iStock by Getty Images headquartered in Seattle is presented as a complete creative resource for original content, with millions of photos, illustrations, videos & audio to choose from.
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Pexels
Score 10.0 out of 10
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Pexels, headquartered in Berlin, offers stock photos and video under the Creative Commons Zero license, from a global network of creators.
iStock has a huge variety of stuff that allows the graphic designers we work with to have a huge archive to choose from. This lets them have great creative freedom and piece together assets that cover the brief, however the huge amount of variety means they have to be specific when looking for assets, as the brief they're given doesn't always match up with the images chosen- however this is more user error and learning than the product itself
The success of social media campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter depends significantly on the quality of the content used. Pexels maintains the highest quality standards for all content hosted on the platform... with High Definition, excellent composition materials only. Another great thing is that they provide you with an assortment of filtered content suggestions related to the selections. This helps save time.
High-resolution images – Pexels is full of images that are high enough in resolution to look beautiful on their own, but also high quality enough to be combined with other images without distracting pixelization
Stock videos – other free stock sites are often limited to just images, but Pexels has a wide range of videos available as well, which we use to plus up decks
Good search functions – while not as robust as some paid sites, Pexels' search functions make it pretty easy to track down what you need
Licensing – it's very straightforward to know what you can and can't do with a Pexels photo, which protects my company and our clients
iStock in my opinion is probably the leading stock image distribution service at the moment and has definitely become a trusted source for stock images, video, animations and audio. Unsplash has a better library of organic photography but can be a bit lacking as it replies on photographers having images of certain styles, though I like the concept and working closely to give exposure to artists. Adobe Stock is a newer service in comparison so it will take time to build the same level in my opinion but I am a avid Adobe user so will watch that space.
Pexels has a few unique features that stand out, the most important being a 1-click download from the search results. No need to navigate to another page to find a "download" button. This reduces the time required to find and download an appropriate image. The search results load fast, with lazy loading, so there's no annoying pagination at the bottom. I often travel as I work, and at times my internet connection can be slow or unstable. This kind of feature may seem minor to some users, but when on a slower connection, it makes a big difference. If a search term is too broad, it can recommend related keywords to search for - this helps to find the right image faster.
