Pexels vs. Shutterstock

Pexels

Shutterstock

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
Pexels	Score 8.0 out of 10	N/A	Pexels, headquartered in Berlin, offers stock photos and video under the Creative Commons Zero license, from a global network of creators.	N/A
Shutterstock	Score 8.6 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

Pexels

Shutterstock

Editions & Modules

No answers on this topic

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
Pexels	Shutterstock
Free Trial
No	No
Free/Freemium Version
No	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

Entry-level Setup Fee

No setup fee

Additional Details

—

More Pricing Information

Community Pulse
	Pexels	Shutterstock
Considered Both Products	Pexels Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels They are similar tools, both owned by Canva. Pexels seems easier to use, although there is some crossover in terms of the images that show up in search results. Either are great tools to use to find quality images and video content to use in your content. I would suggest … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Unsplash for Brands and Adobe Stock Incentivized Helpful? Luiz Alexandre Viana Magno Postdoctoral Research Scientist Chose Pexels Pexels is more simple. The alternative options give no good search/selection experience. For example, you are limited to searching just one characteristic or the results are not always accurate. For example, your search for A and get B. Finally, I also note that the user does … Incentivized Helpful? Ashley Schwartau Operations Specialist, Learning and Development Chose Pexels I would put Pexels library up against Unsplash. iStock and Shutterstock are both SUPER pricey, and I haven't used either of them in YEARS simply due to the fact that they remain to be cost-prohibitive. Pixabay is fine, but the quality seems far less curated or just like more … Incentivized Helpful? Amy Highland Brand and UX+UI Designer Chose Pexels Pexels has a great search function behind it and is very compatible with the other leading brands. One of the main benefits in comparison is that it is free to use and promotes creativity with its photographers. It has fewer 'stock looking' images as opposed to Adobe or … Incentivized Helpful? MC Mehak Chawla Senior Marketing Associate Chose Pexels Pexels provides a plethora of videos to choose from and you can get the right size. The platform is free and if you use great keywords you can easily find what you are looking for. Users can also contribute to the community and it has challenges which I think are great … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Pexels has video's! That's the main differentiator why I go to Pexels now. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels I know Pixabay and Unsplash and both are similar to Pexels. All of them have similar features in regards to searching, filtering, or collections. But if I am not wrong, only Pexels has the option to download an image in a customised size. Incentivized Helpful? David Mynář Head Of Online Marketing Chose Pexels Pexels have by far the biggest database for our needs, 9 out of 10 pictures we find is from Pexels. Incentivized Helpful? JB Josh Bender Managing Editor Chose Pexels Pexels has a few unique features that stand out, the most important being a 1-click download from the search results. No need to navigate to another page to find a "download" button. This reduces the time required to find and download an appropriate image. The search results … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Pexels is very affordable, and has a decent range of free-to-use options. Images have a wide arrange of people and places represented. Incentivized Helpful? Shelby Bass Creative Chose Pexels While I've had to use Getty for more specific image needs, I usually start my image search with Pexels as it's a much more cost-effective option. However, Getty has a much more robust search tool, which I sometimes need in order to track down an image with a specific … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Whether paid or free stock photography, we go to where the solutions are. Pexels is on our top 5 go-to list. When we can't find what we are looking for on paid stock sites, we look at Pexels. Each platform has its pros and cons. I like that Pexels has a good lifestyle variety, … Incentivized Helpful? Winona Harrod Graphic Designer Chose Pexels Overall, Pexels is a really helpful and easy site to use to get royalty-free imagery. It has been highly beneficial to me in all my design projects obtaining dynamic and natural images that some large-paying stock sites can not provide. Sometimes you can find more variety at … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels In my opinion, they are all very similar. Sometimes when I am searching for something more specific, one or other might well be suited. But, in general, I tend to open at least 3 or 4 different image banks at the same time and use the same search terms on all of them. Since … Incentivized Helpful? Jewell Shaw UI Designer Chose Pexels Pexels is much better than raw pixel because the free options on raw pixel's website are usually images that you would not want to use for your professional marketing needs. They make sure to charge for useful photos. Incentivized Helpful? OS Olaf Schaum Founder Chose Pexels Pexels offers an extensive catalogue of royalty-free, high-quality images and high-resolution videos that can be downloaded without the need for monthly subscriptions or license fees. Most of the time, our stock requirements are easily met. For occasions when we do need more … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Pexels has more original, creative imagery from new and emerging photographers from all over the world. Pexels constantly adds new content so there's more variety and less likely we'll use the same stock image as others - we get to stand out as original. Supports photographers … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Pexels is by far the easiest program to use and doesn't require a login which means it's even faster for my team to be able to find the right image and get it into our content in a quick turnaround. Easy to teach, easy to use, my work would be near impossible without it. Incentivized Helpful? PC Patricia Calleja Creative Copywriter Chose Pexels Pexel images are more inspiring, aspiring, creative, and artistic than the usual stock images. We work with Pexels because it is free and we really admire the fact that some photographers or creatives around the world are happy to share their work in such a kind and generous … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Pexels is one of my favorite stock image tools. The quality is top-notch and the search capabilities/filters really help you find what you want. Incentivized Helpful? Abdellah Ouardirhi étudiant Chose Pexels Adobe Stock Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Pexels so far has the best user-submitted selections for free photography. They are royalty-free and include a wide variety for all business needs. From personal blogs or your own business to any company type, you can find what you need here without having to buy a stock … Incentivized Helpful? Allen Eshmoili President/CEO Chose Pexels I just found Pexels more simple to use and easy to navigate. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Really similar offerings, and we actually use both Unsplash and Pexels. Pexels has a nicer user interface to search through photos, but Unsplash isn't bad, either. Incentivized Helpful?	Shutterstock TN Tyler Newman Marketing Director Chose Shutterstock Shutterstock is less expensive than others but also has a larger image catalog. I have been able to find things in my niche for my websites and designs. Shutterstock is a well-known brand for stock photos and footage, so there is also the safety that comes with its recognition, … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous 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 … Incentivized Helpful? Bill Kerschbaum Owner Chose 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 … Incentivized Helpful?

Best Alternatives
	Pexels	Shutterstock
Small Businesses	Adobe Express Score 8.7 out of 10	Adobe Express Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	Adobe Express Score 8.7 out of 10	Adobe Express Score 8.7 out of 10
Enterprises	Adobe Express Score 8.7 out of 10	Adobe Express Score 8.7 out of 10
All Alternatives	View all alternatives	View all alternatives

User Ratings
	Pexels	Shutterstock
Likelihood to Recommend	8.0 (0 ratings)	9.8 (0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	8.0 (0 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Usability	8.5 (0 ratings)	- (0 ratings)

User Testimonials
	Pexels	Shutterstock
Likelihood to Recommend	The success of social media campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter depends significantly on the quality of the content used. Pexels maintains the highest quality standards for all content hosted on the platform... with High Definition, excellent composition materials only. Another great thing is that they provide you with an assortment of filtered content suggestions related to the selections. This helps save time. Incentivized Fred Xorla Adzoyi Director, Research & Innovation Read full review	Shutterstock is a great place to start when you hit a roadblock. Shutterstock has good photos and videos that are easily findable with a basic query. If you are a graphic designer, website developer, or someone in media, having a Shutterstock subscription is incredibly helpful. Just make sure you use all your photos each month or you lose them Incentivized TN Tyler Newman Marketing Director Read full review
Pros	High-resolution images – Pexels is full of images that are high enough in resolution to look beautiful on their own, but also high quality enough to be combined with other images without distracting pixelization Stock videos – other free stock sites are often limited to just images, but Pexels has a wide range of videos available as well, which we use to plus up decks Good search functions – while not as robust as some paid sites, Pexels' search functions make it pretty easy to track down what you need Licensing – it's very straightforward to know what you can and can't do with a Pexels photo, which protects my company and our clients Incentivized Shelby Bass Creative Read full review	Quality of videos and animations Pay per clip and subscription plans which is amazing Easy to use platform most trusted company in this industry their new Ai content creation features their easy to use editor tools Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Cons	I do think that the library should grow. For example, I was looking for an image of a living room with a fireplace and there were only a few options I get tricked sometimes because I see images I want to use but they are from some other company and they are paid Improve search understanding for multi-word searches Incentivized CB Cooper Buss CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Read full review	Video assets included in base subscription AI Ability to make content that they do not have Content management Incentivized TN Tyler Newman Marketing Director Read full review
Usability	Pexels is extremely easy to use. Because it integrates with Canva, it makes our workflow smoother. This also saves us a significant amount of time running our business. The interface is also clean and easy to understand and follow, leading to an increase in productivity and much greater efficiency. Overall, this saves us time and money Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Shutterstock is easy to use. The UI is intuitive. Queries produce applicable assets. My only major gripe with the program is that there are sometimes "preimum assets" that are in queries that I wish there was a way to filter those out as they do not come with my subscription Incentivized TN Tyler Newman Marketing Director Read full review
Alternatives Considered	Pexels has a few unique features that stand out, the most important being a 1-click download from the search results. No need to navigate to another page to find a "download" button. This reduces the time required to find and download an appropriate image. The search results load fast, with lazy loading, so there's no annoying pagination at the bottom. I often travel as I work, and at times my internet connection can be slow or unstable. This kind of feature may seem minor to some users, but when on a slower connection, it makes a big difference. If a search term is too broad, it can recommend related keywords to search for - this helps to find the right image faster. JB Josh Bender Managing Editor Read full review	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 shutterstock is easy than Adobe Stock Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Return on Investment	Positive: the writing material when well illustrated gain more engagement. Positive: images can inspire better descriptions of scenarios and landscapes and therefore can make long texts more attractive. Positive: we saved a lot of time when writing. Negative: some images do not have enough quality for printing purposes. Incentivized Luiz Alexandre Viana Magno Postdoctoral Research Scientist Read full review	Allows me to provide more comprehensive marketing services to my clients Saves time hunting for images One-stop shop for all my image needs Incentivized Bill Kerschbaum Owner Read full review
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