From DR to outdoor, digital and social media – great quality images play an important role in the success of all aspects of marketing.

But when budgets are tight, it can feel like your options for creativity are limited. Although that doesn’t have to be the case.

There are plenty of places where can you find free images and mockups that are not only high quality, but also cleared for use wherever you want to use them.

Before you even start looking, it’s vital you understand the differences between the terms used to describe them. Here are three you might see, and what they really mean.

Creative Commons: Creative Commons is a non-profit organization offering various types of content licenses. They can range from complete freedom of usage with no attribution needed, to more restricted use with no amends and attribution required. It’s important you check which license an image has.

Public Domain: Images in the ‘public domain’ are those whose copyrights have expired, have been forfeited, or are not applicable. You’ll usually find this term related to vintage photography or artwork.

Royalty-free: Contrary to what you might expect – a royalty-free image isn’t necessarily free. In most cases, you’ll have to pay a one-time fee to obtain the rights to use the image – then you can use it as many times as you like.

Now you’ve got the basics, you just need to know where to find your images. Below is a list we’ve compiled of some of our favourite free image resources.

Free Image Resources

Unsplash
Unsplash grants you an irrevocable, nonexclusive, worldwide copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use photos from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing the photographer or Unsplash. Take a look  >

Pexels
Like Unsplash, Pexels also has its own license, which states what you can and cannot do with the images. You can use and modify the images for free for both commercial and personal use without attribution. Try it out  >

Burst
Burst is a free stock photo platform by Shopify. Their goal is to build the best free image library for entrepreneurs, so they’re constantly uploading new photos and adding new categories to reflect current trends in ecommerce and retail. The images are both free and royalty-free. Check it out  >

Pixabay
Images on Pixabay are licensed under Creative Commons Zero (CC0), which means you can use the images without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist – though it’s always nice to do if you can. Find out more  >

Free Images
Free Images offers over 400,000 free stock images under its own license. The license allows a very broad range of uses, though it does list several restricted use cases. We recommend you check the licence information of any image you download to double check before you use. Check it out > 

Kaboompics
Kaboompics uses its own license, similar to that of Creative Commons Zero. It also offers a unique search mode, allowing you to search by colour and providing a complementary palette of colours in the photo. Try it out > 

Stocksnap
Stocksnap is an image resource which uses the Creative Commons CC0 license. That means all of its photos are free to download, edit, and use for both commercial and non-commercial projects. Take a look  >

Canva
You might know Canva as an online graphic design tool. But did you know that it also offers free stock photos? One top advantage of using Canva is that you can quickly turn an image into a custom graphic to use on social media or your website. Find out more >

Gratisography
Gratisography has its own free photo license, which lets you do “almost anything you can think of”. They focus on interesting images rather than the standard businessmen in suits stock photography. Check it out >

Flickr
Flickr is a popular image hosting platform where you can find images that can be used and modified for commercial purposes. To find suitable images, select “Commercial use & mods allowed” under the “Any license” filter, but please remember to check the license for each image as they do vary. Try it out >

WOC in Tech
Hosted on Flickr, this is an album of photos of women of colour in tech. It was started by Christina and Stephanie, the founders of #WOCinTech Chat. The images can be used as long as you attribute #WOCinTech Chat or wocintechchat.com. Find out more >

PicJumbo
PicJumbo offers a variety of free images for any kind of use. They also offer a premium subscription with vertical images perfect for Instagram stories. Check it out >

New Old Stock
New Old Stock is an amazing collection of vintage photos from the public archives, free of known copyright restrictions. Great for a nostalgic scroll through, even if you don’t end up using them. Try it out >

Free Mockup Resources

Mckups
From laptops to mobiles, books and posters, Mckups is a curated collection of free PSD mockups. These photo-realistic freebies are a great way to present your designs, websites and other projects. Take a look >

Smartmockups
The Smartmockups library has 8000+ mockups and they add new ones every month. Mockups include include operating systems such as iOS and Android and devices like smartphones, desktops, laptops, tablets, watches, and more. Check it out >

Placeit
If you don’t have Photoshop or are designing on the fly, Placeit allows you to turn your designs into mockups and demo videos in seconds. Choose from iPhone, iPad or any device you need. Plus, new digital, apparel, print and design mockups are added every day. Find out more >

Mockuuups
This drag and drop desktop app makes mockups in minutes. Just upload your image and Mockuuups takes care of the rest. Check it out >

Mockup’s Design
Free premium mockups. No registration required. Including items such as street signs, tote bags, mugs, flyers and business cards. Take a look >

Mr. Mockup
Mr. Mockup helps creative professionals showcase their work in the best way possible by using unique, premium and clean PSD mockups. Try it out >

So, that’s it. Budgets will never stand in your way again.

And if that’s not enough to get you started in your hunt for great quality, free images and mockups, we don’t know what is.

Happy searching…