The best stock photo subscription offers a certain number of image downloads a month for a reasonable monthly fee. On average, monthly fees range from $10 to $250 for anywhere between 10 and 750 downloads per month. There are also some plans that don’t count your downloads (called “unlimited subscriptions“).
If you need images regularly, paying for an image subscription from one of the best stock photo sites is a good idea. It is the cheapest way to get professional photos, but they come with a monthly or yearly contract.
To help you choose the best stock image subscription for your needs, I’ve compiled a list of our top recommendations. I’ve considered factors such as price, image quality, library size, and ease of use.
The best stock image subscriptions at a glance
| Subscription | Images | Price | Monthly downloads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shutterstock | 503 million | $25–$249/month | 10 to 750 |
| Envato Elements | Agency review post not found | $16.50/month | Unlimited |
| Adobe Stock | 366 million | $29–$249/month | 10 to 750 |
| iStock | 173 million | $29–$199/month | 10 to 750 |
| Depositphotos | 220 million | $25–$199/month | 25 to 750 |
What makes the best stock photo subscriptions?
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Many websites list stock photo subscriptions, but this review goes further. I didn’t rely solely on the providers’ descriptions or feature lists. I first researched and used these image subscriptions for my own projects, and I have spent time reviewing them ever since to help you decide. I’ve probably spent thousands on subscription fees over the years.
Whenever I’m comparing image subscriptions for my work, my process involves searching for specific kinds of images across different platforms. For instance, I look for “remote team video conferencing” and “sustainable farming practices” or whatever I need.
I also test how well search filters work and download sample images to check their quality, and then read through the license agreements to understand the usage rules. And whether anything has changed since the last time.
Basically, here’s what I look at and what you should too:
- Quality and variety: I examine several variables to determine whether a stock image library is good enough to be worth the money.
- Number of images: The more photos a library contains, the greater the chance you can always find a good image. That’s why some of the most popular stock photo sites, such as Shutterstock and Adobe Stock, have the largest collections.
- Technical quality: I also consider technical specs, such as resolution (at least 5MP), available formats (JPEG, PNG, TIFF), and color profiles (SRGB, Adobe RGB). The photos should also be properly edited, sharp, well-composed, and color-corrected.
- Authenticity: The biggest concern when using stock photos is that they might be recognized as such. Photos should look authentic and natural, tell a story, and have high production values and standards.
- Up-to-date: A stock photo library should be updated weekly with fresh images covering current events. It should also follow modern trends, such as inclusive imagery, minimalism, political correctness, etc.
- Pricing & number of downloads: A stock photo subscription should not break the bank. The entry-level plan with 10 or more downloads should cost no more than $50 monthly. On average, you should pay $0.20 to $5 per image downloaded through subscriptions. Larger plans should offer volume discounts, and 12-month plans should include an annual discount. Unlimited subscriptions shouldn’t limit daily downloads below 30.
- License: A commercial royalty-free license is a must. It should allow unlimited digital use, at least 500,000 copies and prints, and provide some compensation, ideally $10,000 or more.
Best stock photo subscription overall
1. Shutterstock
Shutterstock pros:
- The largest collection of images (503 million)
- Very affordable for what you get
Shutterstock cons:
- Unused downloads don’t roll over
Shutterstock pioneered stock photo subscriptions fifteen years ago and continues to offer some of the best image plans available. It’s also one of the best and most popular image sites, with the largest collection of royalty-free images (503 million).
Image subscriptions are available in several tiers, from 10 to 750 monthly downloads, on a monthly, annual (paid monthly), and annual prepaid basis. The entry-level plan costs $29 per month or $299 per year, while the largest plan starts at $169 per month.
The main drawback to Shutterstock subscriptions is that there is no monthly rollover, whereas many other subscriptions roll over your unused downloads for up to 12 months. With Shutterstock, however, you lose any unused downloads each month.
Each download comes with Shutterstock’s standard license, which is a royalty-free license. It allows unlimited digital use of an image and up to 500,000 copies and prints of each image. While you can use the images for social media, websites, presentations, packaging, and similar uses, you cannot use them for merchandise. The license also includes a $10,000 indemnity.
Each image subscription also includes the download of AI-generated images using Shutterstock’s AI editing tools, such as Background Remover, Variations Generator, Expand Image, and Magic Brush, as well as image editing tools similar to those offered by Canva but less powerful. With an active subscription, you can download design templates, fonts, and logos in addition to photos, vectors, and illustrations.
An active subscription grants you all Shutterstock integrations. The most popular is the Adobe plugin, which currently supports Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and After Effects. However, with each Adobe app update, the plugin runs the risk of not working, which happens quite often. There are also integrations into WordPress and several productivity apps.
Use our Shutterstock coupon PHOTUTORIAL15 at checkout to get 15% off all Shutterstock plans.
Shutterstock 10 images (1-month)
Shutterstock 10 images (12-months)
Shutterstock 10 images (12-months prepaid)
Shutterstock image pricing: 10 image downloads for $49 per month (month-to-month), $29 per month (annual), or $299 per year (annual prepaid). Also available in sizes of 50, 350, and 750 monthly downloads for up to $199 per month.
Best stock photo subscription with unlimited downloads
2. Envato Elements
Envato Elements pros:
- The largest collection of assets among unlimited subscriptions (20+ mil)
- No daily download limits
Envato Elements cons:
- Smaller collection of royalty-free images compared to some other image subscriptions
Envato Elements has a subscription plan that gives you unlimited downloads of the entire collection, including 12.0 million images, 7.5 million videos, and millions of templates, fonts, audio files, and more.
The subscription plan is available with a 12-month commitment for $16.50 per month ($198 per year) or $39 per month with a 1-month commitment. Students receive a 30% discount on both options, while Photutorial readers receive a 70% discount on the first month of a 1-month plan.
Envato Elements is one of the few unlimited subscriptions with no daily download limit. If the system knows you’re not overdoing it, you can even download hundreds of files a day.
Each file comes with a royalty-free license. Like most unlimited subscription licenses, Envato’s license is per project. This means that each download grants you the right to use the media for one final product. To re-use it for another project, you must re-license it for free via the website.
The license is more permissive than most of its counterparts, as there’s no limit on printing and copying. However, as with most unlimited plans, the compensation is quite low and limited to your last 6 subscription payments, which can be a maximum of $234 for individuals. For more, you can apply for a custom license.
An active subscription also gives you access to Envato’s AI Labs, a collection of AI tools. These include several image generators, a background remover, an image expander, and a few others.
Envato Elements
Envato Elements pricing: Unlimited downloads for $39 per month (month-to-month) or $16.50 per month (annual).
Best stock photo subscription for Adobe users
3. Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock pros:
- Natively integrated into all Adobe apps via the Creative Cloud suite
- You can also download audio, templates, 3D and videos, Premium assets, and extended licenses
Adobe Stock cons:
- Slightly more expensive than the competition
Adobe Stock is Shutterstock’s closest competitor, with almost the same size and quality of collection, similar licensing terms, and integrations.
Because Adobe Stock is slightly more expensive than Shutterstock, most customers flock to it because of the unreliability of Shutterstock’s Adobe plug-in, which often doesn’t work as expected, whereas Adobe Stock is natively integrated and always works. Adobe Stock integrates with nearly all Adobe applications, while Shutterstock only supports four.
Adobe Stock subscriptions are available for 10, 25, 40, and 750 downloads. The entry-level plan starts at $29.99 per month for a 12-month plan and $49.99 per month for a 1-month plan. The largest plan costs $199 per month (annual) or $249 per month (monthly). The 10 and 25 asset plans also come with a 30-day free trial.
These prices range from $0.27 to $4.99 per image download, which is similar to most other image subscriptions. You can use your download credits to purchase videos instead, which cost approximately 10 credits each. Adobe Stock is unique because you can use subscription download credits to download from their premium collections as well as an Extended license, but these are available only with the 350 or 750 Assets plans.
Adobe Stock download credits roll over for up to 12 months, so you don’t have to worry about not using all your downloads each month.
With each download, you receive the Adobe Stock Standard Licence, a type of royalty-free license. It’s almost identical to the Shutterstock license: unlimited digital views, up to 500,000 copies and prints, no merchandising or stand-alone use, and up to $10,000 in compensation.
While Adobe Stock is natively integrated with Creative Cloud and most Adobe applications, subscribing to Adobe Stock doesn’t give you access to any software.
Adobe Stock pricing: 10 image downloads for $49.99 per month (month-to-month) or $29.99 per month (annual). Also available in sizes of 25, 40, and 750 monthly downloads for up to $199 per month.
Best stock photo subscription for premium photos
4. iStock
iStock pros:
- Highly curated selection, although small
- Rollover up to 200 downloads
iStock cons:
- Smaller collection than most similar competitors
iStock offers two types of image subscriptions, Basic and Premium, that let you download images from their Essentials (basic, stocky) and Signature (professional) collections, respectively.
Basic subscription costs are almost identical to Shutterstock’s—$29 to $199 per month for 10–750 downloads per month—while their Premium stock photos are two to three times as expensive, on average, starting at $70 per month for 10 downloads. Currently, iStock is running a promotional offer for new customers who get Premium subscriptions with 10 downloads for just $45 per month. A similar discount applies to larger plans as well.
While Premium plans allow you to download Essentials images as well, they, too, cost 1 download credit, meaning you prepay for them. So, if you need both, I’d choose both plans: Basic and Premium.
iStock’s collection is not as large as some of its competitors, but its 173 million images still give you plenty of options. Looking at the photos, it’s evident that iStock has stricter curation standards; however, its high-quality Signature imagery makes up only about 10% of its total collection.
With every image, you get iStock’s Standard image license, which is virtually identical to Shutterstock’s and Adobe Stock’s—unlimited digital use, 500,000 copies and prints, and a $10,000 indemnity.
iStock subscriptions allow you to roll over up to 250 unused downloads month-to-month, regardless of the plan size. This would mean 25 months of unused downloads with the entry plan and just a fraction of the monthly downloads of the largest plan. That’s a peculiar way of rolling over, but it’s very good for everyone on smaller plans.
iStock pricing: 10 Essential image downloads for $29 per month (month-to-month) or $29 per month (annual). 10 Signature image downloads for $99 per month (month-to-month) or $70 per month (annual). Also available in sizes of 25, 50, and 750 monthly downloads for up to $199 per month.
Best affordable stock photo subscription
5. Depositphotos
Depositphotos pros:
- More affordable than other options on this list
Depositphotos cons:
- $5K indemnification
- Worse image variety and curation standards
Depositphotos is similar to Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, and iStock, but it’s a little cheaper, especially for its entry-level plans. For $29 a month, you get 30 downloads instead of 10. You can also get a custom plan with 10 downloads by contacting customer support and paying only $10 per month. This translates into a pretty low starting cost per image of $1.44. In comparison, other entry plans cost from $2.50 to $5 per image download.
The lower cost comes at the expense of slightly worse licensing terms—instead of $10,000 in indemnification, Depositphotos’ basic license provides only $5,000. However, the rest of the licensing terms are the same.
There’s also a 7-day free trial that lets you download 10 images and converts itself into a 30-downloads-per-month annual plan if you don’t cancel. Using the ‘PHOTUTORIAL15’ coupon code, you can get an extra 15% sitewide discount.
Among its three main competitors, Depositphotos has the worst curation standards. While its image collection is decently sized at 220 million photos, vectors, and illustrations, there’s a good portion of images I don’t like.
Other subscriptions I tested but didn’t like
The five image plans I listed above are not the only ones out there. I’ve tested several other image subscriptions over the years, but I don’t use them for my purposes or recommend them to clients because they’re no better than the five above.
- 123RF starts at $199 per year or $29 per month for unlimited downloads from half of their 210 million image collection, and only a digital license. If you want access to the entire collection and use images for print, you’ll need the premium plan, which starts at $39 per month for 20 images and goes up to $139 per month for 350 downloads.
- Dreamstime’s images are over-edited and look too stocky. Their image subscriptions range from $25 to $219 per month for 5 to 750 monthly downloads, which is reasonable, but the low quality is not worth the price.
- Freepik used to be one of my favorites, but it’s now littered with AI images that won’t go away even when you select the “no AI images” filter. It’s become practically unusable for me, even though it’s relatively affordable at $24 per month or $144 per year.
- Unsplash+ is Unsplash’s premium plan, which costs $20 per month or $84 per year and gives you access to a few tens of thousands of better photos. While the images and licensing are good, the collection is too small to be worth the cost.
- Vecteezy is an unlimited stock photos subscription similar to Envato Elements but more focused on imagery. For $104 per year, you get access to about 40 million photos, vectors, and illustrations. However, I’ve never been able to find what I needed, and the overall quality seems poor.
- Bigstock is one of the cheapest stock image providers. Despite being owned by Shutterstock, the site is poorly maintained, the image collection is not updated, and the curation standards are low. If cost is an issue, choose Depositphotos instead.
A few other subscriptions that don’t focus on imagery but still include decent collections of stock photos include Motion Array, Storyblocks, and Pond5.
What if I can’t find the right subscription size?
Most stock photo sites have pre-defined subscription plans ranging from 10 to 750 monthly downloads. However, if you have very specific needs and don’t see a plan that fits, you can often get a custom subscription plan.
For example, Depositphotos’ smallest predefined plan is 30 downloads for $29 per month. Although it’s not specified on their pricing page, if you contact their customer support, you can get a plan with only 10 downloads that costs $9.99 in the US (and 20€ in Europe; I don’t know why there is a big difference). Similarly, Adobe Stock can provide a popular 350-asset plan for you.
Related reading:
- The best stock photos free trials
- The best cheap stock photo site
- The best stock photo sites
- What are stock photos? Everything you need to know
This article was originally published in April 2022. The most recent update was in April 2025.
