Why is the Shutterstock free trial option not there anymore? There is a simple answer for that. From now on, the things will slightly change for new Shutterstock users. How so, and what are the best stock photo site alternatives? Read on to learn more!
If you’d like to learn how to sell stock photos online, check this out: Is Stock Photography Still Worth It This Year? – An Honest Take
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The Shutterstock Free Trial Is No More
The Shutterstock free trial is no longer available as of March 2024. While they used to offer all new customers 10 images for free in the first month completely for free, this is no longer the case.
For now, there is no option to try out the Shutterstock services without buying the cheapest monthly subscription and cancelling it before the second monthly payment is initiated, or getting the smallest one-time purchase image pack.
What are the reasons for this move? Well, as there are no official messages from the Shutterstock side, I can only speculate. But, as a long-year Shutterstock partner as a photo contributor I can come up with a few reasons why they might have decided to get rid of the free trial option altogether.
My first guess would be a thing that was quite widespread back in the day, and that is the fact that many bad actors continuously abused the free trial mechanics to get unlimited images for free, many times over for further reselling. This was relatively hard to prevent, and the end of the free-trial era has luckily also brought an end to that practice.
Another guess of mine is many reported customers forgetting to cancel the trial before the end date because of the way the system worked, resulting in unwanted payments which were not covered by refunds. Many incidents of this type simply weren’t beneficial for the platform.
Lastly, with the ever raising popularity of the Shutterstock platform the free trial option has most probably become unprofitable for the business in the long run. That’s most likely why from now on going forward, Shutterstock offers only paid subscriptions and photo packs.
What Can You Do Now?
Well, the only option remaining for all of you potentially interested in the Shutterstock library resources is getting one of the image packs or monthly subscription packages available on their site.
- One of the largest stock photo collections there is.
- Great search filters and search algorithm.
- Actually reliable image search functionality.
- Not the most affordable option out there.
- Doesn’t offer a free trial anymore.
Then again, if you’re looking for a stock photo platform offering an actual cost-free test period, this might not satisfy you. For that reason, I’m about to show you 3 of the best (in my honest opinion) alternatives to the now deprecated Shutterstock free trial.
These are the stock photo agencies that I trust enough to sell my own portfolio of over 2 thousand stock photo images on each one of them. Not only that, but I have also used them to source photos and images for my projects, like this portal you’re reading right now!
So, What Are Your Alternatives To Shutterstock Free Trial?
Speaking from experience, you have to know that most stock photographers upload their photos on more than one stock website to maximize their earnings. And so do I. This is a widespread practice, so many times over you can find the very same pictures someone is selling on Shutterstock or iStock, up on other stock photo agencies, uploaded by the very same person. That’s why choosing a different site to source your images doesn’t always mean giving up on a large amount of high quality material.
Here are my personal picks for the stock photo agencies that not only have affordable plans available, but also offer extensive catalogs of images comparable in their quality to the renowned Shutterstock collection.
1. DepositPhotos
- Free 7-day trial with 10 free images.
- Responsive website and great search tools.
- More affordable than Shuttterstock.
- If you don’t cancel your free trial before the 7-day mark, you will be charged for the annual plan.
- Their collection is a bit smaller than the one Shutterstock has.
DepositPhotos gives you a 7-days free trial option after signing up, with additional free image editing tools accessible on the site in the trial period. If you cancel before the 7-day mark, you won’t be charged at all, however if you miss the mark, your annual subscription will begin automatically. The rules are very transparent, and present on the sign up form.
If you choose to stay with DepositPhotos after the free trial, your free downloads will carry over to the next month. You can sign up for the trial in a few clicks right here.
Compared to Shutterstock, DepositPhotos offers better prices on many of their library assets, has an equally good photo search engine and search filters, and quite honestly is an option that isn’t often mentioned when people talk about bigger Shutterstock competitors. All this makes DP my very first pick!
2. Dreamstime
- Lots of high quality images.
- Competitive prices.
- A great free trial deal.
- Sales are very common, and seasonal sales are always there.
- The site UI is a bit dated.
- Watermarks present in images downloaded using the free trial.
Dreamstime is another site which offers a 7 day free trial, albeit on a different set of rules. When you begin the free trial, you’re able to download 15 images which will have a small Dreamstime watermark present on them. Then, you’re allowed to freely use their full resolution versions for composition testing in all your designs and projects.
Their search engine is pretty good, they show you the number of downloads each image already has if you want to search for unique material, and overall their image collection very much overlaps with the Shutterstock catalog having over 235 Million stock photos to choose from.
It’s definitely worth considering if you want the Shutterstock quality images for a lower price. And one more thing. Both their subscription plans and their image packs go on sale very often. You can check if they are running any sale right now here!
3. Pond5
- Nice 20% discount available.
- Many low-priced images in the main collection.
- If you find a better asset price on another stock site, Pond5 will match it.
- Free clips every week and large public-domain collection.
- Not primarily a stock photo site.
- No free-trial per se, just 24h refund policy.
Pond5 gets the third place here, and it might also surprise you quite a bit. After all, this website is mostly known from their stock video and music marketplace. But rest assured that they also have over 80 million photos in their collection ready to be discovered!
Because this agency still lets contributors set their photo prices, and the market is really competitive with all the subscription packs floating around, you can oftentimes get excellent prices on single images sold on the platform.
While Pond5 doesn’t have a standard free trial available, they still have an ongoing 24h refund policy. In comparison to Shutterstock, it’s much more affordable, and much more versatile, at least in my eyes. Moreover, they have a huge collection of thousands of free public-domain clips available for free download, and they release one free clip every week once you sign up with them – you can do so right here without paying a penny.
Check out also: Can You Purchase A Single Image On Shutterstock? – A Quick Answer
