Story: Paid service for stock photos

If you are a freelance web/graphic web designer, you may be using stock photo services. I wrote about free stock photo sitex below in 2018.

3 Free Stock Photo Sites for Freelance Graphic Designer

I was using stock photo services when I started freelancing. It was $99 per year. I forgot when, but Adobe Stock merged the business. My credit was also transferred to Adobe Stock. Since then, I am using Adobe Stock.

I received a notification that Adobe mentions an annual contract for Adobe Stock. I am wondering whether I need to update the contract or not. Are there any alternatives? I don’t consider free photo stock, such as Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay, etc. Nowadays, I don’t have many chances to work with photographers. I don’t compromise photo quality.

Adobe Stock

I am roughly paying CND$45 per month.

CND$45 x 12mo = CND$540.

I calculated and I little surprised by the annual price. I am paying CND$540 for Adobe Stock. I don’t think the user interface of Adobe Stock is good. I would like to organize photos, make folders, categorize photos and move/delete them easily.

My issue is that I have 100+ credits on it. Once I canceled the subscription, the credits will be gone. If I want to reduce the cost, I have to make a plan right now. I need to use all my credits this year. 

I searched for Vancouver, BC and 103,546 results for Vancouver, BC in images.

iStock

The pricing is better than Adobe Stock. I assume that images are included photos, Illustrations, and vectors, not video. I don’t often use video. So it is not big deal for me. It costs around CND$400. Not so affordable.

CAD$29 x 0.12(tax) x 12 mo = CAD$389.76

I searched for Vancouver, BC on iStock. 84,965 Vancouver BC pictures, images and stock photos. Some of the images are similar to Adobe Stock. Some of them are fresh angles.

Shutterstock

All-in-one Subscription costs US$29 for a single user. A user gets images, video, music & easy to uses design tools with one subscription. A fee is nothing much different with Adobe Stock.

US$29 x 0.12(tax) x 12 mo = US$389.76 = CAD$524.13

I searched for Vancouver, BC and 84,348 stock photos, vectors, and illustrations are available royalty-free.

Getty Images

Getty Images Holdings, Inc. is an American visual media company and is a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video and music for businesses and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three markets—creative professionals, the media, and corporate. – Wikipedia

I think Getty Images are not for freelance. Their target is not freelance. Getty Images are for the BtoB stock photos, like national publishers and media. It is very expensive. If a client pays 50K+, we may be able to consider using Getty Images. Otherwise, I am okay to use Adobe Stock, iStock, or Shutterstock. When I want to see incredible photos, I will check Getty Images sometime.

Quora: Why are Getty Images so expensive?

Depositphotos

Some websites mention Depositphotos. I did not know them. Depositphotos is the most affordable compared with other stock photo services. Other sites usually provide 10 credits, but Depositphotos provides 30 credits. That’s massive.

Yearly subscription for US$300($336 in tax) = CAD$451.80(30 images/mo x 12 mo = 360 images/yr)

UI on a search result is interesting.

Stockcy.com

Stocksy United, also referred to as Stocksy or Stocksy United Photography, is a Victoria, British Columbia-based platform cooperative that accepts and provides royalty-free stock photography and stock video. Stocksy uses a curated editing approach to select useful and authentic photos. – Wikipedia

Conclusion: Credits after cancelling

What happens if I cancel my subscription? If you cancel your subscription, you’ll lose access to the Adobe Stock service and forfeit your unused licenses and plan credits. – Adobe Stock

January 2023, I have around 100 credits on my Adobe Stock. It was transferred from previous stock photo services. If I cancel a subscription, I need to make a plan to consume all the credit during 2023. In this case, I cannot cancel Adobe Stock this year. If I want to use other services, I need to make plans for January 2023.

I also need to test how good other stock photos are. I will test it in 2023.

*I don’t consider free photo stocks, Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay, etc… There are many services, but I don’t want to consume my time for searching images.

Reference:

Phil Pallen: Best Stock Photography Sites 2021
Mango Street: How We Sold $47,000 in Stock Photos