Photos and Illustrations (free)
When it comes to finding free visuals to use in her work, here are the sites Terri turns to most often.

Unsplash
A well-curated collection of high-quality, royalty-free photos contributed by photographers worldwide. Great for professional and artistic images. Attribution of photographer requested. ​ Part of Getty Images (see below).

Pexels
A vast selection of free stock photos and videos with a mix of professional and user-submitted content. Covers a wide range of topics. Attribution or small donation requested.

Pixabay
Provides free photos, illustrations, vectors, and videos with a huge library that includes more creative and digital-style imagery. Donation requested.

Freepik
Known for its extensive collection of free and premium illustrations, vector graphics, and stock photos. Has both free and premium images; requires attribution for free use.

Photos and Illustrations (for fee)

123RF
Terri turns to 123RF for stock photos when looking for images not found on one of the many free sites, or she wants a specific visual style. It has 2 million free photos, vectors, and 3D illustrations, but she generally uses credits from a larger credit pack she buys on sale once a year (often around Black Friday).

Adobe Stock
If you’re an Adobe Creative Cloud user, Adobe’s collection of royalty-free images, videos, and illustrations makes it easy for you to integrate these elements into your designs. Pricing is either by monthly subscription or credit packs.

Getty Images
Getty Images has covered the market with its three companies: Unsplash for free, user-generated images, iStock for stock photos, and Getty Images for high-quality editorial and commercial images. Featuring the work of premiere photographers, Getty Images sources visuals for design professionals, especially when rights, clearances, and exclusive content are required. It’s included here for when your project needs that one special image. 

Icons
Icons are a great solution when you don’t need a complex image or if you’re working in small spaces. They can telegraph your meaning in a quick glance at large or reduced sizes.

Most sites offer icons you can customize by color, as well as animated icons and AI editing tools. Download options include JPG, PNG, SVG, and more. (See my guide in the sidebar to understand your file options.)

This field is making leaps in its digital capabilities (mostly thanks to AI), and it pays to stay current on what is available for your needs.

The Noun Project
This is Terri’s go-to source for icons. It has a large collection of diverse, user-generated icons in a minimalist style. A new tool lets you sort based on line thickness — a great help if you’re trying to match styles. Free with attribution or a paid plan for unlimited use.

Icons8
Icons8 is Terri’s first alternative for icons and another resource worth exploring. They offer a huge collection of free and premium icons by designers, for designers. Free use requires linking back to their site.

Flaticon
Flaticon is a sister company to the online photo site Freepik and hosts more than 1.8 million icons and illustrations. It also offers stickers for sites and apps, which tend toward a youthful cute style. Free use requires attribution.

Creative Media Assets

Envato Elements
Envato is in a class by itself, with a huge collection of high-quality stock photos, illustrations, graphics, videos, templates, fonts, and more. Unlike pay-per-image sites, Envato Elements provides access to its entire library for a single monthly subscription or annual fee, making it a cost-effective solution for solopreneurs who regularly need a variety of visual assets.

Shutterstock
Shutterstock is one of the most well-known visual asset sites, and its content library has expanded far beyond its signature category of images to include videos, music, sound effects, templates, and more. With more than 500 million assets, it remains popular with design professionals. Pricing by subscription or credit pack.