Unsplash: our favorite free stock photo library

Every marketer has been there: the moment you spot the same overused Canva template, or the exact same stock photo that 100 other advertisers thought was a great idea 🙄.

That’s largely what pushed the creators of Unsplash to democratize quality photography for reuse, for FREE. Originally launched as a Tumblr in 2013, Unsplash imported and made public a collection of photos 🖥️📱 shared through Dropbox links.

Having grown into a full-fledged website in 2014, and gone on to develop several useful tools such as search tags and collections, forge partnerships with Apple, The New York Library and NASA (including the first-ever selfie taken in space, available on the platform 🧑‍🚀🚀), and rack up an exponential number of contributors, visuals and downloads, Unsplash is a tool many agencies simply can’t do without anymore.

Whether it’s for dressing up a website, illustrating a presentation deck, or finding the perfect shot for social media, Unsplash is THE go-to resource.

It also lets you follow the downloads of our favorite photographers and content creators, on top of being a great showcase connecting freelancers with potential clients.

Shoutout to the marketer’s best friend:

• Launched on May 27, 2013 in Montreal (!!!) by Mikael Cho, Luke Chesser, Stephanie Liverani and Angus Woodman;
• 3 million royalty-free photos and 4 billion downloads to date;
• Close to 300,000 contributors and photographers around the globe;
• Partner of BuzzFeed, Squarespace and Trello, for highly accessible content;
• Acquired by Getty Images in 2021;
• In October 2022, the launch of Unsplash+, a paid plan for access to an even larger photo library.

Betting Unsplash still has plenty more to show us! 🥁