16 Sources for Free Public Domain and CC0-Licensed Images

When you’re looking for the perfect image to complement your content, you must balance eye-catching visuals and the legalities of image usage. We’ve compiled a list of the best sources for free public domain and CC0-licensed images, made to meet your needs.

The WPBeginner team searched through the web to bring out options that aren’t just visually appealing but also completely legal and safe to use. We’ve focused our efforts on selecting free image repositories that are as reputable as they are diverse.

Whether your project calls for modern, sleek photography or the timeless charm of vintage illustrations, our collection has got you covered.

Explore some of the top sources for free public domain and CC0-licensed images to enhance your website’s look while staying on the right side of copyright laws.

Why Use Free Public Domain or CC0-Licensed Images?

All images on the web are protected by copyright. Even if the copyright is not mentioned, you should assume they are. And using these images without permission is illegal.

While you can buy high-quality and royalty-free images from stock photo websites like Adobe Stock or Shutterstock, not everyone has the budget to purchase licensed photographs and images.

That’s when images with public domain and the CC0 license come in handy.

Public domain is the term for works whose licenses have expired or are explicitly released without restriction on their usage.

CC0 is a license that allows copyright owners to release their works with no restrictions at all.

Anyone can use images under the public domain or CC0-License for any purpose. As a website owner, you can use these images in your blog posts, featured images, sliders, image galleries, backgrounds, and basically anywhere else you want.

How We Test And Review Sources for Free Public Domain Images

When trying to find reliable websites to download public domain images, we paid special attention to the following criteria.

Ease of use: We have only included websites that are trustworthy and easy to navigate for beginners.

Image collection: For this showcase, we have prioritized sources that offer a large collection of royalty-free images to be used on different websites.

Reliability: We have only recommended the sources that we have tested ourselves in real time.

Having said that, let’s look at some of the best-curated sources for free public domain or CC0-licensed images.

1. Pexels

Pexels is a very well-organized and large collection of public-domain photographs. You can easily browse images filed under categories or use their search feature.

All photos on Pexels are free to use and have no requirements for attribution.

2. Unsplash

Unsplash is a popular source for high-quality CC0-licensed photographs. It has an excellent search feature that you can use to find images matching specific themes like nature, office, work, and more.

3. Negative Space

Negative Space is a beautifully curated collection of CC0-licensed images for bloggers, artists, and small businesses. It has an easy-to-use search feature, and you can also browse images by tags and colors.

4. Public Domain Pictures

Public Domain Pictures offers free high-quality images, graphics, and vectors for downloads. Images are sorted into categories for easy browsing.

5. New Old Stock

As the name suggests, New Old Stock features a beautiful collection of vintage photographs that are now in the public domain.

6. Pixabay

Pixabay offers a large collection of free images. The site is updated regularly, so you will find new and less-used images there.

7. My Stock Photos

My Stock Photos has a decent collection of hundreds of free stock images for blogs. Images are neatly organized in categories and can be downloaded in high resolution.

8. Pickup Image

Pickup Image offers a huge collection of public domain images. The site can be easily browsed through tags, or you can try the search. It also offers free clipart and graphics.

9. SplitShire

SplitShire is a beautiful collection of photographs released under the CC0 license. You can browse the site by using tags and filters or view images in the mosaic view.

10. The British Library

The Flickr account of The British Library showcases over a million illustrations, drawings, and works taken from 17th, 18th, and 19th-century books. All these works are released under the CC0 license and can be used anywhere without restriction.

11. LibreShot

LibreShot features the works of photographer Martin Vorel, which were released under the public domain.

12. StockCake

StockCake is a collection of free public domain stock photos. It has a large collection of thousands of public domain images you can download and use on your WordPress blog.

13. Reusable Art

Reusable Art is a collection of thousands of vintage drawings, illustrations, and artworks. All works displayed on the website are under the public domain.

14. Skitterphoto

Skitterphoto is a beautifully curated collection of CC0-licensed images. The site features works of their own photographers, so you will find less-used and unique photographs to use on your website.

15. StockSnap.io

StockSnap is a curation of beautiful free stock photos where hundreds of images are added weekly.

16. Barn Images

Barn Images is a collection of CC0-licensed images. You can browse images in categories or tags or search for keywords. All images are available in high resolution for free downloads.

Which Is the Best Stock Images Website?

While the above websites offer a great selection of free images, readers often ask us where we get our great-looking illustrations for our thumbnails / featured images.

We use Adobe Stock because it gives us a large library of premium images, vectors, and illustrations.

Whichever stock photo site you use, it’s always important to save your images optimized for the web so that your website always loads fast.

We hope this article helped you find the best sources for free public domain and CC0-licensed images for your website. You may also want to check out our other guide for your WordPress website.

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