Developer's library: license-free images

The right images are so important on the web. They make a huuuuuuge difference in any project. But have you ever searched the internet for an hour (sometimes more), looking for a good-looking, license-free image, illustration or an icon to go with your new design or project? Yeah…me too. Probably most of the developers were, at some point. Over the time, I discovered quite a few great websites that offer just that, so I’m gonna make your life easier. I’m gonna share my resources with you. Let’s start with images…

Here is my list of sources for license-free images:

https://unsplash.com/

One of the most popular, and for a good reason. Unsplash offers a huge amount of images in great quality. Most of the images on my blog are from there! As you can read in their license page, “you can use them [images] for commercial and noncommercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.”
https://pixabay.com/

With over 1.7 million+ high-quality stock images and videos that you can use royalty-free, I’m sure you will find what you need. As with the Unsplash, attribution is not required, but of course, highly appreciated.
https://www.pexels.com/

Another great source for images. What’s interesting, images from Pexels can be modified to your liking.
https://styledstock.co/

Different and smaller than previous websites, Styled Stock, feminine stock photography, offers good resolution images for free. They also stock “bundles” of photos you can buy.
https://negativespace.co/

Negative Space works under CC0 license, which means you can download, edit, use for personal or commercial purposes without purchase, permission, or mentioning the author. They seem to have a good library of images in different categories, but some ads on the website made me question whether the service is really free to use. (it is though. Unless you click the Shutterstock ad 😅)
https://barnimages.com/

A good chunk of high-res images free to use for private and commercial purposes. This service is not working under the CC0 license, so image copyrights are still belonging to the author.
https://kaboompics.com/

Great platform, lovely images, and they even created a COVID-19 category (made me laugh but actually, a really cool idea)
big + for images with polish money on the main page (😂 just kidding… sorta)
https://stocksnap.io/

Stock snap is working under CC0 license, which gives you a lot of freedom with your downloaded image. They have a big library, but again, Shutterstock ads are mixing in, and it’s really easy to pick a Shutterstock image (which will transfer you to their website. no big deal, unless you just found THAT photo you need and it turns out to be a paid one 👎)
https://www.lifeofpix.com/

Although they offer a lot of nice images, the website is really slow (probably from all those “cool” animations and transitions. Yeah they look awesome but there is just too many of them, especially on the About page!) and the UX not so great.
https://picography.co/

Smaller library, but if you can’t find what you are looking for on the big portal (like Unsplash, I recommend looking at Picography. I love their logo too!
https://burst.shopify.com/

License-free images from Shopify. They have a lot of categories and great images I haven’t seen anywhere else. Definitely worth a visit.