Are you a photographer looking for ways to sell photos online? If so, then continue reading. In this post, I’m going to share the 10 best stock photo websites to sell photos online and get paid for it.
So let’s get started…
1. Alamy
Alamy is one of the largest stock image platforms on the internet, offering over 298 million high-quality images across a wide range of categories. Alamy pays $1 million every single month to 60,000 contributors around the world.
All contributors are eligible to make 50% of any sale. But Alamy offers 100% commissions for contributors who are students. So if you are a student of one of these registered universities from the USA, UK, Australia, or New Zealand, you are eligible for 100% commission.
To sell photos, first, you need to become an Alamy contributor. Upon signing up, they ask for your name, email address, and a little about yourself. You can even specify yourself as a Student to take advantage of 100% commission.
- About Alamy: A collection of 298,961,432 stock photos, vectors, and videos with more than 60,000 contributors and 110,000+ buyers worldwide. Alamy has a quick and easy submission process with a straightforward and hassle-free contract.
- Alamy Commission Rates: Up to 50% commission split for Exclusive images, Up to 40% commission split for Non-exclusive images and 100% commissions for Students
- How to Become An Alamy Contributor: Sign up and fill out this simple form
- Alamy Payment Method: Paypal, Skrill, or bank transfer.
- Alamy Minimum Payment Threshold: $50
- Alamy Contributor Earnings: You can make at least $45 for each image you sell on Alamy.
2. ClickASnap
ClickAsnap is the world’s largest “pay-per-view” image sharing platform, with 5,000+ people joining daily and 400,000 unique monthly visitors, there’s enough room for your success when becoming a contributor.
However, you can become a ClickASnap Contributor for free but in order to get paid, you need to opt for a £2/mo subscription plan. Actually, they have 3 different membership levels, which you can pay as a monthly or yearly subscription. The lowest membership is £2/month,£19.20/yr, with our highest value membership being £6/mo or £57.60/yr. A range of benefits is offered across these membership levels.
- About ClickASnap: It has grown to over 2.2 million users signing up, over 10 million images shared, and close to 50 million images viewed in the last 5 years. It’s the only platform which will pay you when your images are viewed anywhere near to the extent.
- ClickASnap Commission Rates: Up to 0.70€ Per view
- How to Become An ClickASnap Contributor: Sign up Here!
- ClickASnap Payment Method: Paypal
- ClickASnap Minimum Payment Threshold: $15; it means you need to generate 2100 views to make this much amount of money.
- ClickASnap Contributor Earnings: If you can drive 200 views to your images every single day, then you can make up to $40 per month passively.
3. EyeEm
EyeEm provides professional photographers and videographers with opportunities to work with brands and agencies. If you are more into advertising stock photography, then this might be the right website to sell photos online.
Once you’re approved as a contributor and upload your work to market, EyeEm’s computer vision technology reviews your photo and checks whether or not it has commercial potential.
- About EyeEm: It’s a vibrant community of skilled photographers to make money selling photos. It has partnered with Gatty images to help you bring huge exposure to your content.
- EyeEm Commission Rates: By EyeEm
| Payout Level | Payout Level 4 | Payout Level 3 | Payout Level 2 | Payout Level 1 |
| Revenue Threshold | $0 – $299 | $300 – $2,999 | $3,000 – $6,999 | $7,000+ |
| License Revenue Share | 25% | 35% | 45% | 55% |
- How to Become An EyeEM Contributor: Sign up Here!
- EyeEm Payment Method: PayPal
- EyeEm Minimum Payment Threshold: $10
- EyeEmContributor Earnings: The earnings depend on the payout levels and the number of licenses you get sold.
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4. Stocksy
Stocksy is a collection of authentic stock photography platforms to discover unique photos and footage effortlessly.
To sell photos online, you need to become a contributor at Stocksy. For this, you need to fill out an application form where you need to share a little about yourself, and your portfolio. Then you have to unload at least 10 high-quality unique photos (jpg), videos (mp4), or illustrations (,MOV).
Once you’ve done, the Stocksy professional’s team will review your application and reach back to you within 1-2 weeks.
Remember Stocksy is small cooperation and is very conscious of not flooding the market with content unless it either offers something new or helps to raise the overall quality level. So for higher chances of approval, you must look at the ideas from the existing contributors here!
Or you can get started from here – Check the curated search for a better understanding of the quality of content.
- About Stocksy: Stocksy also known as Stocksy united. Being a contributor, you get fair pay for your creativity.
- Stocksy Commission Rates: 50% from regular purchases ($15-$400) and 75% from extended licenses ($100-10,800) directly into your pockets.
- How to Become An Stocksy Contributor: Sign Up Here!
- Stocksy Payment Method: Payoneer (our preferred method*), PayPal, and Cheque
- Stocksy Minimum Payment Threshold: $100
- Stocksy Contributor Earnings: Your earnings depend on supply and demand, your activity level, the time of year, fluctuating trends, your metadata, and several other factors. However, you can make a living if you can drive consistent sales on Stocksy.
5. 500px
500px is one of the largest networks of professional photographers on the web and is a fantastic resource for discovering outstanding creative photography from contributors at 500px. Whether you’re starting out or looking to improve your work, 500px has everything you need to grow as a photographer.
You can also license your best work at 500px and sell your photography to make some profit.
500px is now an official partner of Getty Images and VCG and has made hundreds of thousands of great images available for licensing as royalty-free stock photos.
To get started, first, visit this page and read all the submission processes, rules and guidelines. I also recommend you read their submission requirement page to learn the technical requirements for licensing your best work.
- About 500px: 500px is one of the most popular places for photographers to upload exclusive stock images and share them globally. If you’ve got a great collection of photos, share them on 500px.
- 500px Commission Rates: 60% of net sales. Users with Awesome- or Pro-level memberships will earn 100% of net sales on images they’ve submitted exclusively for licensing. And 25% share of net sales on non-exclusive photos.
- How to Become An 500px Contributor: Sign Up Here!
- 500pxPayment Method: eCheck / Local Bank Transfer – $5.50 fee; ACH: Free Wire Transfer – $16.50-$28.60 fee – PayPal: Free*
- 500px Minimum Payment Threshold: $30
- 500px Contributor Earnings: As per my knowledge, one image is can be sold for up to $150, and you can make nearly $80 – $90 per license. So, if you make 5 – 10 sales a month, you can easily earn up to $400 – $900 per month selling your photos online.
6. Dreamstime
Dreamstime is another popular stock photo platform where you can find high-quality image assets at affordable prices.
And the best part? You can become a contributor without filling out any form. You just need to create an account at Dreamstime and start uploading images via FTP.
You can upload an image with a minimum size of 3MB to a maximum of 70MB. Apart from selling images, you can also get royalties for audio and videos.
- About Dreamstime: With over 44 million registered members, over 900K contributing photographers, and over 193 Million images, illustrations, and vectors, Dreamstime is one of the best stock photo sites in the world.
- Dreamstime Commission Rates: The Contributor receives 25-50% Revenue Share, which is calculated based on the net amount for the transaction. Exclusive files receive an additional 10 % bonus, while exclusive contributors enjoy a 60 % Revenue Share for all sales.
- How to Become An Dreamstime Contributor: Sign Up Here!
- Dreamstime Payment Method: Payments can be sent as bank checks (that you can cash at a local bank), by PayPal, Payoneer (Dreamstime Prepaid MasterCard), or Skrill (MoneyBookers).
- Dreamstime Minimum Payment Threshold: $100
- Dreamstime Contributor Earnings: The earnings depend on the level of content, type of license, and the number of downloads you sell. Based on that you can easily earn up to $300 a month.
7. SmugMug
SmugMug is also a great stock photo platform available for photographers to sell photos online.
It takes 15 minutes to set up your portfolio website which is ready to sell prints, products, and digital downloads.
You can create your custom pricelists with the help of robust clients and sales tools available to you. Moreover, SmugMug has partnered with the world’s finest prints labs to get your photos print on canvas, glasses, paper, etc.
- About SmugMug: Sumgmug is a subscription-based service. It means you need to pay a little subscription fee to join SmugMug pro. You can get a 14-day free trial if you decide to join Smugmug using this link.
- SmugMug Commission Rates: The Contributor receives 85% commission rates. For instance, if you sell a 5×7 for $10.79 and the SmugMug default price for it is $0.79. The markup is $10.00. You keep $8.50 as profit (85% of $10).
- How to Become An SumgMug Contributor: Sign Up Here!
- SmugMug Payment Method: PayPal and ACH direct deposit.
- SmugMug Minimum Payment Threshold: $500 (Make sure you fill out the Tax information to get paid)
- SmugMug Contributor Earnings: On average, you can sell a photo for a minimum of $5 to a maximum of $1800. So if you get 10 sales a month, you can make around $42 – $15300 per month. (Factors like type of photos, categories, and size decide the earnings.)
8. Shutterstock
Shutterstock is a giant stock photo platform with over 300 million stock images.
Photographers can make serious money selling photos on this platform. In fact, Shutterstock has paid out over $1 billion to its contributors till today.
The good thing about becoming a Shutterstock contributor is that you can earn more as you grow. The payout depends on the levels. For example, if you are a level-1 contributor, you’ll earn 15% of total sales and if you are a level-6 contributor, you’ll earn 40% of total sales.
However, the earnings are quite low for level-1 contributors, but you can still make a good profit because of its high volume of traffic.
- About Shutterstock: With over 300 million stock images and 1 million contributors, Shutterstock boasts clients in 150+ countries in 21 different languages. In addition to that, they add 200K+ new stock images every day.
- Shutterstock Commission Rates: Earn up to 40% commission each time someone downloads your images or videos from the Shutterstock image library.
- How to Become An Shutterstock Contributor: Sign Up Here!
- Shutterstock Payment Method: PayPal, Payoneer, and Skrill.
- Shutterstock Minimum Payment Threshold: $35; it is set as default. You can change it at your convenience.
- Shutterstock Contributor Earnings: Depends on the level and the number of downloads you make each month.
9. Getty Images
Getty Images is the most prestigious American visual media company founded in 1995.
As a photojournalist, videographer, or content creator, you can sell photos online with Getty images. iStock, and Unsplash.
By joining the Getty images contributor program, you’ll be able to put your creativity in front of top brands, leading advertising agencies, and global media companies.
To get started, first you need to download Getty image’s mobile app(Google Play & App Store).
Next, Upload 3-6 sample photos, videos (YouTube video Link), or illustrations. (Be the copyright owner of your work).
After that, you need to wait for the approval. You’ll be contacted via email within 7 days. If you’re accepted, they offer you a non-exclusive agreement to get started. Later, you can apply for an exclusive agreement for higher payouts and other exclusive benefits.
- About Getty Images: With over 477 million stock media content and 825K customers around the globe, Getty Images is the top American visual media company and is a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video, and music for businesses and consumers. (From Wikipedia)
- Getty images Commission Rates:15% – 45% on each file license. (Learn more here!)
- How to Become An Getty images Contributor: You need to download Getty Images’ mobile app(Google Play & App Store) to apply for becoming a Getty Images contributor.
- Getty images Payment Method: PayPal, and Payoneer.
- Getty images Minimum Payment Threshold: Not Mentioned
- Getty Images Contributor Earnings: “Getty images” shows your work to different-2 distributors including iStock. And you can easily make a living selling photos online with Getty images. Make sure you create Content that is most relevant to customer needs and is most in demand. View examples of inspiring photos, illustrations, and videos under “What Content Are We Looking For?” or see our Curated Collections.
Become An Getty images Contributor – Download Getty images App (Google Play & App Store)
10. WireStock
If you are looking for a hustle-free way to sell photos online, then I recommend you try WireStock. It takes care of all submissions and keywords. You just need to upload your best work and wait for Wiresock to submit your work to Shutterstock, Getty images, etc…
Remember, WireStock is not a direct seller, they have partnered with popular stock photo media platforms like Shutterstock, Getty images, Dreamstime, etc. to set things for you.
Wirestock is a third-party tool, so it doesn’t have its own contribution guidelines or anything including commission rates. They submit your work, get approved on your behalf, collect payments, keep a tiny cut, and send it to you.
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Conclusion
So, that was all about how you can earn money by selling photos online. All websites are legit and offer you the best payouts. In most cases, they offer a 50% commission rate.
I’m quite impressed with Alamy as it offers 100% commissions to students.
And Contributors at ClickASnap can get paid per view, which is even more interesting.
What’s your choice? let me know in the comment section!
I hope you found this article helpful. Please share it with your friends who love photography so that they too can start earning money to sell photos online.
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