Choosing the right images for your WordPress blog posts can significantly improve the visual appeal of your content. However, finding high-quality, royalty-free images that you can legally use can be a challenge.
Knowing where to look and how to properly source these images is essential for maintaining your blog’s professionalism and avoiding copyright issues.
To help you find the best royalty-free images, we have researched extensively to find the most reliable sources. We focused on key factors like ease of use, making sure that each site we recommend offers a simple user experience without compromising on image quality.
We also prioritized variety, licensing terms, and accessibility so you can find images that meet your creative needs quickly.
In this article, we will share some of our top sources to find royalty-free images for your WordPress blog posts.
Why Use Royalty-Free Images For Your WordPress Blog Posts?
Using images on your website can increase user engagement, improve SEO, and create brand awareness.
However, if you have just started a WordPress blog, then you may not have the budget to buy royalty images. These are premium images that are protected by copyright, and their owner requires payment in order for you to use them.
By using royalty-free images on your website, you can save money, as most of them are free of cost, and make your website visually appealing at the same time.
These images can legally be used for any purpose, including blogs, online courses, social media, ecommerce stores, magazines, and so much more.
That being said, let’s take a look at some of the best sources to find royalty-free images for your WordPress blog posts.
1. FreeImages
FreeImages is the best place to find royalty-free images on the market. It is a popular website that comes with a library of millions of royalty-free stock photos, vectors, icons, and more.
With FreeImages, you can easily discover high-quality images for your website, such as newsletters or presentations.
It is an easy-to-use platform where you can use the search bar or categories at the top to find the right images for your blog posts.
All you have to do is click on an image that you like to open on a new screen. Once you are there, simply click the ‘Free Download’ button to save the image on your computer.
Additionally, the website offers other features like an image lightbox, image filtering, a variety of download options, the ability to comment on and rate images, and more.
All of this makes FreeImages a great place to start if you are new to using royalty-free images on your WordPress site.
2. Pixabay
Pixabay is a popular destination to find royalty-free, CC-0 licensed images. The website offers a large collection of stock images sorted into categories and tags.
It also has an advanced search feature to help you find the perfect images for your website in no time.
Pixabay has a library of over 2.7 million high-quality, royalty-free images, videos, and audio that can elevate your blog post content and make it more engaging for your users.
Plus, the platform offers a variety of download options, including different sizes and resolutions to use on your website.
3. Unsplash
Unsplash is a well-known website for downloading high-quality, royalty-free, CC-0 licensed, and public domain images.
It has a great search feature that allows you to find images matching certain themes like nature, office, work, and more.
The tool has a huge library, an image lightbox, and an image commenting feature. It even boasts a huge community of photographers who contribute to the platform on a daily basis.
Plus, Unsplash also offers a Google Chrome extension, which shows a random image in the background when you open a new tab. You can then download that image on your computer.
4. Vecteezy
Vecteezy is a popular website that provides stock vectors, icons, and graphics for free and paid downloads.
It has over 40 million files available for download, is super easy to use, and even comes with flexible licensing options.
Vecteezy also has an online editor that allows you to edit the images without downloading any software.
Plus, the tool offers an API to integrate Vecteezy content into your own applications, making it easy to add royalty-free images to your WordPress website.
5. Public Domain Pictures
Public Domain Pictures is an amazing platform that has a large collection of royalty-free images and photographs.
You can easily find great images for your website by using the search feature or browsing through categories on the platform.
Public Domain Pictures also lets you filter your images based on size, orientation, and colors and even has flexible download options.
It is a great website for finding royalty-free images because the images are free to use for any purpose and do not require any attribution.
6. New Old Stock
New Old Stock is a great website that has a collection of beautifully curated vintage photographs that are now in the public domain. These images are interesting as they give you a look into the past.
It has an advanced search feature, a lightbox, flexible download options, and over 70,000 high-resolution vintage photos, including people, landscapes, architecture, and everyday life.
New Old Stock also provides historical context for many of its photos, including the date and location of the image.
7. Pickup Image
Pickup Image offers a large collection of royalty-free photographs, images, and clipart.
The platform has a large library, an easy-to-use search feature, image filtering, and also sorts all the photographs into categories and tags for easier browsing.
8. Public Domain Archive
Public Domain Archive is another website that has high-quality, royalty-free stock photos. The site offers a mix of modern and vintage photographs that you can browse using categories or the search feature.
Plus, the website allows you to comment on or rate an image, which can help other users discover relevant content.
9. SplitShire
SplitShire is a free stock photo website that has a collection of over 20,000 unique images.
You can browse the site using a tags filter or view images in mosaic view. It also has flexible downloading options and a lightbox feature.
10. LibreShot
LibreShot is a well-known website with over 1 million stock photos and videos covering a wide range of subjects, including people, landscapes, animals, and objects.
It is super easy to use, is completely free, and has advanced search options. Plus, LibreShot also has premium images that you can buy for your WordPress site.
11. Skitterphoto
Skitterphoto offers high-resolution, royalty-free photographs. All images on the website are licensed under the CC-0 public domain.
The site features works from their own photographers, so you will find less used and more unique photographs.
Additionally, Skitterphoto allows you to adapt and modify images for any purpose, giving you more freedom to create unique and original content.
12. StockSnap.io
StockSnap is a beautifully curated and easy-to-use website for royalty-free photographs and CC0-licensed images.
It has a library of over 2 million images and allows you to browse them using a search bar, categories, and tags.
StockSnap even has an API that allows you to integrate StockSnap content into your own applications.
13. Wikimedia Commons
A project of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Commons is a large library of images, audio, and video files that can be freely used.
You can browse through this website by media types such as images, photographs, drawings, and illustrations or by file types like audio, video, image, and more. Images can also be browsed based on their license.
A large number of images on Wikimedia Commons are in the public domain, which means you are free to use them without any attribution. However, some images may have a Creative Commons license requiring attribution. Make sure you check the license information below each image.
14. PDPics
PDPics is another platform that offers a large collection of public domain images. At first look, the site may look very basic, but it has photos neatly organized into categories and tags.
It has over 92,000 images, is free to use, has advanced search features, and is an open-source project. This makes it a great resource to find images for your WordPress blog posts.
Bonus: Optimize Images On Your WordPress Blog
Once you have found royalty-free images that you want to use, it is important to optimize them before adding the images to your website.
Optimization can help improve your overall website performance and speed, reduce bandwidth costs, and even improve your site’s SEO.
To optimize your images, you have to make sure that you have chosen the correct image type.
For example, if an image has a lot of colors, then you should go with the JPEG file format. However, if your image has fewer colors, then PNG is the better option because it saves images in higher quality.
You can also optimize your images by compressing them into smaller files with tools like Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo, as they come with built-in compression features.
You can also use popular WordPress compression plugins like Optimole to compress your images into smaller files.
For more information, see our beginner’s guide on how to easily optimize images for web performance without losing quality.
We hope this article helped you learn how to find royalty-free images for your WordPress blog posts. You may also want to see our step-by-step guide on how to create responsive image galleries in WordPress with Envira and our top picks for the best tools to create better images for your WordPress blog posts.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Dennis Muthomi
I’ve combined both – Unsplash for hero images and Pixabay for supporting graphics.
One workflow tip that’s saved me countless hours: I maintain a pre-optimized image library organized by common categories (business, nature, technology) and optimize in batches using Optimole.
This approach has significantly reduced image-related page load times across client sites while maintaining quality. The optimization section in this article is spot-on about choosing between JPEG and PNG formats.
Suman Sourabh
Good article! We can use “Pexels” too to get copyright free images and videos. Have used that many times. But I started with Unsplash.
Hajjalah
Thanks for this nice article. I have managed to get free images from Unsplash and Pixabay which has indeed powered the design of my blog posts without spending any funds.
But I am still wondering about the originality of these photos in search results because many website owners use the same photos. If some one wants to add image alt text to the images for better search engine optimization, Is that a good idea? Will the photos rank higher in search results yet are used by more than one website?
WPBeginner Support
It is a good idea to add descriptions to your images in general for search engines and it depends on the image but if it is an image used by many different sites it can have a minor effect but not normally something major.
Admin
Jiří Vaněk
Hi Hajjalah ,
I use images from freepik.com, but I add alternative texts and descriptions to them in WordPress. So far, I haven’t encountered any significant SEO issues. I mainly use these images for excerpts. However, from my experience, I feel that SEO doesn’t suffer much from this, and many of these images from my website appear on Google at quite good positions for relevant keywords. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, although your arguments regarding the use of these images are certainly valid.
Ishmal Majid
I have personally used Pixabay, SplitShire, and Unsplash. I’m used to working with these websites to get free images. These are really amazing ones for doing work faster and easier.
Thanks for this beautiful article!
WPBeginner Support
Thank you for sharing the sites you’ve found useful
Admin
Mrteesurez
There are some I never heard of like freeimages and pickup image.
I will try them out.
I usually use Pixels but not mentioned on this list.
Can I use these free image on a project nor templates I wan to sell ?? As some say you can only use these types of images only on your own personal project.
Thanks
WPBeginner Support
It would depend on how the specific license is set up for the images for commercial product use, you would want to check with the licensing for the individual sites for their current limitations.
Admin
Mrteesurez
Ok, thanks.
I will check on that.
I see some images watermarked with the text “istocks” on freeimages .com, As the name implies, I thought all images there would be free not until I discovered those watermarked ones.
THANKGOD JONATHAN
Thank you for sharing this lists. Pixels which is not mentioned hear in the list was the site I use together Canva.
But now much especially from the comments I am seeing in this post I need to give Unsplash a trial. Thank you once more.
Moinuddin Waheed
I have used pixabay and unsplash from the list that you have mentioned.
inserting images to the websites not only increases visual appearance but also it increases visitors interest with subject they are going through.
having a high quality images on websites is really needed for making it like a brand in visitors mind. it really helps in search engine optimisation as well.
WPBeginner Support
Thank you for sharing the ones that you have used
Admin
Sameer Hussain
All of the resources mentioned on this article are worthy of a simple bookmark. As I always say, images are an important component in your blogging journey.
WPBeginner Support
Glad you found our recommendations helpful
Admin
asim
nice informative article.
WPBeginner Support
Thank you
Admin
Ram E.
All this time I only know about Unsplash and Canva. Thanks for this information.
I would personally recommend Unsplash to anyone looking for high quality photos about any topic.
WPBeginner Support
Glad we could share a few more options to consider
Admin
Ralph
I used a lot of free images sites and most of them is really bad if you need anything specific. Most universla are Pixabay and Pexels. Unsplash is my favourite as it seems more “artistic”. Images looks more natural than staged stock photos.
WPBeginner Support
Thank you for sharing your experience with these sites.
Admin
Mark
ShutterStock is definitely the better source but their rates are ridiculous. It starts at $30/ month for 10 pics, then $100 for 50 pics… For pics they pay almost nothing for. No amateur blogger is paying this. Not saying it’s right but it’s not surprising why people download their pics for free then crop them…
vicdayo
LOL … Best Comment Ever.
Sumitra
Thanks a lot for this post!
1. Should one give the credit when these pictures are used in a blog?
2. Where can I find terms and conditions or any other things I need to know before using pictures from the above mentioned sites?
Manish
Excellent post, really good work. This is the third post which I am reading on your website today. Well connected post. Good Job and thank you for explaining things so nicely. Keep it up..!
Mathukutty P. V.
My site has Adsense and Amazon affiliate ads. Is it allowed to embed or use Wikimedia Commons images with attribution? When asked permission to republish Wikihow articles, they said it is allowed only for Blogs which do not earn money.
gnrao
Thanks for this exhaustive article prepared with so much details.Those who are writing blogs or making videos would really like to know including myself
Which are those websites with no added strings who give away the images for nay use including commercial to add strength to the website developers and to remake,modify and resell and make a living or for the benefit of all the spectators.
John
Is there a place to buy photos (cheaply) for use on my web and blog posts?
Like requesting a specific idea for the photo and buying a fresh (non-stock-looking) photo for a few dollars.
Navin Rao
That was the great list, would be very helpful for my blog posts.
Glad you shared..thanks
Gabby
Just wanted to say thank you! Every time I google something to do with blogging I inevitably end up back on your site
Great resource!
WPBeginner Support
Hi Gabby,
Thanks for the kind words. Don’t forget to join us on Twitter for more WordPress tips and tutorials.
Admin
Kenny Williamson
I wonder what the position is with facebook? Where images are distributed freely.. also if you put up a share button and the image is in your page… are you not actually asking that it is shared??
Just wondering, as I have big problems trying to source images I need for content… usually I write and then don’t put up the image.
William
Awesome !
sonia
Having so much information, valuable resources I’ve needed for months, is simply fantastic!
Your site is an oasis in the desert!
James
I’ve tried them all and found nothing I could use. I wanted something on self-confidence and found none of the high quality images I wanted. They are all hopeless, unless you want to pay money and get decent photos, which I can’t afford.
Useless. All of them.
Lillian
Useless to you… not to me. I’ve only been to six ofthe sites, but I found quite a few pics I can use. Useless?
nah!
leena kapadia
Thanks for the article.
1)Can these royalty free images be used to make slide show and video to share on line?
2) creative commons images have HTML codes. if we want to use them for video, where can we give them credit?
Thank you
WPBeginner Support
1. Yes.
2. You can give them credit anywhere on the page.
Admin
Muhammad Ibrahim
Do i need to give them attribution or credits for that image?
Bhavuk Khandelwal
If all these websites are about Public domain & CC0 images then why are you calling them Royalty free??
Bhavuk Khandelwal
When you say royalty free, what do you mean by that?
Are you talking about public domain images available for free use with CC0 license?
Check this author’s thoughts () on royalty free images.
WPBeginner Support
Yes we are talking about CC-0 Licensed and public domain images.
Admin
sivakumarraja
it is good.
Ravindra Paradhi
Nice list. Fickrr is also good.
Bharath Bhushan Naidu
Will it effect SEO strategies when we use creative common images?
Jiří Vaněk
I use images from public galleries for free to avoid infringing on copyrights, and so far, I haven’t noticed any SEO issues. I don’t have any problems with ranking in the top 5 or 10 positions.
Toni
iStock seems to want money for just about everything I have looked up; so many free is a misnomer.
RJ Aamir
that’s really a lot of help…appreciate it
i was in search of images…
Thanks Syed
rojelio
does this mean that i can use ROYALTY FREE pictures for free on my template that i want to SELL ??? …cause i just read the usage options on SXC and while a picture is royalty free…in the UO it’s written that if i want to use that royalty free picture in a template that i want to sell, so that i need to ask for permission…what in conclusion means that you can use a royalty free picture ONLY if you want to use it for your only one website, blog whatever, that you will not sell but right when you want to use the same picture for selling purposes, lets say in WP THEME/TEMPLATE, you immediately have to ask for permission !! … is this right ??? :))
…thanx anyway !!
WPBeginner Support
Royalty free images can have different licenses. Wikimedia Commons and Creative Commons can be good place to find images that you can use commercially.
Admin
Ramon
This is a really great post on free pics. This information is very informative, and very pocket friendly.
You guys Rock, with a capital R..
True Story…
Olli Eleven
Thanks for these links!
elaine pinkerton coleman
Having so much information, valuable resources I’ve needed for months, is simply fantastic!
Your site is an oasis in the desert!
Shannon
Wow. That is a fantastic post. Thank you.
M Asif Rahman
Thats an really useful article. Thanks!
Peter Shanks
My favourite is http://flickrcc.net, which searches flickr for Creative Commons licensed images and also has an online image editor on images that allow for modification in their license
Rajesh Magar
Nice as always Syed,
But I have one question to clear out. Can we use images from big/paid repository websites like shutterstock, dreamstime to embedded in our blog post without purchasing the same and in favor of return just mentioned credit link (Backlink) on the page for them?. Like the one we always watching on big brand blog sites like TNW, Searchengineland and all. Thanks!
Editorial Staff
Those large sites have a deal with Shutterstock where shutterstock offer them free rights to its library in exchange for backlinks.
Admin
Colin McKie
If you do, you may find what a DMCA takedown notice looks like. As a photographer who depends on sales from those sites for a living, I have to tell you that our local supermarket doesn’t accept backlinks at the checkout.
Elizabeth
You cannot use ANY image without paying for it unless it meets one of the following criteria:
1. You took the picture. (Therefore, you own the rights to use it.)
2. You have the owner’s express permission. (The person that took the photo or owns the photo rights gave you permission to use it.)
If you find a cute imaqe online, or like a photo on someone else’s blog, etc. you CANNOT use it without getting permission. Most of the time, getting permission involves paying for it.
WPBeginner Support
Yes you are right, you can not just use pictures from any website. However, the websites mentioned in the article, offer royalty free stock photos. Each photo and image has licensing information on the download page with permission to use the images in your own projects.
Admin