Adobe Stock vs. Shutterstock

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Stock
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Stock consists of curated asset collections that allow users to explore diverse collections of high-resolution, royalty-free, stock assets for use in digital projects.
$29
per month
Shutterstock
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Shutterstock is a global technology company headquartered in New York, offering a creative platform boasting high-quality assets, tools and services. With it, users can license images, video, music, and editorial assets -- as well as custom content tailored to a brand’s needs. Shutterstock offers a variety of plans for individuals, teams, and enterprise customers as well as creative editing and collaboration capabilities.
$379
per month (2 users)
Pricing
Adobe StockShutterstock
Editions & Modules
Individuals
Starting at $29
per month
Teams
Starting at $29.99
per month
Single User - 10 Images
$29 ($49)
monthly, annual contract (no contract)
On-Demand Packs - Standard License
$29, $49, $299
number of images (2, 5, 25)
Single User - 50 Images
$99 ($125)
monthly, annual contract (no contract)
Single User - 350 Images
$169 ($199)
monthly, annual contract (no contract)
Single User - 750 Images
$199 ($249)
monthly, annual contract (no contract)
On-Demand Packs - Enhanced License
$199, $449, $1,699
number of images (2, 5, 25)
Teams (750 images per month)
$379
per month (2 users)
Teams (750 images per month)
$479
per month (3-10 users)
Teams (750 images per month)
Contact Sales
per month, 11+ users
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe StockShutterstock
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe StockShutterstock
Considered Both Products
Adobe Stock
Chose Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock integrates far more easily into design software (e.g. Adobe XD or illustrator) than products like Pexels and Shutterstock. Adobe Stock generally has one price for full access, whereas Shutterstock offers different pricing tiers for different types of images which …
Chose Adobe Stock
Pexels offers a free alternative to Adobe Stock, albeit their selection is quite limited and doesn't include vectors. iStock and Shutterstock on the other hand have comparable prices to Adobe Stock, but their selection is far superior. The quality of the vectors, the variety of …
Chose Adobe Stock
Shutterstock didn't offer the capabilities we wanted as a business, and for most of the people in our division, we hadn't got the right marketing experience to use some of the more complex image retailers. Adobe Stock was linked with Reader and Reader Pro so it was a no-brainer …
Chose Adobe Stock
For on-demand buying, Adobe Stock wins in flexibility and per-image rates. Shutterstock offers the simpler buying method, though. Shutterstock has a larger collection of stock images, lower prices, and cheaper extended licenses if you buy them in bulk. Adobe Stock is better …
Chose Adobe Stock
I've always had an easier time finding quality photos I needed on Adobe Stock. Other services like Shutterstock work fine, it's a personal preference for the catalogue of resources that Adobe curated vs other services.
Chose Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock is heads and shoulders better than Shutterstock. I found myself frustrated that Shutter stock didn't have what I needed or was too confusing to navigate to the original image due to so many low-quality fakes and duplicates. I soon learned that Adobe stock didn't …
Chose Adobe Stock
The pricing is much better on Adobe Stock with the subscription and the rollovers. It's also a reasonable amount of photos in the subscription, not a ton like the others. Beyond that the pricing per photo if you exceed that is a great value as well. I feel that Adobe Stock is …
Chose Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock's collection of images and videos is way wider and better than any other image stock. Sometimes the images may not be aspiring or creative, but as you have way more options, it's easier to find what you are looking for. Plus we, being a creative department, use all …
Chose Adobe Stock
Generally, Adobe Stock is cheaper than its big competitors but still has many of the same or similar images, though not quite the breadth of photography/illustrations either. However, it has significantly more options than its cheaper (or free) alternatives as well. The …
Chose Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock is very user friendly. It’s the only one with full integration into other Adobe products. It’s also much more affordable than others like Getty. While it’s lacking some editorial content, there is a wide selection of images to choose from that stand out against the …
Chose Adobe Stock
In comparison to other options, Adobe Stock is far more user-friendly. Adobe Stock has helped me find quality photos. One-stop licensing's convenience and variety were important. Instead of buying photos per image, we usually find something similar at Adobe and license it under …
Chose Adobe Stock
both Adobe Stock and shutter stock fulfill the same function, I believe that both can satisfy their customers, however, the position that adobe has against shutter stock is immense, making there more confidence in adobe, in prices and what it offers each one according to the …
Chose Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock was given to us as initially an inexpensive add-on to our Creative Cloud subscription. Once the trial pricing expired, we found it so convenient, that we continued subscribing. The convenience of one-stop licensing and its wide variety was key. You do find some …
Chose Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock was selected by our organisation because it's integrated with Creative Cloud. Adobe Stock offers a more flexible on-demand option and a much longer free trial than other products. Adobe Stock is a good alternative as the subscription has a wide range of photos to …
Chose Adobe Stock
In Adobe Stock, you'll find an impressive quantity of illustration and designer artworks instead other images stock. Pricing is more clear.
Chose Adobe Stock
As I already mentioned Adobe Stock is the perfect place to search for great stock photos. The following is stacked up against them. More than 100 million images Straightforward Regular updates accessible directly within the Creative Cloud platform smart search.
Chose Adobe Stock
Adobe has more choices, easier to navigate and since we also use many other Adobe products, we are able to negotiate some pricing power. Otherwise, we are still open to other competitors when Adobe Stock doesn't provide what we are looking for.
Chose Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock is very unique and versatile compared to other vendors that we have evaluated because it provides access to the largest library of high-resolution, royalty-free stock assets. The premium stock images, video footage, templates, music, and audio files are incredible …
Chose Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock has more images available that are permissible to use. Google Images can sometimes be used, but there is always a concern about copyrights and licensing rights. Adobe Stock takes away those concerns and provides a guarantee to our company that we are using the …
Chose Adobe Stock
The sheer choice is fantastic, and the search function is exceptional. I also like how many illustrations there are, which is an added bonus (ie icon packs). It’s just genuinely been a pleasure using the product and has made finding images so much easier and faster.
Chose Adobe Stock
Though Adobe Stock can be good for corporate work sometimes they can look very staged Americanized so do not look relatable for a european market. Adobe stock has improved over the 10 years i have used them. I personally like using them most for vector based assets and …
Chose Adobe Stock
I like Adobe Stock because it's already part of the Adobe ecosystem and I have a login account. Single sign-on is nice. In terms of the volume of assets, it's hard to tell which one has more or better but I like the experience of Adobe Stock and it gives the team great asset …
Chose Adobe Stock
Some of my favorite pictures that I have gotten have been kid pictures on Adobe Stock compared to other sites. The photographers that sell their photos pick the most photogenic kids. Often times I can find ones that look like they were taken right in our office. Adobe Stock is …
Shutterstock
Chose Shutterstock
Shutterstock library and pricing is better than Adobe Stock also the preview is far better than Adobe Stock that's why i am still using shutterstock rather than Adobe Stock, their have a huge collections of images, videos than Adobe Stock. also the user interface of …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Adobe StockShutterstock
Small Businesses
Pexels
Pexels
Score 9.2 out of 10
Pexels
Pexels
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Pexels
Pexels
Score 9.2 out of 10
Pexels
Pexels
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Pexels
Pexels
Score 9.2 out of 10
Pexels
Pexels
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe StockShutterstock
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(66 ratings)
9.5
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe StockShutterstock
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
If you're looking for quality professional images for sales and marketing collateral, presentations, social media pages, and graphics, it's great. If you have a very specific industry or subject, sometimes it is too cumbersome to find what you need. They need a better variety of people in their images as well.
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Shutterstock
It is best suited for medium enterprises who get a lot of workload for their video productions and have many clients but lack of creative individuals. because it is a bit expensive than other competitors, but for some studios having good budget and looking for improving their work quality then shutterstock is the best platform with very good quality and quantity of graphics, photos and videos. for small studios who are just starting out i think it is bit costly you can even go for some subscription based platforms which offer unlimited downloads but their is a bit downside you will have to compromise with quality of work. so in short if you have a decent budget then shutterstock is best for your creative needs.
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Pros
Adobe
  • Presents a huge collection of distinctive graphics with all sorts of options to fit the user's particular need of the day.
  • Allows for easy grab-and-go, cut-and-paste of the sample proofs so that a graphic designer can work up an idea and present it to the team before purchasing it.
  • Operates a user-friendly platform so that team members who haven't used the program but is suddenly needed to jump in on a project can figure it out quickly.
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Shutterstock
  • Large library with a great variety of high quality images
  • "Similar images," "same model," and "same artist" suggestions to help you drill down your search for the right image
  • Handy editing tool that lets you save your custom image sizes
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Cons
Adobe
  • I really do wish Adobe Stock would offer editorial-based content. There are no historical photos, photos of world figures, or other event-based content. We have to go to Getty for that.
  • Their video offerings are OK, but there is room for improvement.
  • The current enter-level monthly plan does not provide for any video downloads at all.
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Shutterstock
  • i think the pricing is still higher than other platforms
  • locating right files is sometimes difficult here like the search results could be better
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Alternatives Considered
Adobe
In comparison to other options, Adobe Stock is far more user-friendly. Adobe Stock has helped me find quality photos. One-stop licensing's convenience and variety were important. Instead of buying photos per image, we usually find something similar at Adobe and license it under our subscription. I prefer Adobe's curated resources over other services. Adobe Stock's filters make finding the right image easy.
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Shutterstock
Very comparable to iStock. In my experience, there isn't a huge difference between the two, but I like the way Shutterstock' provides suggested images for drill-down searching - iStock's suggestions are more limited. Shutterstock's pricing may be better as well, although it's been a while since I've compared the two.
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Return on Investment
Adobe
  • I used stock photos for my blog posting on medium and website creation. I found adobe stock a very amazing site for high-quality images.
  • It has resolved the issue where I would spend countless hours looking for a photo on Google or other stock-image websites, no other stock photos website is perfect and stunning like Adobe Stock. Overall, it's a fantastic time-saver.
  • Overall, I found images impact more than words while blog posting on medium and other social media, so I can say that Adobe Stock helps me in growing my startup…
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Shutterstock
  • it improved our work quality
  • it helped us to handle multiple projects as catered our creative needs well
  • due to faster project creation our business scaled
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ScreenShots