15 Places to Sell Stock Photography Online

In an era of fast technological advancements, it’s never been easier to take great photos and profit from your work.

To make things even easier, we have put together a list of some of the best websites where you can make money by selling your photography online.

123RF

If photography is your passion and something you put a lot of time and effort into, then 123RF is a great place to start reaping the fruits of your labour.

Starting at a 30% commission rate, depending on your activity and the popularity of your images, you can increase it to an enormous 60%.

500px

With approval being done by an actual human, waiting times to get onboard 500px can be lengthy and the entire sales process takes 45 days, which is a bit long for some people.

However they do pay 60% commission on images you upload exclusively to their website, and 30% commission if you have the same image on other websites.

AgeFotoStock

With a fair and square 50% commission, AgeFotoStock is a Spanish-based stock photography marketplace that can distribute your images around the world.

Alamy

With a massive 50% payment on each sale and the fact that you don’t have to exclusively sell your images here, it’s no wonder that Alamy is one of the best online stock photography selling platforms that’s been going since 1999.

BigStock

Although founded in 2004, BigStock has been a trademark of Shutterstock since 2009 and offers over 81 million files including images, videos, and vectors.

While you can earn a 30% commission selling images on BigStock, your customers can also earn credits back with their purchases, making it a popular choice and giving the website a unique selling point to some of its rivals.

Can Stock Photo

A great option if you have to submit model releases with your photography, as Can Stock Photo has a speed submit system which enables you to upload releases with whole batches of photos.

Can Stock Photo offers 50 cents to a dollar for small one-off jpeg downloads, depending on whether they have been purchased with credits or not, and $2.50 for large, hi-res images.

Crestock

Based in Canada, Crestock has a fast and reliable image-uploading system and is one of the newer members of the microstock photography market.

It’s easy to sign up with Crestock and start uploading images straight away. Once your images gain approval, you can earn between 20 – 40% commission.

Dreamstime

As an excellent place to start, Dreamstime offers commissions starting from 25% for non-exclusive photos and 27% for exclusive ones, which can go up to 45% for non-exclusive and 49.5% for exclusive photos, the more you sell.

As you would expect with all photography selling platforms, all images will go through a screening process however Dreamstime has less strict guidelines, making it a more user-friendly option for beginners.

EyeEm

This website is an online community for photographers as well as a marketplace where they can showcase and profit from their work. What's more, EyeEm allows your images to be used by the likes of Airbnb and Getty Images as they sell your work to large marketplaces such as these.

Fotolia (Adobe Stock)

Formerly Fotolia and now known as Adobe Stock, the pros of selling your photography here include 20-46% in royalty payments, which are paid out instantly rather than having to wait for a payment threshold as you do with many websites, as well as a four-million strong customer base.

Getty Images

Established in 1995, Getty Images holds a prestigious title in the world of stock photography. The difference between Getty Images and its microstock photography branch iStock is that buyers purchase a Rights Managed license rather than individual images, making it more challenging to become a seller on Getty Images.

However, if you do manage to get on board, you can earn up to 20% on your images that can sell for hundreds of dollars,  they also get a lot of traffic which means more potential sales.

iStock

Owned by Getty Images, iStock is the perfect option if you want to earn commission per image, rather than the above-mentioned license, but enjoy the sales potential and flow of traffic you would expect from a site like Getty Images.

You can earn anywhere between 15-45% selling stock photography with iStock, depending on whether the images are being sold with subscription credits, their popularity as well as the exclusivity of the photos.

Photocase

Based in Germany, Photocase is a small company that offers big commission payments that start from 20% with the potential to reach 50%. It’s the ideal place to showcase and profit from contemporary and unique photography that people won't find anywhere else. Above all, when it comes to contributors, Photocase believes in transparency and fairness.

Shutterstock

Earn up to 30% by selling your photography with Shutterstock while at the same time keeping the copyright and the ability to sell the same images on other platforms. With over 184 million images and 91 million videos, Shutterstock is truly one of the main players in this field.

Stocksy

When it comes to submitting your photos, Stocksy has very high standards despite not being one of the biggest stock photography marketplaces. What’s more, you can only sell exclusive images here, but it’s worth the consideration as they can pay out anything between 50 – 75% commission to you per total purchase.

Furthermore, Stocksy was founded by Bruce Livingstone, the founder of iStock, so they certainly know their stuff.

There are plenty of options when it comes to selling your stock photography on the internet; we hope that this post has given you some insight into where you might want to start. Before you go ahead, it’s also a good idea to check out the latest guidelines and commission rates for each website in case they have changed.