe Stock customer support is its worst feature. The live chat always responds quickly, but the operators are almost exclusively unknowledgeable.

Additional features: Integration into the Adobe Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro makes Adobe Stock the go-to stock photo website for creatives. It allows you to browse all Adobe Stock assets from within the apps, thus significantly speeding up your workflow.

Free trial: Adobe Stock free trial is one of the most generous among stock photo sites, allowing you to download 10, 25, or even 40 free royalty-free images, based on the plan you pick.

Discounts: 20% discount when you buy a yearly subscription instead of the monthly one. Up to 97% discount on the price per image when you pick a larger subscription (i.e., 750 monthly downloads) compared to the smallest ($0.26/image vs. $9.99/image). Up to 20% discount on large credit packs (150 credits; $8/credit) compared to the smallest credit pack (5 credits; $9.99/credit). More: Adobe Stock discounts

Video quality & variety: Pond5 video resolution ranges from SD to 5K+, offering a full video quality spectrum. The technical aspect of most videos is flawless and can be readily used for most projects. Pond5 also has the largest collection of footage, thus offering a great variety.

Price: You can get Pond5 videos with a subscription or on-demand. The subscriptions cost $199 per month or $999 per year and give you 10 monthly downloads. But you get access to only about 10% of the video collection. Since videographers can price their own videos, be prepared to pay handsomely for some footage ($1,000 and more per video).

Licensing: The royalty-free license covers most social media channels and commercial uses. The extended license offers increased legal protections of up to $1M and will permit more users to use the video, but it will also cost up to $100+ more.

Customer support: Customer support is not the best and usually takes several business days to respond through email. If you need help fast, you should contact them via a phone call instead.

Additional features: Premiere Pro add-on and Final Cut Pro app.

Free trial: A collection of 3,000 free HD and 4K videos.

Discounts: A 20% off welcome offer, yearly discounts on subscriptions, and bulk discounts on credits.

Image Quality: Offset contains over 1.3 million high-quality stock photos and illustrations curated for their aesthetic excellence. All images undergo rigorous review by experts to ensure superior technical and creative merit worthy of Offset’s premium standards.

Artists: Only the most talented, acclaimed photographers and illustrators are included in Offset. Their unique perspectives and refined sensibilities shape the polished, high-end style of imagery.

Licensing & Pricing: Offset images can only be licensed individually, not via subscription. The Standard License costs $249 per image and allows broad commercial use. The Enhanced License is $349 per image and includes more flexibility. Currently, no bulk or subscription discounts are available.