36+ sites for Royalty free Images, Sound & Videos
Do you need to find high-quality Royalty free content of images, videos, and music for your blog post, social media content, or landing pages?
You are tired of paying a hefty amount for getting high-quality pieces of stuff, now no more since we got the whole bunch of lists that will give you royalty free stuff for free, that can be a game-changer for your life.
You can use them under license on your blog.
So how does this licensing work?
Licensing
Every stock image that you want to use was created by someone who owns rights to them. By purchasing a license, you get permission to use these photographs according to the terms and conditions of the license.
There are three types of licenses.
1. Rights-Managed
This license, when purchased, allows you to use an image once for a specific period. This model gives creators more control over the use of their images. The disadvantage of this model is the pricing, which can be very high most times.
2. Royalty-Free
This license gives you the right to use pictures without any restrictions provided you make a one-time payment to the licensor. With a royalty-free license, you can use a photo on several projects without having to buy additional licenses.
3. Public Domain
These are images that are free to use with no license, whether for personal or business purposes. You can access them in the public domain because their creators either gave up their exclusive intellectual property rights, these rights expired or they no longer apply.
Most stock photos use a public domain license referred to as Creative Commons Zero.
A Creative Commons Zero license allows the creator to opt out of copyright or database protection or any other rights that laws and governments automatically grant to creators. This license is universal, much like open-source software licenses.
There are other versions of the Creative Commons Licenses. Below is a list of them:
CC0
As we said before, a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license waives the creator’s copyright and puts their works into the global public domain
CC BY
A CC BY license allows users to distribute, reuse, remix, rebuild or adapt the image in any format but they must attribute it to the original creator. You can also reuse a CC BY image for commercials.
CC BY-SA
This license allows you to have all the rights that come with a CC BY license with the same requirements. In case you change, remix or build upon the image, CC BY-SA also requires that you license the changed material under identical terms.
CC BY-ND
This license allows you to copy and redistribute the image or photo without deriving or making an adaptation of the original image. CC BY-ND requires an attribute to the original creator and gives you the right to use the media for commercial purposes.
Many stock websites license their photos under royalty-free and public domain licenses. You do not have to worry about violating a creator’s intellectual property rights and most websites will guide you to avoid it
However, designing new visual material is not possible, due to budget or time constraints. That’s why marketers and content creators are always on the lookout for the best platforms that offer free images, music, or videos for the final touch.
A slew of websites offers paid and royalty-free images so you can always find the most appropriate images for your content.
In this post, we are going to provide a comprehensive list of 20+ websites that offer royalty-free images, videos, or sound to users.
Before we dig into these websites firstly we have to clear the confusion about Royalty-free and Copyright-free.
Royalty-Free | Royalty-free generally means that you pay a one-time fee in exchange for the right to use a photograph (or some other work protected by copyright, patent, or trademark) according to agreed-upon terms, with no ongoing license fees due for further use. |
Copyright Free | It refers to a work where the creator or author of the work has given up their Copyright rights. |
So, for your convenience, we have divided the royalty-free into three categories:
- Royalty-free images
- Royalty-free videos
- Royalty-free music
Top Royalty free images.
Here is the comparison between different websites of royalty free image/photo providers to give you a clear vision to use.
Royalty Free | Attribution needed | Subscription needed | Login Required | permission needed to use in other commercial ads, blogs or etc. | Free to use anywhere without any copyright fee needed |
Unsplash | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Pixabay | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Gratisography | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Canva | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Pexels | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Free Images | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Kaboompics | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Burst | No | No | No | No | Yes |
StockSnap | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Free Range | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Reshot | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Splitshire | No | No | No | No | Yes |
1. Unsplash
It’s one of the most popular among free and HD photos.
Unsplash grants you an irrevocable, nonexclusive, worldwide copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use photos from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing to the photographer or Unsplash. This license does not include the right to compile photos from Unsplash to replicate a similar or competing service.
All you need to do is click on the Unsplash website and start scrolling.
2. Pixabay
It is also among the famous ones for royalty free stuff, not only images but also music or videos in HD quality in just one website and it has over 2.6 million + content for users.
Pixabay.com is free stock photography and royalty-free stock media website. It is used for sharing photos, illustrations, vector graphics, film footage, and music, exclusively under the custom Pixabay license, which generally allows the free use of the material with some restrictions.
3. Gratisography
Its outstanding features which make it outshine this website among others is, that it has really very creative pics, random and HD quality collection of those.
Gratisography offers Royalty free Content photos that look real and natural. That’s why the free image site is quite popular among content creators.
4. Canva
Canva is quite familiar in this field; the popular graphic design platform hosts an impressive collection of Royalty free Content stock images. A big benefit of using this platform is that you can easily convert a picture into a graphic for use on your blog or social media.
Canva for Education. Blog. Design. Marketing. Branding. Nonprofits. Teachers & students. Plans Plans. Free. For individuals and small teams to create and download designs for any occasion. Pro. For individuals and small teams who want more advanced tools and more content. Enterprise. For large business seeking an integrated tool to keep their brand consistent
5. Pexels
Pexels is a provider of stock photography and stock footage. It was founded in Germany in 2014 and maintains a library with over 3.2 million free stock photos and videos.
Pexels provides media for online download, maintaining a library that contains over 3.2 million photos and videos, growing each month by roughly 200,000 files.
The content is uploaded by the users and reviewed manually. Using and downloading the media is Royalty free Content, and the website generates income through advertisements for paid content databases. There is also a donation option for users, and while the attribution of the content creator is not required, it is appreciated. Through the merger with Canva, Pexels’ database is available in the Canva application.
6. Free images
The FreeImages boasts 300,000+ Royalty free Content images under its own license, which allows an extensive range of uses. However, it does have several restricted use cases, which are common for many popular free image sites.
7. Kaboompics
Kaboompics has its own license, which is the same as Creative Commons Zero. The only difference is that you cannot redistribute the site’s photos. There are many benefits of using Kaboompics. Not only users can search by color, but the website also offers a complementary palette of colors in the image. Which is Royalty free content
8. Burst
Burst is a Royalty free content stock photo platform that is powered by Shopify. You’re welcome to edit, crop, or otherwise modify these images however you see fit. The goal of the library is to help as many people as possible, so all of the pictures are royalty-free, with no attribution required. That means you can use them in your school projects, client work, print ads, menus, on websites, and beyond. Since they’re free for commercial use, you can even sell t-shirts or mugs you designed using Burst images! The sky’s the limit.
9. StockSnap
StockSnap offer beautiful, high quality stock photos for just about any use you can think of – including commercial usage – for free. No tricks, no gimmicks, no fine print; just dazzling images for your creative projects.
Here, you’ll find no complicated credit requirements or expensive pricing schemes based on usage. In fact, all of the images are absolutely Royalty free content use, for absolutely any purpose whatsoever.
10. Free Range
Freerange Stock provides high-quality free stock images to our community of over 750,000 registered users. Since 2007, our collection of photos, textures, and illustrations has been frequently featured and promoted on lists of recommended free image sources across the web. All images are licensed for broad commercial use without attribution, providing dynamic visual tools to fuel our members’ success.
11. Reshot
Items under the Reshot Free License can be used in your commercial and non-commercial projects, for free.
You’re granted a copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, publicly perform and broadcast the Items. Your rights are non-exclusive, worldwide, sub-licensable, and ongoing. Attribution is not required; however, we would appreciate it if you credit Reshot where reasonably possible.
12. Splitshire
You can use Splitshire in various ways and places.
- Website or Mobile App
- Advertising Materials
- Image Placeholders for Bloggers or Websites
- Image Placeholders/Backgrounds in Templates for Sell
- Part of Template for Sell
- Social Media, and etc…
It has wide range of collections of what real creator is finding in their next.
Top Royalty free videos
Here is the comparison between different websites of royalty free Video/shorts provider to give you a clear vision to use.
Royalty Free | Attribution needed | Subscription needed | Login Required | permission needed for using in other commercial add , blog or etc. | Free to use anywhere without any copyright fee needed |
Videvo | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Life Of Vids | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Pexels | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Videezy | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Pixabay | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Clipstill | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Dareful | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Vidsplay | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Mixkit | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Mazwai | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Coverr | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Splitshire | No | No | No | No | Yes |
1. Videvo
Videvo offers free stock videos and motion graphics for use in any project. You may use these video clips free of charge, in both personal and commercial productions. Video clips that carry the Creative Commons 3.0 license must be attributed to the original author.
2. Life of Vids
Free videos for personal & commercial uses. New videos added weekly! High-resolution videos for free for U on our VIMEO. For Designers, Web Creatives, and many more there.
Not only does this stock video website have a super-sleek interface, but all of their SD and HD videos are free! All of Life of Vids videos are watermark-free and require no attribution for either commercial or non-commercial use.
3. Pexels
Using and downloading the media is free in Pexels, and the website generates income through advertisements for paid content databases. There is also a donation option for users, and while the attribution of the content creator is not required, it is appreciated.
4. Videezy
Videezy has a large collection of video clips that are royalty-free for personal and commercial use, but always make sure to check each clip’s specific licensing info to make sure your favorite footage is available to use.
5. Pixabay
Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images, videos and music. All contents are released under the Pixabay License, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist – even for commercial purposes.
6. Clipstill
Unlimited* access to download all cinemagraphs for a single fee. *Maximum 5 downloads a day.
Clipstill is dedicated to cinemagraphs – still photos containing a small repeated animation that plays on a loop. The effect is hypnotic.
7. Dareful
Dareful.com is your source for completely free4K stock video clips that can be downloaded and used any way you want, forever!You never pay a dime.
Download whatever you want, use it in all types of projects (including commercial!), forever, just click on a video and start downloading.
8. Vidsplay
Download royalty free stock video footage clips in high definition. Unique, no-cost video footage updated weekly in Vidsplay.
All photos are free from copyright restrictions – no attribution required.
Free for personal and commercial use. CC0. No attribution. Always free.
9. MixKit
Mixkit is a free gallery of awesome stock video clips, music tracks, sound effects and video templates.
Its videos fall under two license types: Free and Restricted. Free license videos can be used in any commercial project, whereas Restricted videos can be used in non-commercial projects like personal social media posts.
10. Mazwai
Download free stock video footage with clips available in HD.
Stunning free stock footage clips, hand-picked by their in-house team of video professionals. Simple licensing, and no sign-up required.
- Free stock video clips
- Hand-picked by experts
- Simple and safe licensing
Mazwai.com is a resource for free stock footage and moving images, created with one clear mission: to give creators around the world free access to beautiful stock footage, with simple licensing.
11. Coverr
Coverr video is a completely free stock footage website that allows you to download and use high-quality stock videos anywhere
Founded in 2015, Coverr offers a catalog of thousands of free, high-quality videos that have been downloaded more than 5 million times and are viewed 1.1 million times each month.
12. Splitshire
Splitshire is primarily a stock photo site, but they do have a small collection of videos that are free for commercial and personal use. Instant download private collection of free stock photos, free stock videos & high-resolution images for personal and commercial use.
Top Royalty Free Sounds/Music
Here is the comparison between different websites of royalty free music/sounds provider to give you a clear vision to use.
Royalty Free | Attribution needed | Subscription needed | Login required | permission needed for using in other commercial add , blog or etc. | Free to use anywhere without any copyright fee needed |
Bensound | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Jamendo | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Artlist | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Audio Jungle | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
FMA | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Purple Planet | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Sound Bible | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
SoundSnap | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
TunePocket | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Zapsplat | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
AudioMicro | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Film Stock | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
1. Bensound
Download Royalty Free Music for free and use it in your project: Videos (YouTube), Websites, films, etc. As long as you credit Bensound.com (in the description for a video).
Bensound: Cinematic, music for films, soundtrack, scores, piano.
Bensound’s royalty free music: Electronica, Dubstep, House.
2. Jamendo
Free music downloads and streaming. Discover and explore 600000+ free songs from 40000+ independent artists from all around the world. Jamendo offers artists the opportunity to publish their music for free under Creative Commons licenses
Users can listen to MP3 encoded audio files (96 kbit/s) and download in MP3 (192kbit/s) and Ogg Vorbis formats. Listening and downloading is free, unlimited and without any advertisements. The site is available in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Portuguese.
3. Artlist
Explore the ultimate royalty-free music & sound effects catalogs for unlimited use in YouTube videos, social media & films created by inspiring indie.
Music Library with tailored high-quality music and sound effects.
Artlist’s single license, lifetime use, low annual price, and unlimited downloads make it the best value for your money. The quality of songs and SFX is excellent, everything is royalty-free, and the search is fast and friendly. Artlist is a good company and a must-have for content creators and filmmakers.
4. Audio Jungle
AudioJungle is part of Envato Market. At AudioJungle you can buy and sell royalty-free music and sound effects that are completely Podsafe for just a few dollars, which includes a Buyer Fee. The site is home to a bustling community of audio composers and producers
Discover handpicked, exclusive royalty-free music you won’t find anywhere else.
Discover 1890562 Royalty Free Music tracks and audio files from only $1 on Audio Jungle. Buy Royalty Free Music from a Global Community of Musicians.
5. Free Music Archive (FMA)
The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads. The Free Music Archive is directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America.
Free Music Archive has thousands of free-to-download Soundtracks and hundreds of Compilations to choose from – all original music by talented independent artists and musicians.
6. Purple planet
Purple Planet Music is a collection of music written and performed by Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey. You are welcome to use the pieces for free. All you need to do in return is to give credit.
Purple Planet Music works out of Manchester and Leeds, England. Geoff Harvey and Chris Martyn compose, perform, record, produce and mix all Purple Planet material. Matt Dingle is Studio Manager.
7. Soundbible
SoundBible.com offers free sound clips for download in either wav or mp3 format. We have free and royalty free sound effects and clips for video editors, movie scores and game designers.
8. Sound Snap
Soundsnap focuses solely on professional sound effects, with curated sounds added weekly. Twice as Big. They claim to be the first and most popular sfx library for unlimited downloads.
Browse free sound effects. 466,058 royalty free sound effects available. Unlimited downloads only $249/yr.
9. Tune Pocket
Get the Right Music for Your Video or Audio Project with Tunepocket. Try It Now! Thousands of High – Quality, Handpicked and Reviewed by Professional Team.
Tunepocket Download royalty free songs with lyrics (male and female vocals), including pop, RnB, indie, chillout, rock for video, YouTube, and commercial use.
10. Zapsplat
Download free sound effects from extensive range, recorded and edited by professional field recordists and sound designers. With over 100,000 sounds in Zapsplat library and hundreds more added daily, one of the fastest growing sound libraries online. Whether you’re a filmmaker, game developer, podcaster, need free sound effects for YouTube, TV, radio or any creative project. That’s right, free mp3 sound effects to download (and .wav for premium members).
11. Audio Micro
Trying to pinpoint that perfect sound? This site has 440,196 sound effects from Star Trek, Apocalypse Now, Kill Bill, and more.
AudioMicro.
12. FilmStock
This is a one-stop-shop for a lot of creative resources. You have to dig a little, but the right sound is within their back catalog, and they are always taking suggestions for what they should ask for next.
Download video effects, After Effects templates, royalty free music & sound effects, stock videos & images. Filmstock is your one-stop shop for online media.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this list has helped you get your finishing touches on your project. You don’t have to spend a bundle, just spend wisely.
getting the royalty free stuffs really helps you to create more faster and easily with little help so hope this article helps you choosing your next royalty free stuffs…
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!