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Pexels

Score8.1 out of 10

65 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Pexels?

Pexels, headquartered in Berlin, offers stock photos and video under the Creative Commons Zero license, from a global network of creators.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about Pexels.
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An easy-to-use image repository that integrates perfectly with Canva for fast content creation

Incentivized
Verified User
Professional in Marketing (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Pexels to help create strong visuals for our blog posts, video thumbnails and marketing materials within our company. The problem it helps solve is that we have access to a high-quality array of stock images to use in our business. This way we don’t have to try and reinvent the wheel. Pexels offers a variety to choose from.

Pros

  • Large stock image library
  • Easy to find artwork
  • High-quality imagery

Cons

  • Sometimes it can be hard to find exactly what you are looking for.
  • Continue to improve recommendations based on searches a user makes
  • Tagging could be more in-depth

Return on Investment

  • Less time searching for images
  • Easy to understand licensing
  • Hi-resolution images and video for your content.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Pixabay

Other Software Used

Canva

Clean concise and convenient Pexels

Incentivized
Verified User
Employee in Marketing (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pexels is great for Royalty Free images and photos. The wide variety of assets they have on their site is amazing. Pexels is helpful in every step when designing. More often than not, I use Pexels when I am creating storyboards and mock ups. Using Pexels helps during the design process and planning.

Pros

  • Variety of assets
  • Editable
  • Easy to use

Cons

  • Sounds effects
  • Higher quality videos

Return on Investment

  • Time management
  • Clearer project goals

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Unsplash for Brands and Adobe Stock

Bring on the Pexels!!!

Incentivized
Ashley SchwartauView profile
Operations Specialist, Learning and Development in Human Resources at OpenReel (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pexels has always been one of my go-to sources for stock assets. Stock assets can be SO cheesy and expensive, but Pexels is neither. The models are diverse and modern, and the photography styles are more realistic and photojournalistic and not that awful studio-bright-light-fake look that so many stock companies have used for years. Plus, the search functionality continues to improve all the time.

Pros

  • Realistic, non-cheesy photos and videos.
  • Easy to filter results based on orientation.
  • Search by hex code and color! GAME CHANGER!
  • Simple explanation of license terms.
  • FREE!

Cons

  • To be honest, I can't think of anything.
  • The search functionality and explore options are robust!

Most Important Features

  • The quality of the assets.
  • The search and filtering makes finding what I need FAST.

Return on Investment

  • It's kept down the cost of our internal training.
  • It allows us to supplement our external training content with some non-cheesy stock.
  • It means we don't have to go through procurement; we just get some stock assets for our content creators.

Alternatives Considered

Unsplash for Brands, iStock, from Getty Images, Shutterstock and Pixabay

Other Software Used

Adobe Premiere Pro, OpenReel, DaVinci Resolve

One of the most reliable free stock photo libraries

Josh Bender
Managing Editor in Marketing at Travel With Bender (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Clients supply content for publication on my website. While from time to time, the client supplies images, I usually have to source photography to match the content. This is where Pexels comes in, as one of the leading free stock photo libraries on the Internet. Pexels allows me to search the library quickly and easily to find the most suitable photos, and download them. Each photo contains additional metadata (such as keywords, camera make & model) which helps to better identify the context of the image. Once downloaded, Pexels' images can be safely published on my website.

Pros

  • One-click downloading from search results
  • High resolution photo quality
  • Peace of mind with image licensing

Cons

  • Allow multiple image downloads at the same time (multiple selections).
  • Provide downloads in several preset dimensions.
  • Additional filtering tools to narrow down the search for the right image.

Most Important Features

  • Easy to use interface
  • High resolution photo quality
  • No-fuss image licensing

Return on Investment

  • Significantly reduced time to source new images for publication.
  • Reduced article publication turnaround time.
  • Reduced risk of image copyright issues.

Alternatives Considered

Pixabay and Unsplash for Brands

Other Software Used

Pixabay, Unsplash for Brands

Great media database

Incentivized
Luiz Alexandre Viana MagnoView profile
Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Research & Development at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

With Pexels I found a simple and pure way to obtain images, videos, and backgrounds that I need to keep my articles well illustrated. It offers a better experience than many other similar platforms. I usually use it while I am writing articles and when I am about to finish the text I go to the site to obtain the images that are related to the main text.

Pros

  • Media download
  • Large database
  • Search accuracy

Cons

  • Improved detailed search
  • Search for tiny objects or landscapes
  • Including new AI capabilities

Most Important Features

  • Quick way to match results
  • Image databank
  • Image reference

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.

Alternatives Considered

Shutterstock, Unsplash for Brands and Adobe Stock

Other Software Used

Adobe Illustrator CC, CorelCAD, iStock, from Getty Images