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Most "free stock photo sites" roundups treat the category as one rule: download anything, use it anywhere, credit nobody. That's true for the three names everyone already knows — Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay. It is not true for all eight sites that actually belong on this kind of list.

So on 21 October 2026 we opened each site's own license or terms page and read the free tier off it directly, rather than off a blog that compared them last year. One site in this list requires you to credit it by name on anything you publish, for free users, no exceptions — and because most comparisons only check the big three, that requirement rarely makes it into the write-up at all.

Pick by what you need

• Default choice, no catch — Unsplash or Pexels. Biggest libraries, no attribution, nothing unusual in the terms.
• E-commerce and product-shoot style photos — Burst by Shopify.
• Smallest, cleanest license to read in full — StockSnap.io. It's plain CC0.
• Downloading more than a handful at once — not Life of Pix; it caps bulk downloads without asking first.
• Willing to add a credit line in exchange for a specific look — Freepik, if nothing else on this list has the asset you need.
• Reselling or redistributing the photos themselves — none of these eight license allows it; that's a different, paid licensing conversation with the site directly.

At a glance

The List

1. Unsplash (free · no attribution) — Unsplash's own license page says images are free to use, including commercially, without crediting the photographer or Unsplash — credit is "appreciated," not required. The real limits: you can't sell a photo "without significant modification," and you can't compile Unsplash images to build something that replicates Unsplash itself.
2. Pexels (free · no attribution) — Pexels' Terms of Service grant an irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free right to use downloaded content commercially or non-commercially, with no credit required. Its "Prohibited Uses" section specifically blocks one thing most people wouldn't think to check: if the photo shows a trademark, logo, or brand, you can't use it commercially in connection with goods or services — printing it on merchandise for sale is the example it names.
3. Pixabay (free · no attribution) — Commercial use is allowed with no credit required, under what Pixabay calls the Pixabay License. The detail other roundups skip: Pixabay's terms split the library in two by upload date. Anything published before 9 January 2019 is CC0; everything since falls under the separate Pixabay License, which — unlike CC0 — still forbids selling the content as-is (as a standalone digital download, print, or stock-site listing).
4. Burst by Shopify (free · no attribution) — Shopify's own photo library, skewed toward product shots and retail/e-commerce scenes. Its license page says you don't need to credit the photographer, Shopify, or Burst — but it also states you can't sell the photos "as digital photo files or in any other form," even after modification, and you can't use them to replicate a similar service.
5. StockSnap.io (free · no attribution) — StockSnap's own site states its photos are released under CC0 for personal and commercial use, no attribution required — the plainest license of the eight, with none of the extra clauses the others carry. The trade-off is a noticeably smaller catalog than Unsplash, Pexels, or Pixabay.
6. Life of Pix (free · no attribution) — Life of Pix's license page grants a free, irrevocable, worldwide license for commercial and non-commercial use with attribution "recommended" but not required. Its one unusual term: downloading more than 10 images at once needs the site's written consent first — a cap none of the other seven sites impose. It also bars using a photo to imply a person or brand endorses something.
7. Picjumbo (free · no attribution) — Picjumbo's FAQ says you don't have to credit the author, even for commercial projects. What it does restrict is redistribution: you can't resell the photos or republish them in your own library or template pack. Picjumbo sells a separate redistribution license for that use at $149/month — worth knowing if your plan was to bundle these photos into something you sell.
8. Freepik (free · attribution required) — The exception on this list. Freepik's own Help Center states plainly that its free license requires attribution, always, for free and Essential-tier users — worded as including the line "Designed by Freepik," visible on the finished work, with a link to freepik.com. Only Premium, Premium+, or Pro subscribers are exempt. One inconsistency we found and couldn't resolve: Freepik's own pricing page separately lists its Essential plan as "commercial license, no attribution required" — directly contradicting its Help Center's licensing guide. We're reporting both rather than picking one, since Freepik's two official pages disagree with each other; check the license text bundled with your specific download before publishing.

Keep the licenses straight on your own board

Save all eight to a board and you've got the license terms sitting right next to each site — useful the next time you're not sure which one you downloaded a photo from.

FAQ

What is the ranking based on?

Whether the free tier requires attribution, first; then how large or restrictive the license is beyond that. Library size and image quality are not scored here — this is a license comparison, not a photo-quality comparison.

Is Freepik the only one that requires attribution?

Among these eight, yes, on everything we could verify from primary sources. That doesn't mean every free-tier stock site anywhere requires no credit — it means these eight specifically don't, except Freepik.

Why does Freepik's own site disagree with itself?

We don't know, and we're not guessing. Freepik's Help Center licensing-attribution article lists the Essential tier as requiring attribution; Freepik's own pricing page lists the Essential plan as not requiring it. Both are Freepik's own pages. Until Freepik fixes the discrepancy, read the license file that comes bundled with the specific asset you download — it's the one document that's supposed to be authoritative for that file.

Does "no attribution required" mean no restrictions at all?

No. Every site on this list except pure CC0 content still bars things like reselling the photo unmodified, compiling images into a competing stock-photo service, or implying a person or brand endorses something. "No attribution" only answers the credit question, not the whole license.

How current is this?

Read from each site's own license or terms page on 21 October 2026. License pages change without much notice — Pixabay's did in 2019 — so check the live page before a commercial project, not this write-up alone.

What is the board?

This list exists as a real, public SaveBoard board, so reading it and keeping it are the same action. Open it as-is, or copy it into your own account.