The jungle of stock video footage
Blog Post
Platforms that offer (some) free stock videos
Pexels offers free stock photography. It was founded in Germany in 2014 and later sold to the Australian company Canva. https://www.pexels.com
Pixabay offers free stock photography. It was founded in Germany in 2010 and later also sold to the Australian company Canva. https://pixabay.com/videos/
Vidsplay offers free stock footage. The platform was founded in 2010 by a freelance cinematographer to offer his work for free. https://www.vidsplay.com
Dareful offers free stock videos under a Creative Commons 4.0 license (you must credit the creator). The platform was created by the founder of VideoBlocks (later StoryBlocks) to offer his own work for free.https://dareful.com
DroneStock offers drone videos under CC0 license. https://dronestock.com
Free Nature Stock offers nature videos under CC0 license. The platform was created by a freelance photographer. https://freenaturestock.com
Coverr offers free videos, but you need a subscription to download 4k videos. The platform was created in 2015 by the founders of Veed.me. It was later sold to Fiverr. https://coverr.co
MotionElements offers some free clips that you can download with an account. They offer single clip sales and a subscription model. The company operates mainly in the Asian market. https://www.motionelements.com
Mixkit offers some free videos, but you need a subscription for unlimited access. https://mixkit.co
Vecteezy offers some free videos, but most videos require a monthly subscription. https://www.vecteezy.com/free-videos
Videvo offers free stock footage with an attribution license. They also offer a monthly subscription model with 5 to 50 downloads per month. https://www.videvo.net
Mazwai offers free stock videos, but they are mostly the free videos copied from Videvo. https://mazwai.com
Sites that offer stock video with a subscription model
Artlist offers a subscription model with unlimited downloads*. https://artlist.io/stock-footage
Motion Array offers a subscription model with unlimited downloads*. https://motionarray.com/browse/stock-video/
Artgrid offers a subscription model with unlimited downloads*. https://artgrid.io
*Users report that there are hidden limits and the real amount of downloads per month is limited.
Storyblocks (former VideoBlocks) offers a subscription model with unlimited downloads. https://www.storyblocks.com
Envatoelements ( former VideoHive ) allows you to purchase individual clips or download unlimited clips with a monthly subscription model. https://elements.envato.com/stock-video
Pro Video Factory offers a subscription model with unlimited downloads. https://provideofactory.com
BigStock offers a subscription model with 10 days per day or 50 videos per month. https://www.bigstockphoto.com
Canva offers videos as part of its subscription models. Most of the videos come from the acquired platforms Pixabay and Pexels, where the clips can be downloaded for free. https://www.canva.com
Sites that sell individual clips
ShutterStock sells individual clips, but offers a discount and free clips with a subscription. https://www.shutterstock.com/
Pond5 sells individual clips but gives discounts on bulk purchases. https://www.pond5.com
Adobe Stock sells individual clips, but offers a discount and free clips with a subscription. https://stock.adobe.com/video
iStock sells individual clips, but offers a discount on clips if you have a subscription. https://www.istockphoto.com/stock-videos
gettyimages sells individual clips but gives discounts on bulk purchases. https://www.gettyimages.com/creative-video
Depositphotos sells individual clips, but offers a discount on clips if you have a subscription. https://depositphotos.com/en/stock-videos.html
Dissolve sells individual clips but gives discounts on bulk purchases. https://dissolve.com
RawFilm sells individual clips. https://raw.film
Filmsupply sells individual clips. https://www.filmsupply.com
123RF sells individual clips, but offers a discount on clips if you have a subscription. https://www.123rf.com/stock-footage/
Other collections of free stock videos
Life of Vids is a collection of free stock videos, mostly hosted on other platforms like Vimeo. https://lifeofvids.com
CuteStockFootage is a collection of free stock videos, mostly hosted on other platforms like Vimeo. https://cutestockfootage.com
Splitshire is not really a stock video site, but rather a collection of free clips hosted on other platforms. https://www.splitshire.com
This is just the surface. When using stock videos. Always check the rights before using a stock video in your product. There are many different rules that can change at any time.
Why are there so few free video stock sites left?
The main reason is simply cost. Anything that is free attracts a huge amount of people. Many downloads mean high traffic. High traffic is expensive. Especially in the age of 4K and 6K footage, you need a lot more storage and that is also expensive. You also need content curators and moderators.
Platforms like Pexels only work because they have a bigger product behind them (Canva) that makes money.
Why do platforms that only offer CC0 "No Rights Reserved" content mostly fail?
The CC0 license (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/) allows anyone to use the work for free without attribution, but it also allows anyone to copy and redistribute the content under the same license. This means that a platform offering CC0 will be copied very quickly and will no longer be unique. This is what happened in the beginning with platforms like Pexels or Pixabay, before they changed their licensing model and prohibited uploading the same videos to other platforms.
There are some examples of platforms that have tried to eliminate the cost of server space & traffic:
https://www.lifeofvids.com hosts videos on Vimeo.com
https://cutestockfootage.com hosts videos on Vimeo.com
https://www.splitshire.com/ hosts videos on YouTube.com
What other options are there to get free videos?
- YouTube.com has a search and filter option for Creative Commons footage, but it is still difficult to find footage that is truly free to use. Sometimes they are mislabeled or you have to figure out which of the Creative Commons licenses they use.
- Vimeo also has an option to search for Creative Commons footage, but their recently added upload limits make it difficult for creators to share content this way.
We hope this sums up everything you need to know about stock video platforms. We are always happy to update this information later.
