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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Pixabay
Score 7.6 out of 10
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Pixabay headquartered in Germany offers a digital content platform, which they present as a community for sharing copyright-free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons.
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
Pixabay is excellent for those trying to create content on a budget, whether for yourself or for a client. It has a huge library of high-quality images and videos for use in creative applications. Beyond that, Pixabay also has a library of free music and sound effects, which is enormously helpful for people trying to create content on a budget without worrying about getting in copyright trouble. Also, due to the fact that you can sort images by "transparent," it's easy to find cut-out images to use in composites.
Pixabay License: Pixabay has its own license which allows the use of the content for commercial and personal use without any attribution. However, attribution supports the talented creators behind the content.
Pricing: Pixabay is completely free for everyone.
High-resolution: Photos and videos on Pixabay are of high resolution, especially several videos in 4K, which makes them perfect to use in bigger projects.
One thing that kind of sticks out is that with so much to choose from, you can feel overwhelmed.
Some of the photos I sometimes can find separately by googling. In the music business, it seems like many photos rotate on the web so there isn't as much to pick from.
I didn't see an option for more vertical videos for use in Instagram or TikTok.
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 is free and fully licensed for commercial use, as is Unsplash to a certain extent. I generally open all 3 to search for free stock images for budget-sensitive clients; that being said, I always find myself searching Pixabay first. They have the best user interface of the three and generally have the best image options. Adobe, Shutterstock, and iStock have better images, and I use those for clients who are less budget-sensitive.
