Pexels vs. Pixabay

Pexels

Pexels

65 Reviews and Ratings

Pixabay

Pixabay

59 Reviews and Ratings

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
Pexels	Score 10.0 out of 10	N/A	Pexels, headquartered in Berlin, offers stock photos and video under the Creative Commons Zero license, from a global network of creators.	N/A
Pixabay	Score 7.6 out of 10	N/A	Pixabay headquartered in Germany offers a digital content platform, which they present as a community for sharing copyright-free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons.	N/A

Pricing

Pexels

Pixabay

Editions & Modules

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Offerings

Pricing Offerings
Pexels	Pixabay
Free Trial
No	No
Free/Freemium Version
No	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

Entry-level Setup Fee

No setup fee

No setup fee

Additional Details

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More Pricing Information

Community Pulse
	Pexels	Pixabay
Considered Both Products	Pexels Luiz Alexandre Viana Magno Postdoctoral Research Scientist Chose Pexels Pexels is more simple. The alternative options give no good search/selection experience. For example, you are limited to searching just one characteristic or the results are not always accurate. For example, your search for A and get B. Finally, I also note that the user does … Incentivized Helpful? Ashley Schwartau Operations Specialist, Learning and Development Chose Pexels I would put Pexels library up against Unsplash. iStock and Shutterstock are both SUPER pricey, and I haven't used either of them in YEARS simply due to the fact that they remain to be cost-prohibitive. Pixabay is fine, but the quality seems far less curated or just like more … Incentivized Helpful? Amy Highland Brand and UX+UI Designer Chose Pexels Pexels has a great search function behind it and is very compatible with the other leading brands. One of the main benefits in comparison is that it is free to use and promotes creativity with its photographers. It has fewer 'stock looking' images as opposed to Adobe or … Incentivized Helpful? MC Mehak Chawla Senior Marketing Associate Chose Pexels Pexels provides a plethora of videos to choose from and you can get the right size. The platform is free and if you use great keywords you can easily find what you are looking for. Users can also contribute to the community and it has challenges which I think are great … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Pexels has video's! That's the main differentiator why I go to Pexels now. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels I know Pixabay and Unsplash and both are similar to Pexels. All of them have similar features in regards to searching, filtering, or collections. But if I am not wrong, only Pexels has the option to download an image in a customised size. Incentivized Helpful? David Mynář Head Of Online Marketing Chose Pexels Pexels have by far the biggest database for our needs, 9 out of 10 pictures we find is from Pexels. Incentivized Helpful? JB Josh Bender Managing Editor Chose Pexels Pexels has a few unique features that stand out, the most important being a 1-click download from the search results. No need to navigate to another page to find a "download" button. This reduces the time required to find and download an appropriate image. The search results … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Pexels is very affordable, and has a decent range of free-to-use options. Images have a wide arrange of people and places represented. Incentivized Helpful? Shelby Bass Creative Chose Pexels While I've had to use Getty for more specific image needs, I usually start my image search with Pexels as it's a much more cost-effective option. However, Getty has a much more robust search tool, which I sometimes need in order to track down an image with a specific … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Whether paid or free stock photography, we go to where the solutions are. Pexels is on our top 5 go-to list. When we can't find what we are looking for on paid stock sites, we look at Pexels. Each platform has its pros and cons. I like that Pexels has a good lifestyle variety, … Incentivized Helpful? Winona Harrod Graphic Designer Chose Pexels Overall, Pexels is a really helpful and easy site to use to get royalty-free imagery. It has been highly beneficial to me in all my design projects obtaining dynamic and natural images that some large-paying stock sites can not provide. Sometimes you can find more variety at … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels In my opinion, they are all very similar. Sometimes when I am searching for something more specific, one or other might well be suited. But, in general, I tend to open at least 3 or 4 different image banks at the same time and use the same search terms on all of them. Since … Incentivized Helpful? Jewell Shaw UI Designer Chose Pexels Pexels is much better than raw pixel because the free options on raw pixel's website are usually images that you would not want to use for your professional marketing needs. They make sure to charge for useful photos. Incentivized Helpful? OS Olaf Schaum Founder Chose Pexels Pexels offers an extensive catalogue of royalty-free, high-quality images and high-resolution videos that can be downloaded without the need for monthly subscriptions or license fees. Most of the time, our stock requirements are easily met. For occasions when we do need more … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Pexels has more original, creative imagery from new and emerging photographers from all over the world. Pexels constantly adds new content so there's more variety and less likely we'll use the same stock image as others - we get to stand out as original. Supports photographers … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Pexels is by far the easiest program to use and doesn't require a login which means it's even faster for my team to be able to find the right image and get it into our content in a quick turnaround. Easy to teach, easy to use, my work would be near impossible without it. Incentivized Helpful? PC Patricia Calleja Creative Copywriter Chose Pexels Pexel images are more inspiring, aspiring, creative, and artistic than the usual stock images. We work with Pexels because it is free and we really admire the fact that some photographers or creatives around the world are happy to share their work in such a kind and generous … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Pexels is one of my favorite stock image tools. The quality is top-notch and the search capabilities/filters really help you find what you want. Incentivized Helpful? Abdellah Ouardirhi étudiant Chose Pexels Adobe Stock Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Pexels so far has the best user-submitted selections for free photography. They are royalty-free and include a wide variety for all business needs. From personal blogs or your own business to any company type, you can find what you need here without having to buy a stock … Incentivized Helpful? Allen Eshmoili President/CEO Chose Pexels I just found Pexels more simple to use and easy to navigate. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pexels Really similar offerings, and we actually use both Unsplash and Pexels. Pexels has a nicer user interface to search through photos, but Unsplash isn't bad, either. Incentivized Helpful? CB Cooper Buss CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Chose Pexels You can get stock images in Canva since we have a professional account but their selection is limited. Also, many of their images are not as high quality as Pexels and the file size is smaller so if you need to blow them up they lose resolution. I only use the Canva images when … Incentivized Helpful? John E. Miller, MBA Managing Partner Chose Pexels I think Shutterstock does not have the same quality photos available for free. In addition, I am not sure if they spend as much time trying to uplift the artist taking the photos as they are uplifting Shutterstock as a go-to resource for these photos and videos. I tend to favor … Incentivized Helpful?	Pixabay Verified User Anonymous Chose Pixabay We selected Pixabay due to its affordability, clear licensing, and vast range of imagery that fit our needs. Unsplash and Pexels were on par for affordability and licensing, but we felt Pixabay had a broader range of content. Shutterstock and Getty were coat prohibitive for our … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pixabay In my opinion, stock photos are kind of all over the place, depending on how specific of an image you're looking for. I think Pixaby is on the higher / more positive side of the scale -- there are definitely sites that are not offering as polished of photos or the variety that … Incentivized Helpful? RL Rory Larkin Development chef Chose Pixabay Pixabay is a far more legit and easy-to-use free stock photo platform than the others I have listed above. Before using it I made sure that I was abreast of certain issues within the rules and systems that need to be followed by the letter. If you do not do this you will have … Incentivized Helpful? Jordan Marturano Marketing Director Chose Pixabay I think that Fotor is my favorite because of the way it allows the easy editing and collection of pictures. Pixabay is really not as well suited for photo editing but it is still like great resource for free pictures. Shutterstock has better images, but is more expensive. … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pixabay I use Pixabay in 2 scenarios. The first is when I've done a bunch of searching on iStock already and can't find anything. You wouldn't think Pixabay could show up then, but sometimes it hits. The other time is when I'm in a rush and just doing general Google searches for … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pixabay Canva has many more options for pictures available on their pro platform. For my business, it is easier to justify the cost of Canva as it includes other features like photo editing and graphic design. Pixabay does have pictures, and videos, and expanded into gifs but can be … Incentivized Helpful? GR Giovana Ramos Biologist Chose Pixabay I selected Pixaby because with it's easier to find free images with excellent quality. Also, in Pixaby the indications for free or paid images is more clear than in the other platforms. Incentivized Helpful? HL Hayden LeMaster Owner/Operator Chose Pixabay Pexels is free and fully licensed for commercial use, as is Unsplash to a certain extent. I generally open all 3 to search for free stock images for budget-sensitive clients; that being said, I always find myself searching Pixabay first. They have the best user interface of … Incentivized Helpful? Crismer La Pignola Senior Software Engineer Chose Pixabay Unsplash for Brands Incentivized Helpful? Samira Islam Resmi Assistant Professor Chose Pixabay Pixabay gets around the language barrier by being available in more than 20 different languages. The website doesn't have any ads. They do have "sponsored images" from Shutterstock, but I really like that there are no other ads. When I download an image, I can choose from a … Incentivized Helpful? Shelby Bass Creative Chose Pixabay Pixabay is free, easy to use, and has images, videos, vectors, illustrations, music, and sound effects—basically everything you need to make content on a budget. Getty only licenses images and videos, so I'd have to go elsewhere to find music and sound effects (and likely pay a … Incentivized Helpful? JB Josh Bender Managing Editor Chose Pixabay Pixabay has a few key features that stand out. The search results load fast, with an easy user interface and advanced filtering options. I often travel as I work, and at times my internet connection can be slow or unstable. Even on a slower connection, the search results are … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pixabay Overall, I really like Pixabay as the quality of images has never let me down. On top of that, I really love the community/creators as they're very supportive. I would say that you will have not many problems or complaints when you use Pixabay and will definitely help in your … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pixabay The filtering system is a little bit better on Pixabay and I use that lot. Some of Unsplash's photos can be a little higher quality Incentivized Helpful? Amar Shekhar Blogger Chose Pixabay I have not used the artist much yet but I have a heard lot about Artlist from other travel videos maker in the community about how good this website is. Based on my little experience of using Artlist, I would say Pixabay has a lot fewer sound effects and music selections … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pixabay Pixabay is a very user-friendly site, and feels less 'business' orientated and approachable. The graphic designers that used it got to grips with it very quickly and found a decent range of stuff. However, there were occasions when we needed to go somewhere else to find the … Incentivized Helpful? James Miller Director of People Enablement Chose Pixabay Pexels is very high quality but has a less professional collection of images. Most of the images in Pexels feel like they would be more at home in a local coffee shop or Millennial hangout. While Pexels' image offering is stunning, the images do not fit in alongside data sets … Incentivized Helpful? Winona Harrod Graphic Designer Chose Pixabay Pixabay is adequate but needs to up its image game in order to compete with other free stock sites, which have more extensive and better quality imagery available. I personally moved from using Pixabay to other free image sites due to the quality and range of images not … Incentivized Helpful? Tara Brueske Vocal Workshops and Voice Development Chose Pixabay The thing I like about Pixabay over Canva is the music available and the photos are not the same ones that Canva has. Sometimes I feel like Canva is so much more well-known that everyone uses them and then their social media posts start looking the same. It doesn't help you … Incentivized Helpful? Nina Ritchie Planner, Consumer Chose Pixabay Being a user of this image bank is really useful since if we need different illustrations for a wide variety of contexts, we have images at hand. It is an indispensable tool for companies and individuals, every day at least five new high-quality photos appear. Its main function … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pixabay We also looked at Adobe Stock and Freepik. Adobe Stock has a better breadth of images available on their site, but they can be expensive depending on your needs. Sometimes, if Pixabay doesn't have an image that matches what I need I may use Adobe Stock or Freepik. Freepik is … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pixabay iStock doesn't offer free options. Hence we use Pixabay more often, especially with a tight budget. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pixabay Pixabay is my starting point for any image search as it provides cross-over/reference to other sites but isn't so overwhelming with images. I feel with the other sites I could get lost in the endless pages of stock imagery, especially when they seem so similar. Incentivized Helpful? Philippa Schwarzkopf Digital Product Manager & Content Coordinator Chose Pixabay Pexels is the closest competitor to Pixabay and I did sometimes use both. However, I found that Pixabay overall had better moderation of its content and therefore I was able to find a better range of results with higher quality than what I would typically find on Pexels. And … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Pixabay Pixabay provides better images and a variety of search results. The filter options are really good. It's very easy to use and find what you are looking for. Incentivized Helpful?

Best Alternatives
	Pexels	Pixabay
Small Businesses	Adobe Express Score 8.8 out of 10	Adobe Express Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	Adobe Express Score 8.8 out of 10	Adobe Express Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises	Adobe Express Score 8.8 out of 10	Adobe Express Score 8.8 out of 10
All Alternatives	View all alternatives	View all alternatives

User Ratings
	Pexels	Pixabay
Likelihood to Recommend	9.2 (0 ratings)	7.6 (0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	8.0 (0 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Usability	7.0 (0 ratings)	- (0 ratings)

User Testimonials
	Pexels	Pixabay
Likelihood to Recommend	The success of social media campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter depends significantly on the quality of the content used. Pexels maintains the highest quality standards for all content hosted on the platform... with High Definition, excellent composition materials only. Another great thing is that they provide you with an assortment of filtered content suggestions related to the selections. This helps save time. Incentivized Fred Xorla Adzoyi Director, Research & Innovation Read full review	Pixabay is excellent for those trying to create content on a budget, whether for yourself or for a client. It has a huge library of high-quality images and videos for use in creative applications. Beyond that, Pixabay also has a library of free music and sound effects, which is enormously helpful for people trying to create content on a budget without worrying about getting in copyright trouble. Also, due to the fact that you can sort images by "transparent," it's easy to find cut-out images to use in composites. Shelby Bass Creative Read full review
Pros	High-resolution images – Pexels is full of images that are high enough in resolution to look beautiful on their own, but also high quality enough to be combined with other images without distracting pixelization Stock videos – other free stock sites are often limited to just images, but Pexels has a wide range of videos available as well, which we use to plus up decks Good search functions – while not as robust as some paid sites, Pexels' search functions make it pretty easy to track down what you need Licensing – it's very straightforward to know what you can and can't do with a Pexels photo, which protects my company and our clients Incentivized Shelby Bass Creative Read full review	Pixabay License: Pixabay has its own license which allows the use of the content for commercial and personal use without any attribution. However, attribution supports the talented creators behind the content. Pricing: Pixabay is completely free for everyone. High-resolution: Photos and videos on Pixabay are of high resolution, especially several videos in 4K, which makes them perfect to use in bigger projects. Jyotsna Tripathi Executive Director Read full review
Cons	I do think that the library should grow. For example, I was looking for an image of a living room with a fireplace and there were only a few options I get tricked sometimes because I see images I want to use but they are from some other company and they are paid Improve search understanding for multi-word searches Incentivized CB Cooper Buss CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Read full review	One thing that kind of sticks out is that with so much to choose from, you can feel overwhelmed. Some of the photos I sometimes can find separately by googling. In the music business, it seems like many photos rotate on the web so there isn't as much to pick from. I didn't see an option for more vertical videos for use in Instagram or TikTok. Incentivized Tara Brueske Vocal Workshops and Voice Development Read full review
Usability	Intuitive and simple interface. Incentivized Stephen Jothiraj Business Development Read full review	No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered	Pexels has a few unique features that stand out, the most important being a 1-click download from the search results. No need to navigate to another page to find a "download" button. This reduces the time required to find and download an appropriate image. The search results load fast, with lazy loading, so there's no annoying pagination at the bottom. I often travel as I work, and at times my internet connection can be slow or unstable. This kind of feature may seem minor to some users, but when on a slower connection, it makes a big difference. If a search term is too broad, it can recommend related keywords to search for - this helps to find the right image faster. JB Josh Bender Managing Editor Read full review	Pexels is free and fully licensed for commercial use, as is Unsplash to a certain extent. I generally open all 3 to search for free stock images for budget-sensitive clients; that being said, I always find myself searching Pixabay first. They have the best user interface of the three and generally have the best image options. Adobe, Shutterstock, and iStock have better images, and I use those for clients who are less budget-sensitive. Incentivized HL Hayden LeMaster Owner/Operator Read full review
Return on Investment	Positive: the writing material when well illustrated gain more engagement. Positive: images can inspire better descriptions of scenarios and landscapes and therefore can make long texts more attractive. Positive: we saved a lot of time when writing. Negative: some images do not have enough quality for printing purposes. Incentivized Luiz Alexandre Viana Magno Postdoctoral Research Scientist Read full review	We don't lose any money trying to buy images Our videos get more views if we put the good quality images we find in Pixaby The posts we make with their images always get a professional aspect, and get more engagement from a diverse social media users. Incentivized GR Giovana Ramos Biologist Read full review
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