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Pixabay

Score9 out of 10

59 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Pixabay?

Pixabay headquartered in Germany offers a digital content platform, which they present as a community for sharing copyright-free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about Pixabay.
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Spend more time building your business versus searching for the perfect form of media

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

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We often need artwork, ideas or photography to accompany articles or videos. Pixabay helps us with coming up with these ideas. It also exposes us to additional creatives for future products.

Pros

  • Quality images
  • Relevant search results
  • Easy to use interface

Cons

  • A better understanding of licenseing
  • Digital rights - blog, social media, video content, etc
  • Leverage AI to help recommend better options based on search criteria, past searches, etc.

Return on Investment

  • Improved audio visual quality across our content
  • Higher level of professional looking website and content
  • Increased traffic and sign-ups with customers across our services.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

iStock and from Getty Images

Other Software Used

Canva

A great resource for free or paid media

Incentivized
Verified User
Professional (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I've been using Pixabay for web design and advertising projects for years. They've got tons of free images and videos which you can use commercially without worrying about attribution or licensing. That's huge when you're working on a low budget. The quality is solid and there is a good variety of styles and subjects.

Pros

  • Quality Images
  • Free Videos
  • Simple Licensing

Cons

  • I can't really think of anything! It's a good site.

Return on Investment

  • Free content has saved the organization money
  • Quality audio and images raise the level of the output
  • Variety of music options has made my videos more engaging

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Unsplash for Brands, Pexels and Adobe Stock

Other Software Used

Propellerhead Reason, Adobe PhotoShop, PCRecruiter

Perfect stock photo source for small businesses and nonprofits

Incentivized
Hayden LeMaster
Owner/Operator in Professional Services at LeMaster Graphics (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a designer and marketer that serves several small businesses and nonprofits, I often have a limited budget when it comes to stock assets. Pixabay has been absolutely AMAZING for this.

Honestly, I would say that I find exactly what I need 95% of the time searching for free images on Pixabay. And their images have full commercial licenses, which eliminates all the extra work of determining how many times the image will be reproduced and how that affects the licensing tier.

Pros

  • Cost - as images are free and in the public domain
  • Premium recommendations for commercial stock photos
  • VERY easy license terms

Cons

  • Would like to see more premium options when there are few free results
  • Search function could be improved; I often have to try multiple keywords to find the perfect image
  • Would like more visible tags to see the geographic location images, as I often use these for locally-focused flyers for events around the country.

Most Important Features

  • Price! All the images on the site itself are free and public domain. Many of my clients really appreciate not having to pay the usual license fee for stock images.
  • Ease of use. When I'm billing hourly to budget-sensitive clients, it's nice not to spend 20 minutes digging for a good free image.
  • The recommendations for premium images are always perfect; there have been multiple times when I've clicked through to buy an image that fits my client's needs better than any of the free ones.

Return on Investment

  • It brings down costs significantly, especially for nonprofits that have to watch every dime. The quality images provided for free are amazing.
  • Curation of premium images. If Pixabay doesn't have the right image, they automatically recommend premium images that are ALWAYS a great match. Saving me the time of re-starting my search from scratch on iStock, Getty, et cetera.
  • Image quality is great, too, giving me a better reputation among clients for the quality of my work created with these image assets.

Alternatives Considered

Unsplash for Brands, Pexels, iStock, from Getty Images, Adobe Stock and Shutterstock

Other Software Used

Audacity, Adobe Premiere Pro, Pirate Ship

Great one-stop shop for creating content on a budget—photos, videos, music, and sound effects are all at Pixabay

Shelby BassView profile
Creative in Marketing at Gus.biz (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a creative in the advertising and marketing world, I often need to create composites and mockups for client presentations, helping them imagine what a final ad, product, or website will look like. Pixabay is an excellent resource for free, high-quality imagery for use in these mockups. Additionally, I often create social media posts and other ads for clients with limited budgets who cannot afford to pay top dollar for videos, images, and sound effects; Pixabay is an incredible resource for those clients.

Pros

  • Separate photos, illustrations, and vectors—Many competitors have these images all lumped together with a limited ability to sort through them, while Pixabay has a robust library of all of these, making it easy to find what you're looking for.
  • Free, high-quality images and easy-to-understand licensing rules—Often a new client will have bad image usage habits, freely snagging any image off of google. Pixabay is an excellent resource to give clients a huge range of photos without the fear of getting into copyright trouble.
  • Sound effects—Free, good-quality sound effects are surprisingly difficult to find amongst competitors, but Pixabay has them in their lineup as well.

Cons

  • People search—I'd love to be able to search images based on whether the photo contains people or not.
  • Sometimes filtering images by "editor's choice" results in no images being shown.
  • The comments on images are not particularly helpful, usually full of people commenting "thank you" — maybe have users submit suggested image tags instead?
  • Compared to some competitors, Pixabay's images can feel less contemporary.

Most Important Features

  • Free, high-quality images
  • Ability to sort by transparent
  • Library of free music and sound effects

Return on Investment

  • Saves us hundreds on stock photography vs using competitors.
  • Can sometimes make the stock search longer if Pixabay doesn't have what you're looking for, which takes up valuable time.
  • Useful for making high-impact, impressive presentations to clients.

Alternatives Considered

Getty Images Enterprise Solutions

Other Software Used

Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator CC, Pexels

Get photos, videos and music that will make you stand out from your competitors!

Incentivized
Tara BrueskeView profile
Vocal Workshops and Voice Development in Social Media at Tara Brueske Music (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I need to find photos and videos for social media that are not copyrighted. This includes weekly postings on social media, as well as photos that may be used in a course or for ads. It addresses finding some photos and videos that everyone else isn't always using. Sometimes people use Canva so often that you see their photos everywhere and it doesn't let your brand show. I also needed to find music for some podcast advertising and there is a plethora of styles available.

Pros

  • They have such a great variety of different types of media to use.
  • I love that they have more than just photos and video to use.
  • The quality of their images and music is very professional.

Cons

  • One thing that kind of sticks out is that with so much to choose from, you can feel overwhelmed.
  • Some of the photos I sometimes can find separately by googling. In the music business, it seems like many photos rotate on the web so there isn't as much to pick from.
  • I didn't see an option for more vertical videos for use in Instagram or TikTok.

Most Important Features

  • The many photos that are copyright free
  • The video that is copyright free
  • The music that is royalty free.

Return on Investment

  • It has helped to make me look more professional.
  • It has given me new options for social media and putting together things for emails or ads.
  • Since it's free, I haven't had to spend money to get professional looking items.

Alternatives Considered

Canva

Other Software Used

Canva, Zoom, GarageBand