Top 5 Websites To Download Free Stock Images

Finding high-quality visuals without buying stock photos is easier than ever.

The real work starts after you download them. Large, unoptimized images can drag down your site’s performance and frustrate visitors, while properly prepared images keep everything feeling fast and polished.

Below you’ll find a curated list of reliable sources for free images, plus a straightforward workflow to get these visuals optimized and ready for your site.

Best websites to download free stock images

Pixabay

A huge all purpose resource packed with photos, illustrations, vectors, and even video clips. Everything is free for personal and commercial use, which makes it a safe grab and go option when you just need assets without worrying about licensing. The overall quality stays solid across most categories, and the variety makes it easy to find something that fits the mood of your project.

Unsplash

A long time favorite in the design world thanks to its clean and modern aesthetic. The images feel natural and polished rather than overly staged, so they work beautifully for hero sections, background imagery, and lifestyle heavy layouts. If you want visuals that elevate a page without looking like traditional stock photos, this is usually the first stop.

Pexels

Curated collections make browsing straightforward, and the platform leans into what is currently popular which helps when you want something with a contemporary feel. Alongside the photo library, it also includes a surprisingly good selection of free videos. Handy when you are building pages or ads that need a little more movement.

Freepik

Best known for its premium content, but the free tier is still packed with photos, illustrations, icons, vectors, and layered PSDs. Many assets require attribution, so you need to double check licensing before downloading, yet the creative range makes it worthwhile. It is especially useful if you are after graphics rather than pure photography.

Burst by Shopify

Built with entrepreneurs in mind. The platform focuses heavily on business and ecommerce scenarios, offering collections that match product pages, online store banners, and commercial marketing material. If you are building a shop or polishing a landing page, the imagery here tends to line up perfectly with what you need.

StockSnap

A fast growing catalog of free high resolution photos refreshed every week. The search experience is straightforward which helps when you are trying to find visuals quickly. The library covers a wide mix of themes, making it a reliable place to discover fresh material that does not feel overused.

Why you should always optimize images before publishing

Even if you download a beautiful image, it’s almost never ready to go as is.

Files from stock libraries are often huge because they’re meant to work for print, large displays, or high-resolution design work. Drop them straight onto a website, and they can easily balloon page weight without you noticing.

That’s why optimizing matters. It usually takes two steps: resizing the image to the dimensions you actually need and compressing it so the file size drops without the visual quality taking a hit. When you do that, you:

• reduce page load times
• improve SEO
• save server space and bandwidth
• keep your site smooth on mobile connections

And the best part is that none of this requires advanced skills. A good optimization tool takes care of the heavy lifting for you.

Image optimization made simple

ShortPixel gives you fast, high-quality compression for any image type, not just PNGs. JPEGs, WebPs, GIFs, and pretty much everything you throw at it compress cleanly while keeping the image looking sharp.

It also handles modern formats, so you can generate WebP or AVIF versions alongside the originals. That’s a big win for performance because these formats load dramatically faster while maintaining excellent visual quality.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Automatic stock image optimization in WordPress

If you’re using WordPress, simply go to Plugins > Add Plugin, search for ShortPixel, and install ShortPixel Image Optimizer.

Once installed, run through the setup, adjust the settings as needed, then go to Media > Bulk ShortPixel to optimize your entire media library. New uploads will be compressed automatically.

2. Compress stock images online

If you’re not on WordPress or you just want to process a few stock images quickly, an online compressor is the fastest way to go.

Here’s the simple workflow:

1. Open ShortPixel’s free online image compressor.
2. Choose your preferred compression type, and adjust the settings as needed.

2. Drag and drop your images or select them from your device.

3. Wait a moment for processing.
4. Download the optimized versions.

It’s a fast process, works with all major formats like JPG, PNG, and GIF, and does an excellent job of keeping the image looking sharp.

Wrap up

Free stock photos are everywhere, and the sites above will give you more than enough material for blogs, landing pages, product showcases, or full site designs.

But grabbing the image is only half the job. Most stock downloads are oversized, uncompressed, and far heavier than anything a website actually needs. If you skip optimization, those extra megabytes pile up quickly and slow everything down.

Taking a moment to resize and compress every image before publishing pays off across the board. Your pages load faster, search engines respond better, and your site feels noticeably cleaner and more polished to visitors on any device.

If you want a simple, dependable way to handle this without paying or digging through complicated settings, ShortPixel is one of the easiest tools you can pick. It keeps your images lightweight, delivers modern formats when you need them, and fits neatly into almost any workflow.