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.
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Unsplash for Brands
Score 7.2 out of 10
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Unsplash is an online community hosted by the company of the same name in Montreal, featuring photos and images that are available free. Unsplash for Business is a solution that puts content in the hands of people and add context by sharing visuals with their audiences.
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.
If someone is in a specific or super-niche industry, they may not find that Unsplash for Brands is a good option for them. I would say their site and their library of photographic images are a bit more general -- so if you need something stylized, it may not be the place for you.
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.
I need to learn a little more about the product and its capabilities before I give a higher review. However, the availability of image trending is far superior to Getty or Getty Enterprise.
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.
There is one obvious major advantage to Pexels (and Unsplash really) in that the images are royalty-free. We can use them without fear of being sued afterward, and we don't even have to create an account, just download the image and it's ready to go. When it comes to Pexels' photos, you can photoshop words on them, but sometimes you don't want a photo designed for photoshopping, you just want a photo that's ready to use, such as Unsplash.
