The top 17 freemium and FREE stock photo sites, in order of diversity
Welcome to the final post in my 4-part series on diverse stock photos! We’ve covered a LOT of ground so far and I’m delighted to be finishing with a longish short list of sites where you can find freemium & free stock photos.
As a women of colour*, this series is of personal importance to me, but as a businesswoman, encouraging other biz owners to use diverse stock photos is CRUCIAL to changing the way people are viewed because of the amount of melanin in their skin.
If you’ve not been following along the series, click the links below to catch up:
Series Contents
- Why representation matters
- My criteria to establish diversity for this series
- When to use free vs paid stock photos
- The different licences – free vs royalty-free vs rights managed
- Why support businesses founded by people of colour
- 10 fantastic paid stock image sites founded by people of colour & featuring POC
- 1 special mention for stock photos of Native American people & culture
- 4 excellent free stock image sites founded by people of colour & featuring POC
PART 3: 8 marketplaces for stellar diverse, affordable & creative stock photos {+ 9 premium sites}
- The 9 most creative & diverse premium stock photo sites
- The 8 most diverse, creative and affordable stock marketplaces on the internet
Which brings us to…
PART 4: The top 17 freemium + free stock photo sites, in order of diversity
- Series recap
- 17 great free + freemium sites, in order of diversity
- Where to find more free stock photos
NOTES
During each post, I link to my Ultimate List of 121+ Diverse Stock Photo Resources spreadsheet.
When I say “people/women of colour”, I’m referring to non-white people, including, but not limited to: First Nations/Aboriginal people {ie Native American, Maori, Pacific Islander, Inuit, etc}, African diaspora, Black, African American, African, BAME {Black Asian minority ethnic} Latinx {incl Hispanic}, Asian, Middle Eastern, mixed race, biracial.
Please note, that while I searched for other marginalised communities, this series focuses on women of colour in stock photos which are suitable for female-identifying, socially conscious, ethical and creative business owners & bloggers.
If you care about diversity, share this post.
Bookmark this post or download your copy of 49 Brilliant Places to Find Diverse Stock Photos & more in the Members’ Only Vault.
Don’t want to subscribe? Access the spreadsheet without opting-in.
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17 free{mium} sites with great stock photos of people of colour
Before I jump into the list, it’s important for you to know that the vast majority of free sites will have adverts – often affiliate ads for other paying stock photo sites, as their commission will help maintain their free image sites.
Free sites will usually be built on blogging platforms which don’t have the same customised search facility as paid-for stock sites, so can take longer to search through. The other issue is the lower levels of diversity.
However, there are some great free and freemium stock photo sites out there – here are the most diverse & creative ones.
I discounted sites:
- with average and poor creative-quality images
- which had too many adverts or ad which made it confusing to download the free images
- which linked to another {original} site for download
- were showing images I’d seen elsewhere
I’ve got 58 stock photo sites with FREE photos for commercial use on my spreadsheet list, 8 {14%} of which are dedicated to POC only.
The following sites on my shortlist have all high-quality royalty-free images and are listed in rough order of diversity + creative quality.
1. StockSnap.io – Free
- (2.7k) “African American woman”
- Built by the design app developers behind Snappa
- Attribution not required, but great if possible
Go to StockSnap
2. Unsplash – Free
- 200,000 photos from 41,872 photographers
- 464 “African American woman” collections
- I’ve collected 130+ photos of WOC into a collection
- Attribution not required, but great if possible
Go to Unsplash
Go to my Women of Color Unsplash collection {132 photos}
3. CreateHER Stock – Freemium
- 100 free photos for subscribers
- 1300+ photos $7 per month
- Mix of styled flat lays + WOC stock
- Attribution required
- You can also hire Neosha at her design studio HUNCreative &/or Ishak at her Texas photography studio I’sha Gaines
Go to CreateHER Stock
4. #WOCinTech – Free
- Hundreds of photos of black women working in office environments
- Real women, not professional models
- Laptop/hands typing closeups
- Attribution required
Go to #WOCinTech
5. The Jopwell Collection – Free
- Hundreds of photos of black people working in office environments
- Real people, not professional models
- Attribution required
Go to The Jopwell Collection
6. nappy – Free
- 50+ black women stock photos
- Fashion-forward photos
- Attribution not required, but great if possible
Go to nappy
7. Picnoi – Free
- 40+ black women stock photos
- Natural and styled photos
- Attribution not required, but great if possible
Go to Picnoi
8. Pixels in Colour – Freemium
- Up to 40 free images for subscribers
- Prices range from $20 – $80 depending on usage
- 40+ black women stock photos
- 40 black businesswomen stock photos
- Natural and styled photos
Go to Pixels in Colour
9. Color U Bold – Freemium
- 50 free photos for subscribers
- 400 photos + 50 new ones every month for $20pm/$45pq/$95pa
- Mix of styled stock & flat lays with WOC
- $5 per photo or $25 for colour-themed bundles in her Creative Market shop
- You can also hire Jasmine to shoot custom stock photos
- Attribution may be required
Go to Color U Bold
Access Color U Bold’s free photos
10. Salam Stock – Freemium
- Muslim experience: positive, balanced and realistic
- 200 free photos
- 1500 – 2000 Muslim women and businesswomen
- Prices range from $2 – $45
Go to Salam Stock
11. Raw Pixel – Free
- Focus on diversity via their World Face project
- Handful of: WOC, business WOC, LGBT & mature women {quality over quantity}
- Model releases in place for legal protection
- Images from $5+ in their Creative Market shop
- Attribution not required, but great if possible
Go to Raw Pixel website {FREE}
Go to Raw Pixel Premium on Creative Market
12. Creative Market
- Selective – contributors are selected & receive 70% of fees
- Products include: stock photos, textures, templates, graphics, icons, themes, 3D, pre-sets/add-ons, fonts and illustrations.
- Reasonable prices eg $5 – $15 for one photo / $97 for bundles
- Pay-as-you-go, buying items as you need them, or add micro-credit to your account
- Follow, heart, recommend, message, create collections
- 6 free goods per week + monthly “Big Bundles”
Go to Creative Market [icon name=”star” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]
Go to my {Business} Women of colour collection
13. Canva {UPDATE!}
Canva helps you design great-looking marketing collateral for your business.
- High-quality, selected photos
- Great prices: photos from $10 and elements from $1, though many are free.
- Over 2 million & growing design elements, including templates, fonts, illustrations, graphics, icons and photos.
- Core sizes, from Instagram to posters to multiple-paged PDFs.
- Easily download/share your designs + free & paid business accounts with perks
- Search “African” and “afro”, rather than “black women”
Go to Canva Photos
Get a free account on Canva.com
14. Death to the Stock Photo – Freemium
- High res photo packs every month with approximately 5 – 10 photos for subscribers
- Can download last 4 projects on their website without subscribing
- Premium users access 1500+ photos & video clips for $15pm or $145pa
- Attribution not required, but great if possible
Go to Death to the Stock Photo
15. Fancy Crave – Freemium
- All photos by Igor Ovsyannykov
- Some diversity – use the collections to search
- Free to download on his website
- 14 free weekly for subscribers
- Packs from $3.99+ for 10 – 30+ photos
- Attribution not required, but great if possible
Go to Fancy Crave
Sites with greater paid-for diversity, than free diverse photos
16. Media Bakery – Premium
- 20 free photos every fortnight via their Tumblr account
- Not as diverse as paying site
- Paying site:
- Rights-managed and royalty-free on
- $49 – $500+ per image
- Can search via ethnicity
Go to Media Bakery Tumblr
17. You Work for Them – Medium
- Marketplace founded by designers for designers in 2001
- 1300+ free photos, graphics, fonts & more for subscribers – scroll to footer to subscribe for 1000+ free elements
- {400 – 1,200} black woman photos to buy
- 828 mature woman photos + under 100 each for LGBT & disability
- $15 – $575 per image depending on usage
Go to You Work for Them
Want more FREE stuff?!
I have many more fantastic FREE stock photo sites on my Diverse Stock Photo Resources spreadsheet + guide {access them below}.
The reason they aren’t in this post is because they don’t show a much or any diversity. But we often need fantastic photos of places – cities, landscapes, flora & fauna – or close-ups of textures, objects, etc, so I created a spreadsheet you can download as your go-to resource for diverse and gorgeous photos.
I’ll write a separate post + guide on flat-lay styled stock photos soon as a companion to this post, but many of the sites in the guide have these types of images too.
Bookmark this post or download your copy of 49 Brilliant Places to Find Diverse Stock Photos & more in the Members’ Only Vault.
Don’t want to subscribe? Access the spreadsheet without opting-in.
PHEW – that’s a wrap! What a series – thanks so much for reading it all the way through!
I hope to see more skin tones celebrated across the world – online & off – until we reach a point where we’re just called the human race.
There are endless numbers of stock photo sites out there and new ones popping up all the time – have I missed a great one you love? If it has strong diversity, leave your recommendation/s in the comments below.