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Affordable Stock Photography & Footage

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Spice up your designs with stock photography and video.

Whether you're a publisher, advertiser, filmmaker, designer or an artist of any kind, we need to use good quality photographs to communicate more effectively.

Until now quality stock photography was expensive and could only be afforded by large agencies with price tags like 2000-3000 USD per image, simply because fine photographers were expensive to hire. After the digital revolution in photography following the relatively cheaper professional equipment, more and more enthusiasts started taking high quality photographs.

Today we can purchase high quality stock images and videos for as low as 1 USD per image with a "Royalty Free" license. "Royalty Free" is a confusing term and does not mean that the image is free. It means that you pay a one-time fee to use the image multiple times for multiple purposes (with limits).

Here are some of my favorite places to buy stock images and footage.

Royalty Free Stock Photography

I've tried many sites. These 5 are the best sites in my opinion, in terms of pricing and usability.

All sites accept PayPal and major credit cards.

iStockphoto.com: Pros:
- The best service and quality.
- Best photographers.
- 4,100,000 images in database.
- Offers stock footage too.
- Now offers audio clips.
- Offers one free image per week.
- Offers subscription options.

Cons.
- Prices are a bit higher than it's competitors.
- Usable images (1200x1600px) are 4 USD per image.
- Extra High-Res images are 15 USD per image.
- One credit is not one dollar.
- Minimum purchase is 10 credits for 12 USD.
- Search is not very fast, loading time is slower when compared to other services.
Dreamstime.com: Pros:
- Best price/performance
- High resolution images are 2 credits
- One credit is one dollar
- Very fast search and load time
- 4.500.000 images online!

Cons:
- Minimum purchase is 20 credits for 19.99 USD
- Search is not as smart as iStock's
- Overall library quality is not as good as IStock's
Fotolia.com: Pros:
- Good prices. Best resolution/price
- Minimum purchase is 10 credits for 10 USD
- One credit is one dollar
- Fast search and load time.
- Very smart search.

Cons:
- Website is not as well organized and clean as competitors.
123 Royalty Free: Pros:
- Good subscription prices. Download up to
5 Ultra High images daily for $89/Month
- Minimum purchase is 15 credits for 15 USD
- One credit is one dollar
- TIFF format available. 10 USD/image
- Large thumbnails. Good comp images.

Cons:
- Slow
- Website is not as well organized as the competitors.
BigStockPhoto: Pros:
- Minimum purchase is 1 credits for 2.5 USD
- Large thumbnails. Good comp images.
- Offers editorial images too.

Cons:
- A bit pricey.
- Website is not as well organized as the competitors.

Editor's Photography Choice

Based on my personal experience Dreamstime offers the best service in terms of pricing and resolution. My first choice is Dreamstime.

But when it comes to quality of the archive, IStockPhoto beats all of its competitors. The recent change in pricing makes IStockPhoto my second choice.

Royalty Free Stock Footage

When it comes to stock footage not all agencies provide this service. Here are the agencies I use for purchasing afforadable stock footage.

iStockphoto.com: Pros:
- The best service and quality.
- Best content.
- Now with audio clips.

Cons.
- One credit is not one dollar.
- Minimum purchase is 10 credits for 12 USD.

Standard NTSC/PAL quality videos start form 38 USD. HD quality prices are around 85 USD.
ShutterStock: - Good Prices.
- Subscription available.
- No credits, just plain dollars.

Cons.
- Archive is not as large as competitors.

Standard NTSC/PAL quality videos start from 30 USD. HD quality prices are around 50 USD.
1 year 5x HD download subscription is 249 USD , SD is 149 USD. More subscription programs avialable on site.
StockXpert: - Good Prices.
- Choice of download format. (FLV,MPEG4,WMF)

Cons.
- Archive is not as large as competitors.
- No subscription

Standard NTSC/PAL quality videos start from 30 USD. HD quality prices are around 50 USD.
Fotolia: - Excellent Prices.
- Choice of download format. (.mov .avi .wmv and flv)

Cons.
- Archive is not as large as competitors.

Standard NTSC/PAL quality videos start from 30 USD. HD quality prices are around 40 USD.

Editor's Stock Video Choice

Based on my personal experience Fotolia offers the best service in terms of pricing and quality. My first choice is Fotolia.

Again, when it comes to quality of the archive, IStockPhoto beats all of its competitors. IStockPhoto is losing it's affordabiliy and their increasing pricing policy makes IStockPhoto my second choice.

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Reader Feedback

Comments? Suggestions? Your Favorites?

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bluumilk Nov 26, 2011 @ 2:06 pm | delete

Unfortunately http://stockxpert.com is not available any more, but the founders have a new site out there which is equally nice: http://stockfresh.com

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Marianne Winther Aug 31, 2010 @ 5:26 am | delete

The agencies listed are definitely good but there are many other affordable sources of stock photography which we rate, rank & review at Which Stock Agency - http://www.whichstockagency.com/. We also list all their current promotions and discounts plus you can post your comments about individual agencies as well.

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Peter Avery Aug 16, 2010 @ 8:24 am | delete

try https://www.unlimitedstockmedia.com. It seems to be the best bang for the buck. Only $49 for unlimited downloads.

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Jeremie Anderson Apr 5, 2010 @ 10:29 pm | delete

I am a footageoftheworld.com fan myself. Great footage. However, not a very good selection. I usually go there first and then to istockfootage if I can't find it on footageoftheworld.com

Thanks for the reviews! I'll try Fotolia