15 Best Sites to Sell Stock Photos Online for Money

Do you have a passion for photography? Here is a list of the top Sites to Sell Stock Photos online to earn a handful of money with what you capture with your lens.

With the increased use of smartphones, everyone has a camera in his/her hand; and many people have developed good photography skills. People are now engaged in creating photos, videos, etc., more than ever. And the idea of selling those photos, videos, etc. for money sounds to be quite appealing.

Now the question is, how to sell stock photos online?

There are different ways of selling photos online. You can either create your own website or choose a website that allows you to sell photos through them and earn money.

How to Sell Stock Photos Online: Top-Rated Sites

There are many platforms like Hostinger, Wix, etc., that let you create your website and get a custom domain for starting your online business. You can use these services to build an attractive platform for your stock photos and then do the marketing to grab the attention of the clients.

This process can be a bit troubling, as you have to learn to sell tactics to achieve success.

So you can just choose from a variety of places to sell photos online, that let you upload your content and then they take the responsibility of showcasing your products to customers across countries so that potential buyers can get them and you simply earn money which is a percentage of the selling price.

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Who is this article for?

This article is for photographers who are beginners or established professionals and are looking for a platform to sell their digital products like photos, videos, illustrations, etc.

You will find detailed descriptions and reviews about the best places to sell photos online in this article. The article includes a comparison table that offers a quick overview of the top 5 platforms.

Watch this video to get some tips for selling photos online for beginners:

Tips to turn your photos into profit

• Choose from the best websites for selling photos online. They usually partner with businesses and distributors so that the images on their platform can reach as many visitors as possible.
• They also offer analytics that tell you what is sold more. You can also look for keyword searches to learn about what is more in demand. You can make use of Google Trends to assess popular search terms.
• Studies reveal that candid photos, customizable photos, and photos shot at dusk or dawn are sold more.
• You can do a little research about the number of results available for the topic you are working on. If you are uploading an image of a pigeon and there are billions of images of pigeons already available for sale, then the chances of your image being picked up go down. So, you should first plan the topics on which you should work to gain more profits.
• Think like buyers and choose a keyword that can bring more customers to your product
• Use photo editors to make your images look more attractive.
• You can build an audience through social media by using popular keywords and attractive photos. Then you can sell photos through a website of your own; you can sell photo calendars, prints, etc.

List of the Best Websites to Sell Stock Photos Online

Choose from these remarkable lists of platforms for selling photos online:

1. Alamy
2. Envato
3. 500px
4. Shutterstock
5. iStockPhoto
6. ShootProof
7. Adobe Stock
8. SmugMug
9. 123RF
10. Instaproofs
11. Dreamstime
12. Pixieset
13. Getty Images
14. Stocksy
15. Etsy

Comparing the Top Sites for Selling Stock Photos

Detailed Reviews:

#1) Alamy

Best for offering a good price for your contributions.

Alamy is a website for buying or selling photos online for money. Professional photographers, beginners, or anyone else who is above 18 years of age, can contribute photos to Alamy and earn money.

The platform currently has over 350 million stock photos, ventors, and videos available for buying. More than 150,000 content creators from all across the globe constantly send their pictures to Alamy.

You can get started with Alamy just by following these steps:

• Create a contributor account
• Then upload your content
• Add keywords to it
• Once you have done this, your stock will be available for sale within 24 hours.

Watch this video to learn about some selling secrets with Alamy, based on the user Andrew Balcombe’s experiences:

Features:

• They don’t edit your content. They just do technical quality control checks.
• They have sales teams in big markets like the US, UK, Germany, and Australia.
• They allow you to send anything that you think can be wanted by someone.
• You can access their analytics to know what is being sold more.

Pros:

• Easy to use a mobile app called Stockimo.
• They give a better deal than other agencies.
• No long-term contracts.

Why we like Alamy: They give their contributors 50% of the money from sales, which is more than the industry average, which is only 30%. They pay their contributors in multiple currencies. Students can get the whole selling amount, which is a unique thing about this platform. The platform is simple, anyone can sell or buy photos easily. Plus, they have a sales team that works for you at no cost!

Your Earnings: They give you up to 50% of the money earned on your exclusive images. Students can get 100% money from the sales.

#2) Envato

Best for providing a globally acknowledged marketplace for your digital assets.

If you are wondering how to sell stock photos online, Envato is the answer for you. The platform has sold 73 million items to date and has helped raise more than $1 billion in total community earnings.

You can get started with Envato as an author by following these simple steps:

• Create your account.
• You will get an email containing links for setting up your profile, joining the forums, completing your tax information form, and a guide on uploading your first item.
• Follow the steps to get started.

They let you sell stock photos, graphic templates, web templates, stock videos, royalty-free music, and more. Envato is a platform that allows you to place your product in front of over 2 million customers from all over the world.

If you are a creator, go through this link to find a video about the AI tips and tricks that can help in creating attractive pieces of work.

Here is a video for your reference:

Features:

• They allow you to sell stock photos, videos, music, graphic templates, and more digital items.
• They allow you to set prices for your products.
• Offers analytics so that you can learn about sales and the best times to market.
• You can join in the discussions with fellow authors, to get feedback and other help.

Pros:

• A help team to assist you in making the most out of Envato.
• You get a big market for your products.
• They run programs like “If you send clients to the Envato market, you will earn for every sale.”

Cons:

• Some users have complaints about the quality of customer support they receive.

Why we like Envato: Companies like Walmart, Netflix, Microsoft, and Google trust Envato for buying royalty-free stock photos. The platform even offers plenty of templates to edit and create your masterpieces.

They claim that they have sold 10 licenses per minute during the last year. Freelancers, creative agencies, and big brands download assets from Envato.

Your Earnings: The following table gives information about the Author fee:

Now, what you will earn with Envato (If you are a Non-Exclusive Author) = (List Price/Purchase Price – Buyer Fee – Withholding Tax) – Author fee.

#3) 500px

Best for offering several beneficial features for professional photographers.

500px is a leading platform for selling photos online. They provide global exposure to the photos of professional and amateur photographers. Over 16 million photographers from all over the world are using 500px to sell their photos.

They keep all the content submitted for licensing, royalty free. You can learn about their photo submission process and get to know how to create abstract photography that sells from their website.

They offer a free plan that allows the contributors to upload 21 photos per week, while the paid plans allow unlimited uploads.

To get started with 500px, follow these steps:

• Sign up with your account.
• Verify your email.
• Now you can upload content, absolutely free for 13 days (They offer a 13-day free trial for the Pro plan).
• Then buy a subscription for uploading photos for licensing.

Features:

• Lets you receive feedback from fellow editors.
• They allow you to keep copyrights.
• You can partner with 500px for special projects.
• They accept JPEG files with a minimum of 3 MP quality and they must be saved in RGB color mode.
• They allow you to share your resume with potential clients.

Pros:

• Mobile applications for iOS and Android users.
• Easy submission process.
• Tools for creating a portfolio, building your own website, and tracking website traffic
• Their distribution partners, Getty Images and VCG help you get more and more audience for your showcasing work.

Why we like 500px: The platform has market access to over 1 million customers. You can even participate in Quests, submit theme-based photographs, and win prizes.

They even allow you to create your own website and your portfolio (and its cost is included in the Pro membership).

Earnings: Paid members can earn up to 100% royalties and free members will get up to 60% on content licensed with 500px.

Their subscription plans are as follows:

• Awesome: USD 3.49 per month
• Pro: USD 6.99 per month

#4) Shutterstock

Best for offering a big market for your contributions.

Shutterstock is a popular platform for selling stock photos online. They have a collection of over 700 million stock photos. 1 million+ contributors are connected with them, and they add 200,000 images every day to Shutterstock.

They help in distributing your content via social media and other means. You can get started with them, just by creating an account and uploading your content.

Features:

• They accept images in JPEG and TIFF formats that must be at least 4 MP in size. EPS files that are compatible with Adobe Illustrator 8 or 10 are also acceptable.
• You can manage your portfolio on Shutterstock.
• They have a legal team for investigating and pursuing claims of copyright infringement and illegal use of content.
• Payments are issued every month.
• Smart features like auto keyword suggestion, multi-select, status flags, and more.

Pros:

• Easy to use platform.
• Provides tips for success.
• Lets you earn more by referring the platform to new customers.

Cons:

• You will get paid only 15% at the beginning.

Why we like Shutterstock: Shutterstock is trusted by some of the leading companies of the world including REX, A+E NETWORKS, Epa Images, Stringr, and more. The platform has helped contributors earn over $1 billion to date. Millions of customers can view your work through ShutterStock.

Your Earnings: They give you up to 40% commission for every image downloaded. Your earnings increase as you sell more. Earnings breakdown for photos, illustrations, vectors and videos is as follows:

#5) iStockPhoto

Best for providing opportunities to the contributors to work with global brands.

iStockPhoto is one of the best places to sell photos online. The platform allows you to show your content to the top brands, global media, and leading advertising agencies. You can contribute your photos, videos, and illustrations to the platform and earn money every time your content is being licensed.

If you want to apply for being a contributor, you need to follow these steps:

• Download the app ‘Contributor by Getty Images’ available at the App Store as well as on Google Play.
• Upload your content for which you have the copyrights.
• If your samples get accepted by iStockPhoto’s team, you will get an email with a non-exclusive agreement for getting started.
• Follow the link in the email and get started.

Features:

• The platform gives you access to the biggest global distribution networks like getty images and istock.
• Tools for applying for shoots for global brands.
• Your content can be shown up on books, billboards, social media, websites, and more places.
• Contributors can take inspiration from the stock of favorite photos, to create their new, original content.

Pros:

• They let you keep the copyright of your content
• All accepted content will be available at istock.com, gettyimages.com, and their global network of distributors

Cons:

• Only 15% royalties are paid per license in the beginning.

Why we like iStockPhoto: The platform partners with some of the top brands of the world including BBC Studios, Sony Pictures, Verizon, Dove, Bloomberg, and more.

Over 825K+ customers from all across the globe can see your contributions through iStockPhoto. It is a leading, over 22 years old, trusted platform with hundreds of employees. More than 160,000 global contributors are connected with iStockPhoto.

Your Earnings: They pay 15% to 45% royalties to their contributors for each file license.

#6) ShootProof

Best for offering a good set of features useful for managing and growing a photography business.

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ShootProof is loved by photographers. The range of tools they are offering is breathtaking. They allow contributors to build and grow their brand, and keep all the money they earn. They even offer 1-1 support services that help photographers in their onboarding process and other issues.

They don’t charge any commission on sales, but you have to buy a subscription plan and get access to the wide range of features they offer.

Go through this link to watch a video of an overview of ShootProof:

Features:

• Tools for building your portfolio website to showcase photos.
• Good-looking online galleries for showcasing your work.
• Allows you to design your galleries as per your choice with brand colors, watermarks, and more.
• Automation tools for sending emails to your clients (or potential clients), reminding them about sales, promotions, and expiration dates.
• Tools for creating and sending professional contracts, and customized invoices to clients.
• An automated communication option allows you to leave a message for your client, for a nice customer experience.

Pros:

• They let you keep 100% of the profits.
• One-on-one support.
• A free trial for 14 days.
• Email and phone support.

Why we like ShootProof: With ShootProof, photographers have earned over $800,000,000 till date. They offer email campaigning tools and claim that the photographers who used their campaigns could generate 185% higher sales. More than 400,000+ photographers are currently connected with Shootproof for the purpose of running their photography business.

Watch this video for a review of ShootProof by a Pro Photographer:

How much you can earn: ShootProof lets you take 100% of the profits, they take 0% commission. But you have to buy one of their subscription plans.

Their plans are as follows:

• Free Plan: $0 per month (Lets you upload upto 100 photos with a maximum of 5 GB storage limit)
• 1,500 Photo Plan: $10 per month
• 5,000 Photo Plan: $20 per month
• 25,000 Photo Plan: $30 per month

#7) Adobe Stock

Best for being a popular platform among buyers, that makes it profitable for the sellers.

Adobe is undoubtedly a popular and trusted name. Millions of buyers download pictures from this platform.

Sellers are allowed to place their high-quality photos, videos, vector content, and illustrations for sale. The content can be on any subjects like technology, medical, food, portraiture, and more. Go through their site to access some tips for boosting your chances of selling your content online.

Features:

• Adobe’s machine learning intelligence and Creative Cloud apps help sellers upload, set keywords, and sell images quickly.
• Gives free access to Adobe portfolio so that contributors can build a beautiful custom website.
• Lets you sell photographs, video clips, vectors, and illustrations.
• They let you keep the copyrights for your work. Adobe Stock is entitled to promote and license the content available on their platform.

Why we like Adobe Stock: Adobe Stock is a leading, reliable platform for stock sellers as well as buyers. This makes Adobe Stock a good platform for getting greater reach and earnings. Another plus point of Adobe Stock is that it allows even beginners to take 33% of earnings while many of its competitors give only 15% of that to beginners.

Earnings: Adobe allows you to receive 33% royalty on photos, vectors, and illustrations; whereas 35% royalty on videos.

#8) SmugMug

Best for offering a powerful platform for selling photos online.

SmugMug is a highly recommended platform for selling photos online. They offer some cool features for maintaining your photo profiles, allowing your clients to buy photos with simple steps, add photos to favorites, get coupons, and much more. They also let you secure your stocks from thefts and watermark them.

Features:

• They let you set photos for sale, with the pricing of your choice.
• Drag and drop tools are available for managing portfolios, galleries, and custom security settings.
• They offer watermarking and photo theft protection tools and allow you to sell stocks for money.
• They give you unlimited storage for your photos.
• Lets you receive payments for your sold stocks through credit cards and PayPal.
• Automatic tax collection and receipts.
• Integration with Adobe Lightroom, Flickr, and Google Photos.

Why we like SmugMug: SmugMug offers some cool features for photographers. They offer 24/7 support through real people, allowing you to showcase your work with a professional portfolio, beautiful design templates, and much more.

Subscriptions for Photographers: SmugMug offers the following price plans for the photographers (A free trial is also available):

• Power: $18 per month
• Portfolio: $37 per month
• Pro: $53 per month
• Venture: Custom Pricing

Earnings: The photographers would earn 85% of the price they set above the base cost for downloads.

#9) 123RF

Best for offering advanced AI tools for image generation.

123RF gives you a platform for selling your photos, vectors, sound, and footage creations. It is an over-18-year-old, one-stop destination for creative assets. Startups and Fortune 500 companies come to them to get unique pieces of art.

You can explore some tips for boosting your sales and learn great photography skills from their site.

Features:

• AI tools for creating and editing images.
• Over 5 million buyers get access to your work.
• You will get a market share across 44 countries.
• You can contribute photos, vector illustrations, video clips, and audio files.
• You will always remain the copyright owner of your creations.

Why we are suggesting 123RF: 123RF has a good market worldwide. You can just sign in as a contributor and start uploading your content for sale. They offer good commissions to the sellers.

You can also use their advanced AI tools to make your content more attractive.

Earnings: They let you get 30% – 60% commission for every license sold. You will get your payments on every 15th of a month (or later). Your Minimum Payout Threshold is $50, which must be reached to be able to get payments. Payments are transferred through PayPal, Skrill, Payoneer, or Alipay.

#10) Instaproofs

Best for easy-to-use tools for creating custom galleries, automated sales, and marketing tools.

Instaproofs is a feature-rich platform that can be a savior for digital content creators. The platform is offering some exceptionally good features and is charging very little commission for sales.

The platform has helped in uploading, sharing, and selling over 475,000,000 images to date.

Features:

• You can sell digital images, standalone prints, canvas wraps, frames, etc.
• Lets you create a combination of different products to be sold as a package.
• They let you gift credits to your clients, for future purchases.
• If you sell with a subscription plan, they don’t charge any commission.
• Tools for creating invoices and contracts, setting client payment reminders, and more useful features.

Why we like Instaproofs: Instaproofs lets you create beautiful custom galleries, apply your watermark, link to your social media, and arrange photos with drag-and-drop tools.

They also offer sales and marketing automation, and Google analytics compatibility; which allows your clients to mark any of the products as favorite, and much more. These tools make this platform a highly beneficial one for the sellers.

Earnings: You earn all the money when you have bought a subscription plan. But if you are using their Starter (Free) plan, then you will have to pay a 12% commission. You even get a free trial for the paid plans.

The price plans are:

• Starter: $0 per month
• Creative: $9 per month
• Professional: $21 per month
• Studio: $34 per month

#11) Dreamstime

Best for being a community of 52 million users from all over the world.

Dreamstime is a 23 years old, leading, global supplier of digital images. The platform claims to see 20,000,000 unique visitors per month. Over 1,100,000 photographers have contributed around 229,000,000 photos, illustrations, clip arts, and vectors to the platform.

They accept only JPEG/RGB image files with at least 3 MP resolution and a maximum of 1 GB of size. You can check their site to learn about file requirements for video clips, audio files, vector & RAW files.

Earnings: They give 25% – 50% commission to the contributors. Exclusive files are given a 10% bonus.

#12) Pixieset

Best for being an all-in-one, modern platform for photographers.

Over a million photographers trust Pixieset, and more than 5 billion photos have been shared and delivered with the help of this platform. They are offering tools for maintaining Photo Client Galleries, Websites, Online Stores, and Photo Studios.

Earnings: Pixieset offers the following price plans:

• Free: $0 per month
• Basic: $8 per month
• Plus: $16 per month
• Pro: $24 per month
• Ultimate: $40 per month
• The Suite: Starts at $28 per month

You can set prices for your products and earn all profits. The commission fee is 0% with all paid plans and 15% with the free plan.

#13) Getty Images

Best for being a popular and reliable name among the customers for buying images.

Getty Images gives you a platform to present your stock photos in front of more than 825K customers from all across the globe. Your content can be licensed to be shown on books, billboards, social media, websites, TV, etc.

If you want to be a contributor, download the app called ‘Contributor by Getty Images’, available on Google Play and App Store. Then upload some photos and videos (via YouTube links) and make sure you have the copyrights for that content. Once your content gets accepted, you will get a non-exclusive agreement for getting started.

Follow the instructions sent in your email. Later, you can apply for an exclusive agreement to earn higher rewards.

Earnings: They offer a 15% – 45% royalty fee on each file licence.

Payments are transferred on the 25th of every month. They give payments through PayPal and Payoneer.

#14) Stocksy

Best for giving higher royalty fees for licenses.

Stocksy is one of the best places to sell photos online. They are offering good money for your content due to which the photographers love them.

If you want to apply to be a contributor, fill out an application form, send your portfolio, and then upload your photos, videos, and illustrations in jpg, mp4, or mov format. They will get back to you after reviewing your content.

Earnings: 50% – 75% for each license sold.

#15) Etsy

Best for offering good money for each sale.

Etsy is a popular website to sell photos and other products online. They have millions of users all over the world and are offering 24/7 support.

Read through their site to learn about how to plan for growth and earn good profits with Etsy.

Earnings: With Etsy, you have to pay a $0.20 Listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee, a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee, and a 15% off Site Ads fee. The rest is yours to take.

How We Selected These Websites

We have picked the top websites for our list, after carefully examining the following aspects of each one of them:

• Their customer reach
• Contributor’s earnings
• Smart features like analytics, keyword suggestions, etc.
• Seller reviews
• Popularity of the platform

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

This article is an eye-opener for people looking for ways to sell photos online. We explored the top sites to sell stock photos online. All of these are popular platforms among buyers which include big businesses. Some are offering innovative tools like creating an elegant gallery, watermarking the content, etc.

You must look for the earnings and the payment methods they are offering before starting your selling business with them. Certain platforms even form partnerships with global distributors to market their content. This lets your content reach a wider audience.

Once you establish your name in the field, you can even create your website and start selling your digital products on your terms, and earn 100% profits.

As per our study, the top 5 websites to sell photos online are Alamy, Envato, 500px, Shutterstock, and iStockPhoto. They are loaded with good features for the photographers, have a good global market, and are offering better earnings as compared to the alternatives.

Research Process:

• Time taken to research this article: We spent 36 hours researching and writing this article so you can get a useful summarised list of sites with a comparison of the top 5 of them for your quick review.
• Total Sites to Sell Stock Photos Online researched: 39
• Top platforms shortlisted for review: 15