Where to find copyright-free images: the 8 best sites

How often have you happened to need a specific image and not find it, or find many but all covered by copyright? We know the problem well: you need a particular image, you start searching far and wide, but you can't find anything usable that is right for you. Most stock photos seem trivial and generic, and the few that might fit are licensed or paid.

Whether you run a blog, social media channels or your business website, high-quality images are your daily bread. You had them because they help increase your audience's engagement by making any content lighter and more usable.

It would be very nice to create an original image every time that is right for you and that makes an impression, but this is not always possible due to a matter of time and perhaps a lack of professional tools or budget. For this reason, the quickest solution is usually to search on the internet, but as we have already said, it is not always a walk in the park.

Fortunately, there are some sites on which you can find quality, free and so-called royalty-free images, which can adapt to your needs and be used for commercial use. Here we have prepared a list of the best sites to find copyright-free images, according to Oppaca, that you can draw on for your projects and works.

Before starting to reveal some of our little secrets, however, we would like to clarify what " copyright " means, a delicate and insidious subject to be taken seriously.

What is copyright and why it is important to respect it?

Especially regarding websites or commercial activities, copyright is not to be underestimated. Many think everything on the Internet is everyone's merchandise, but that's not the case. Trivially, you cannot take a photo found on Google and reuse it as you wish on your site, or rather you can, but you would incur heavy fines; But let's take a step back.

What is copyright? Copyright is the moral right of authorship of the work, which protects any intellectual creation "of a creative nature, which belongs to literature, music, figurative arts, architecture, theatre and cinematography; computer programs are also included, whatever the manner or form of expression ".[Treccani]

So, even the images fall within the concept of copyright, so if we are dealing with a protected work ©, we cannot use it because the author has the exclusive right of reproduction, distribution, processing, and transformation. Some of these works can be purchased under license, and others can only be used with the direct authorization of the author.

So, draw from all those royalty-free sources if you are looking for images for your editorial plan. They are distributed with a license for which use is granted without paying royalties.

Creative Commons CC Licences

However, there is still another term that could create confusion about it; we are talking about Creative Commons licenses. However, these are contracts related to copyright, based on the concept of "some rights reserved" and used precisely when the author wants to grant certain rights to his work under certain conditions.

Understanding the type of CC license is not immediate, but by consulting the official website, everything becomes clearer. The attribution of the author is always required except in the CC0 license, the least restrictive one, which corresponds to the "public domain".

Well, now that we have done a bit of clarity, let's see together which are the sites recommended by Oppaca that offer free, high-quality, original and copyright-free images. Enjoy!

#1. Unsplash - free high-resolution photos

With over 3 million free high-resolution images, Unsplash is one of the Internet's most abundant, freely usable image sources. Its goal and the whole community is to help fuel creativity worldwide. Registration on the site is not required to download images, but for those subscribed to Unsplash, it is possible to save the resources in the favourite album.

License. All photos can be downloaded and used for commercial and non-commercial purposes. No authorization is needed (although attribution is appreciated!). However, it is not allowed to 👎 resell the downloaded photos without significant changes or use them to replicate a similar or competing service to Unsplash. View license

The images are really of the highest quality and well selected. The site already proposes a subdivision by macro category within the scope of the site. Search by images is also available; by dragging and dropping one of your images, you will be offered similar ones.

Resources: high-resolution images

#2. Pexels

Another community of creators and certainly one of the best platforms is Pexels. It offers high-quality resources wholly free and updated daily, thanks to an entire community of photographers. All photos contain tags and are easy to browse on their pages. Thanks to the site's search function, you can quickly find the desired image by filtering the results based on size, orientation and colour.

The resources can be downloaded without logging into the site, so everything is intuitive and fast, and no registration is required. If you log in, however, you can collect the resources in albums or like them. The size of the file we will download can also be chosen; Pexels even allows you to set a custom format. The attribution of the creator is not required but is always welcome.

License. All photos and videos on Pexels can be downloaded and used for free. No attribution is required, so there is no need to mention the photographer, photographer, or Pexels, but it is appreciated. In addition, all resources can be modified, giving space to your creativity.

You are not allowed to sell a physical product with an asset on which no modifications have been applied, advertise your product using the people or brands within the images, or redistribute the assets on other free photo platforms. View license

Resources: photos and videos

#3. Freepik

All the resources you need in one place. On Freepik you can find vectors, illustrations, photos, templates, mockups, backgrounds and text effects, free or with a Premium license. Lots of high-quality stock content, which is updated daily. Behind every resource, there is a creative mind, which is why Freepik policy provides that the resources are used by indicating the credits.

Given the vast resources available in the search bar, you can choose the type of resource you want to search and use (if free or premium). Much of what Freepik offers is free, but if you subscribe to the Premium subscription (about € 70 per year), you can access all the available resources and the commercial license. Furthermore, it is possible to download resources without first registering on the site; however, the number of downloads allowed has a daily limit. If you log in, this does not happen.

License. Therefore, all the free resources downloaded from Freepik without an active Premium subscription can be used for personal and commercial use but with the obligation to attribute the author. The link for the attribution is provided during the download.

Resources: vectors, illustrations, photos, templates, mockups, background, text effects.

#4. Pixabay

Many quality copyright-free resources are also offered. On Pixabay you can find photos, illustrations, and vector images and videos. No need to sign up for a subscription. A vast database can be filtered by orientation, media type, etc.

License. The resources on Pixabay are free for personal and commercial use and can be modified. Attribution is not required; as always, it is appreciated by the creator community. View license

Resources: photos, illustrations, vectors, videos, music and effects.

#5. Burst di Shopify

Excellent platform, offered in collaboration with Shopify to download beautiful photos for websites and commercial use. Burst was created to provide designers, developers, bloggers and entrepreneurs with access to beautiful free stock photography. The best-selected images of the week are highlighted, but a more targeted search can be carried out through the search bar. All photos can be downloaded without having logged into the site and through two types of downloads, high or low resolution.

License. All photos are free for commercial use, and attribution is required although encouraged; you can find the total request at the following link. View license

Resources: high-resolution photos

#6. Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock offers thousands of paid assets, images and videos but many free assets, which can also be used without a subscription. The only thing that will be required of you is to register on the site or to create an Adobe account. These are mostly general and not too specific images of a place, an object or a situation, but our advice is to take a look anyway. If you're lucky, you might find the right photo for you.

As for search filtering, needless to say, Adobe Stock is the most complete: type, orientation, depth of field, colour, with or without people, images with space for text and so on.

License. When you download an asset from a free collection, you also receive a royalty-free commercial use license for that asset. See the Adobe Stock license terms overview for more specific information. View license

Resources: photos, movies, templates and vector illustrations

#7. Google Images

Not everyone knows this, but even Google Images can turn out to be a search platform for copyright-free images. At the time of the search, activate the Tools > Rights of use filter in the toolbar and choose "Creative Commons Licenses." Doing so will obtain a selection of images with different types of Creative Commons licenses.

License. The type of license depends on the image in question. By clicking on the image, you can learn more about the conditions by going to "License Details"; you are redirected to the reference page of the Creative Commons site, which indicates the type of license associated with that image. See the opening chapter on Creative Commons licensing for a general overview.

Resources: photos 

#8. Creative Commons

And finally, even the Creative Commons site, which offers information on the types of licenses, has a portal that allows you to search for CC images. Under each resource is indicated the type of license with which it was distributed on the web and how it can be used.

License. The license type depends on the resource in question; see the opening chapter on Creative Commons licenses for a general overview.

Resources: images and audio

Warning! For each resource you use, always remember to carefully consult the information on the license, which at times may also be subject to possible changes. For all the sites we have proposed to you, we have briefly summarized the license type with which they distribute their resources, but we still recommend that you visit the site's specific page for more precise information.

After this roundup of recommended sites where you can find copyright-free images, it's time to get to work. Unleash your creativity; if you haven't found what you need, you can think of creating your image, taking it with a camera or creating material digitally. Good research and good work!