Shutterstock Review

For some years now, the Shutterstock brand has become popular among all those who need royalty-free images for some of their work. Shutterstock’s image bank is one of the most complete currently available, as it has one of the largest image databases available on the web. Interested? Let’s jump into this Shutterstock Review.

Shutterstock Review | A Brief History

Shutterstock was founded and inaugurated in 2003, by photographer and programmer Jon Oringer (current CEO of the company). It all started as a website where Jon offered 100,000 of his own royalty-free photos. The key difference in his proposal was that, instead of selling the photos at low prices and demanding a minimum purchase (as the competition did), Oringer offered monthly subscriptions, which gave the client a certain number of images per month, in exchange for a fixed fee.

This innovative idea was so successful that it soon catapulted Shutterstock to the top of the royalty-free photo market on the web, and has remained there ever since. In the more than 15 years since its inception, subscription to stock photos has spread to the entire market and been adopted by virtually all relevant image banks. And Shutterstock soon opened its doors for photographers and creatives from all over the world to sell their images through its site.

As a result, the site has expanded enormously. Not only does it house a library of more than 300 million photos, vectors, and illustrations, but it also includes a collection with millions of stock videos and another with an equivalent amount of music and stock sounds.  Today, Shutterstock is a giant in the sale of royalty-free audiovisual content, and the preferred image bank for most buyers.

Shutterstock Pricing: More Options to Buy Cheap Photos Online

From the beginning, the aim of Shutterstock’s business has been to offer royalty-free, good quality, and very cheap photos. Their innovative proposition, the monthly subscription to stock photos, has proven to be a great way to achieve that goal. But they also offer a way to buy fewer photos individually, and without committing to periodic payments, through image download packages.

Shutterstock Subscription: More and Cheaper Photos

Shutterstock subscriptions have set the standard in prices and sales model of almost every image bank in the market, because they offer very low costs per image, in a very convenient system that allows buyers to access hundreds of downloads every month.

There are Shutterstock plans that offer you up to 750 image downloads per month. And you can hire them for as little as a month, and as much as a year. The longer the period you contract, the lower the monthly cost of the plan, and therefore, the cheaper the photos will be. Here are the detailed prices consulted at the time of this Shutterstock review:

Shutterstock Monthly plans:

• 750 images/mo – $249 ($0.33 per image)
• 350 images/mo – $199 ($0.57 per image)
• 50 images/mo – $125 ($2.57 per image)
• 10 images/mo – $49 ($4.90 per image)

Shutterstock Annual plans:

• 750 images/mo – $199 ($0.27 per image)
• 350 images/mo – $169 ($0.48 per image)
• 50 images/mo – $99 ($1.98 per image)
• 10 images/mo – $29 ($2.90 per image)

As you can see, these subscriptions make it possible to purchase very cheap photos for less than a dollar and up to just $0.27 each. Not only that, but the subscription does not discriminate images by size or resolution, so you can access the highest quality for the same price. These plans give you hundreds of downloads per month, so you’re always assured of access to new, high-quality photos for your projects.

If you need lots of photos constantly, getting a subscription to Shutterstock is a very good option to save money and guarantee you high-resolution material for your designs.

Shutterstock Image Packages: Less Investment, More Flexibility

Now, if you’re not going to use 750 images each month, a subscription may not be the best option for you. Yes, the price is very convenient, but if you end up leaving hundreds of unused downloads each month, you will actually be losing money. In addition, subscribing to a plan involves committing to pay the fee each month, for an extended period of time. Shutterstock has an alternative for all those buyers who need fewer photos and/or do not want to assume periodic payment commitments: image packs.

These are image download packs that you can buy in advance, and then use when you want to purchase a photo. They come in two sizes and are also divided by resolution. Here are the detailed prices:

Photos and vectors in all sizes

• 25 images – $229 ($9.16 per image)
• 5 images – $49 ($9.80 per image)

Small and medium photos

• 60 images – $229 ($3.81 per image)
• 12 images – $49 ($4.08 per image)

As you can see, at Shutterstock the more photos you buy, the lower the cost of each one and the more you will save in the long term. Thus, buying images individually is a little more expensive than doing so through subscriptions, but there are other advantages in image packs that may well offset the somewhat higher cost of each download.

First of all, image packs give you just the right amount of downloads you need. But the clearest advantage of this alternative is its flexibility: download packs are valid for one year from the time of purchase, which allows you to buy them today, and use them whenever you want for 12 months, without worrying about monthly limits or losing unused downloads.

In addition, you can obtain more images at a lower cost, depending on what your resolution requirements are. If small or medium photos meet your needs, you can get 5 times more downloads and a lower unit price for each, than if you use photos and vectors of any resolution.

In this way, image packs give you the ability to control exactly how much you spend, and when exactly you use your downloads. If you think you’ll use a lot of images, but don’t know when you can always stock up on these packages and use them whenever you want. It’s also a good way to try the Shutterstock service with no lengthy commitments, before deciding if a subscription is for you.

Shutterstock Review | Conclusion

I hope this Shutterstock review will help you decide if you are looking for options between the different stock image services on the market. Shutterstock is a solid website and one of the best if you need large amounts of images for your work or personal projects. 

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If you would like to learn about other Photo Stock services check out our Adobe Stock Review.