Below is my top ten stock photography sites with reviews of the pros and cons. They are my top choices for the best searchable online databases for stock photography.
Who needs this:
Creative Professionals - advertising, marketing, website designers and graphic design
The Media - print and online publishing, magazines, newspapers, books, television and films
Corporate - in-house design, marketing and communication departments
1. Getty Images
2. Corbis Images
3. Jupiter
4. BigStock
5. Shutterstock
6. Punch Stock
7. Photos
8. Stock.xchng
9. Super Stock
10. Dreamstime
1. Getty Images
The second largest stock photo agency with 80 million still images
Pros: Widest selection of high quality images, interface, competitive pricing
Cons: All images are watermarked
2. Corbis Images
The largest stock photo agency with 100+ million still images
Pros: Huge quality selection, interface, no watermarks
Cons: Expensive
3. Jupiter
Pros: Best for quality, selection, interface, organization feature, no watermarks, best backgrounds,
Cons: No editorial
4. BigStock
Pro: Interface, selection, quality, very low cost ($1+), Images over white section
Cons: All images are watermarked, a lot of bad vector art to sift through
5. Shutterstock
Pros: Good interface, quality and good bulk prices, highest Alexa rank
Cons: Moderate quantity and quality (not really a con), slow site.
6. Punch Stock
Pros: Biggest selection of all of them, cheap,
Cons: No editorial, all images are watermarked, slowest site amongst this top 10 list.
7. Photos
Division of Jupiter Images - 2.6 million images
Pros: Best Current Editorial, interface, affordable to expensive, flexible pricing, some quality
Cons: Lowest prices, a lot of cheesy vector art to sift through, slow site
8. Stock.xchng
Owned by Getty Images. Only 500,000 images but is one of the most visited image sites.
Pros: Some free to low priced, high quality, fastest site amongst this top ten list
Cons: Interface could be better
9. Super Stock
4.3 million images
Pros: Wonderful quality, huge selection, interface is easy,
Cons: Needs more search features and site can be slow
9. Photos8
13 million images
Public domain photos and desktop wallpapers.
Pros: Unique highly artistic quality, interface, free
Cons: Categories could be better, bad interface, slow
10. Dreamstime
4 million images
Users upload their own files and receive a percentage from each sale. Unbelievable prices and stunning quality.
Pro: Free to very cheap, quality images
Cons: Interface doesn’t always work
