35 Best Places To Sell Photos Online And Make Money

Knowing the best places to sell photos online is essential for earning money online while leveraging your photography skills.

Selling photos online can turn your passion into a thriving career. Even beginners can earn extra cash by marketing photography content online.

As long as you know the best stock photography platforms, your work with the camera will bring you a solid income.

Today, you’ll learn how to sell photos from home and make money online.

• What are the top places to sell photos online?
• Is it worth selling photos online?

This post contains affiliate links – see my affiliate disclosure.

How Much Money Can You Make Selling Photos Online?

First and foremost, anyone with a good camera and decent photography skills can sell photos online. Even aspiring photographers should upload their pictures to stock photography websites.

Thousands of companies and large sites require high-quality photographs that meet the specific needs of their businesses. They’re the customers willing to pay a reasonable price for stock images.

Once a client buys a photo from a stock photography site, the image owner earns a commission. But how much would that be?

Your earnings from selling photos depend on several factors. Let’s look at them:

Are you offering professional images in high demand? Stunning photos that clients are actively searching for pay more.

Next, are you being consistent when building your portfolio? Regularly uploading images will boost your chances of making a sale.

Lastly, different platforms and media outlets accepting photo submissions offer various payouts – you should become familiar with pay rates and royalties before committing to a selling platform.

What Photos Sell Best Online?

• People: Offering pictures of people from different cultures can bring a decent income as a photographer.
• Nature: Snapping shots outdoors never gets old – your nature images will also fetch a great price.
• Food: Many businesses, companies, and individual content creators need food images for different purposes.

Of course, other types of photos (product photography) will find paying customers. What else is there to know about the images that sell well through consistent marketing efforts and demand?

• Candid photos work better than posed snaps.
• Your subject should look away (buyers love that!).
• Do wide shots instead of closeups.

The Best Places To Sell Photos Online And Earn Money

1) Getty Images

Getty Images is the most popular platform on this list, with a long history in stock photography.

Unfortunately, Getty Images is a hard place for any professional photographer to earn a living in an oversaturated market.

You must submit at least six high-quality images on the site. The company will review your content to determine whether it meets the buyer’s needs.

Assuming you manage to get in, you can earn up to 20% commission from your photos. More often than not, the images on the site tend to sell for hundreds of dollars, which means you can make pretty good money.

2) iStock Photo

To clarify, iStock Photo is not an independent platform but a microstock branch of Getty Images.

These days, iStock Photo is the most suitable place to sell photos if you are a beginner. Currently, the site offers various resources and forums you can use to learn how to benefit from your photo-selling activities.

iStock lets you sell photos, videos, audio, and illustrations.

Generally, the royalty payment you can expect from the site is up to 45% per download, depending on the popularity of your content among users.

However, your commission rate as one of the exclusive contributors will jump to 22%-45%.

3) Adobe Stock

By all means, Adobe Stock is more than just one of the best places to sell photos online – it’s also the first among all photo-selling websites to exist.

Unsurprisingly, the platform has many advantages you likely will not find on similar stock sites. For example, each Adobe Stock artist can receive royalties immediately without waiting for a certain threshold.

Also, Adobe pays some of the highest commissions in the photography field. As a contributor, you can earn up to 60% commission without giving away the exclusive rights to your images.

The site integrates with the Adobe Creative Cloud Platform, which makes it very popular among new photographers looking to monetize their best work. I suggest learning as much as possible about selling stock photos on Adobe, including where to find your Adobe ID!

4) Bigstock

Prepare yourself for something different because BigStock doesn’t work like most of the other stock photography sites on this list:

Nowadays, BigStock provides not one but two ways for photographers to make money on the site. Allow me to explain:

When people buy stock images from BigStock, they get credits to purchase more photographs.

Let’s imagine that a buyer pays for your image with such credit. That purchase will bring you up to $3 (for a large version of the image) and the 30% commission the site pays to photo sellers.

Ultimately, the more downloads your digital images receive, the more your commissions will increase.

5) Shutterstock

Usually, Shutterstock is at the top of most lists of best places to sell photos online. And that’s not by accident:

So far, the site has paid over $1 billion to photographers worldwide – you can imagine how many potential buyers Shutterstock attracts all the time!

Users can choose from over 600 million images and videos. Since they can also download royalty-free images, you must upload many photos (of high quality) to earn good money on the platform.

If you decide to sell your photos on Shutterstock, you can keep the rights to your content. Additionally, the site gives credit to the image’s owner.

Overall, expect to receive up to 40% commissions on the selling price of your photos.

6) Alamy

While Alamy is not the largest online marketplace for stock photography, it’s one of the most competitive in the industry:

Photographers earn 20-50% commission on every sale, depending on the popularity of their work among potential clients.

Showcasing your images on the site is possible without licensing or copyright issues. If you decide to license any digital image, Alamy will handle that on your behalf.

Any seller can offer stock image files on Alamy for free – signing up to upload photos and sell them to a global audience doesn’t come with upfront costs. Selling images on Alamy is a great way for students to earn money, considering they will receive a 100% commission for the first two years.

More importantly, Alamy will not edit your photography submissions – you will have complete control over your work.

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7) Dreamstime

Next on my list of best places to sell photos online is Dreamstime. To say that Dreamstime operates differently from most stock photo sites online would be the understatement of the year:

Working with Dreamstime will allow you to create and curate your galleries. Subsequently, you’ll have much more creative control as an artist selling work online.

All submissions to the site go through a screening process. That’s necessary because Dreamstime prohibits uploading violent or copyrighted content.

Commission rates can reach 45% per sale.

8) SmugMug

SmugMug is another photo-selling site that works out of the ordinary:

You’ll have to introduce your brand portfolio digitally and allow users to share your work on Social Media.

Choosing SmugMug to sell your photos guarantees commissions of up to 85%. However, joining the site comes at a price – all photographers should pay a monthly subscription fee.

Going through the 14-day free trial will help you decide if SmugMug is the most suitable platform for your photography business before committing to a paid plan.

Why should you sell high-quality photos on SmugMug instead of other online platforms? Here is why SmugMug is a great place for professional photographers and graphic designers who offer various types of photos:

Photo content creators can sell prints and other digital downloads to place on different physical products – SmugMug partners with various print labs. Can you think of a more convenient way to attract a wide audience of potential customers?

9) CanStock Photo

Currently, CanStock Photo works via the Speed Submit System. That system helps photographers instantly attach releases to plenty of photos.

Believe it or not, the website lets you upload a text file from your hard drive that contains all your images. Not many stock photo websites will allow you to do the same.

As you can guess, that will save you money. One-time purchases can bring you between $1 and $2.50.

Important Update: It seems that CanStock Photo has ceased all operations – I’ll let you know if that changes in the future.  It’s a good thing that the platform has informed the general public about this new development before image sellers try to upload any type of photos!

10) 123RF

Are you a student looking for a job? Do you need to earn some extra cash as a teen?

Unfortunately, you can’t do that through 123RF – the platform will not allow you to contribute photos until you’re at least 18 years old.

Those of you who are older will receive up to 60% commissions. What type of professional photos with high resolution can you sell on online marketplaces like 123RF?

Offering illustrations and video content that a buyer can add to their shopping cart on the platform is a good idea – larger resolutions will fetch a higher price.

11) Photocase

If we are to talk about size, Photocase is probably not the most impressive site of all the best places to sell photos online.

Be that as it may, Photocase is still worth the effort:

Due to its point system, the website offers different opportunities for commissions:

Contributors earn between 20-50% commission on every sale.

12) Snapped4U

Do you love creating landscapes and still-life artworks?

Great, but you should try to sell them elsewhere – Snapped4U is one of the best sites for any professional offering event photography and portrait work.

Snapped4U charges a 10% transaction fee on image sales of over $5 and $0.50 for sales of photos that cost less than $5. Also, the platform doesn’t offer free access for sellers:

While you don’t have to invest in a paid plan, you can’t join the site unless you pay a one-time registration fee ($10). Is selling images on Snapped4U the best thing for your online photography business?

I can’t answer that for you – the website will allow you to set your own prices and receive your earnings on the 1st of the month via PayPal.

13) Crestock

By all means, Grestock is one of the best places to sell photos online to help you make money while you sleep. Working with this site is probably the easiest way to develop a passive income stream as an image seller.

You can build your online portfolio faster on Grestock by uploading many photos.
Once the editorial team approves them, clients can begin purchasing them.

Creating an account on Crestock is free of charge. Its ease of use makes the site good option for beginner photography sellers.

14) PhotoShelter

First and foremost, PhotoShelter is not a platform where you can exchange your images for cash.

No, the site is an online store you can join to sell prints to customers.

Working with PhotoShelter comes at a price:

There is no free plan, and sellers must pay for space on the platform before uploading a single image.

15) TourPhotos

TourPhotos is one of the lesser-known microstock sites that image sellers can join to make money online. But is the platform the right place for you?

It is if you’re a photographer who specializes in travel images. Nowadays, TourPhotos accepts only snaps and photo shoots of existing trips.

How much money can you make through this website, and how does selling images to a client work?

That depends on various factors, such as the types of photos you offer, market demand, and whether your content is intended for commercial use, among others.

16) Twenty20

Does Twenty20 sound familiar? Probably it does:

Those familiar with website builders see Twenty20 as a WordPress theme (there is also a plugin with the same name).

However, Twenty20 was also primarily a professional tool that many photographers used to sell their images to brands on Instagram. Things are different now:

Today, Twenty20 is one of the many stock photography sites anyone can join to sell images online. Expect to earn $2 per image licensed, cash prizes from challenges, and 100% commissions from brands that will hire you for shoots.

Overall, Twenty20 is one of the best platforms for image sellers researching popular options for monetizing their content.

17) CrowdPhoto

Prepare to work on assignments if you want to take advantage of CrowdPhoto:

More often than not, companies post requirements for specific images on CrowdPhoto.

All you need to do is pick an assignment, complete it, upload the image, and wait for approval.

Assuming you get it, you’ll receive 20 Euros via PayPal.

18) Animals Animals

Generally, the name of the next platform I’ll discuss gives it all away:

Animals Animals is a stock photography agency and one of the best websites that pays for animal images.

Photographers who submit high-quality content will see their work on the platform. They’ll receive a 50% commission on photo sales.

19) Stockfresh

Stockfresh is a lesser-known marketplace among all the best places to sell photos online. Be that as it may, working with it is not a bad idea:

Contributors get their earnings via PayPal or Skrill.

Both images and vector illustrations can earn you extra income on the website.

20) 500px

500px works differently from most stock image sites above – the platform allows professional and inexperienced photographers to host and sell photos on its site. But that is not all:

Nowadays, 500px connects photo content creators who want to improve each other’s work by providing honest feedback. What about the selling process on the site?

While you can use the platform through a free account, becoming a paid member will allow you to benefit more from everything 500px can offer. Paying members receive high royalties (100%) when selling exclusive photos (the free ones get only 60%).

21) Stocksy

Most people don’t see Stocksy as one of the best places to sell photos online, but I disagree:

Stocksy only accepts high-quality images of different styles if they’re exclusive to the platform. Be that as it may, selling photos on this website has many advantages:

Photographers receive high royalty rates – the amount you get depends on the type of license an image has. For instance, sellers earn a 50% royalty on standard and 75% on extended ones.

22) Picfair

Picfair is one of the best websites to join if you want to build an impressive online presence and a strong portfolio as a professional photographer.

Each seller chooses a base price for images and other digital files. Unfortunately, Picfair is not free – creating an online store on it will cost you $5 monthly.  That’s not much if developing your own eCommerce website on the right platform is a part of your marketing plan.

23) Envato Elements

Envato Elements operates differently than you probably expect:

Firstly, users have two selling options: offering images through the Envato app or uploading them to their own site on the platform’s domain.

Secondly, photographers receive 25-50% of the net subscription revenue – your earnings depend on the client’s subscription.

24) Unsplash

Getty Images owns Unsplash – a free stock photo website you can use to make money from home as a photographer. How does it work?

Photographers must complete the Unsplash+ Contribution Application. Once they do that, they get paid for each image the site accepts.

25) Sell Photos Online On Your Own Website

Say what you will, but a custom WordPress site will always be at the top of all lists of best places to sell photos online. Launching a blog to sell images from your photo gallery has tons of advantages.

For example, you don’t have to pay fees each time you sell an image. Furthermore, you have full control of how your business operates.

Are you planning to sell physical prints to your target audience?  Being able to log into your site and improve your product descriptions to rank them well on all search engines is your prerogative.

What about using a Print-On-Demand Service to sell digital products?  Doing that through your personal website instead of an alternative eCommerce platform is the best way to satisfy your own needs as a business owner.

Get top-notch hosting with SiteGround and build your website today. Then, learn as much as possible about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to rank your content high on the search results.

Advanced popular features and various marketing materials will help you promote your website to reach potential buyers looking for high-quality photos.  Let’s not forget the power of your future email list!

You can integrate a shopping cart to help anyone who discovers your images through the search results complete a purchase quickly by using debit or credit cards.

10 Alternative Best Places To Sell Photos Online For Cash

• Instaproofs: Unless you pay to become a member, Instaproofs will charge a 12% fee on all your sales.
• Fotomoto: Generally, Fotomoto is not a platform where you can sell photos. Instead, the site lets you sell images through its widget.
• CafePress: CafePress can work better if you sell graphic designs.
• MorePhotos: Feel free to sell both photos and prints on MorePhotos – you can do that after you start paying the monthly subscription fee ($30).
• EyeEm: EyeEm will market your photos to online galleries – you get to earn a 50% commission on each sale.
• Zenfolio: Many people use Zenfolio to build an online shop to sell videos and photos online.
• Etsy: Etsy allows you to sell your photos and photo books as a digital download.
• Foap: Foap is a mobile app that lets you upload and sell photos.
• Deposit Photos: Deposit Photos buys stock images, videos, illustrations, backgrounds, and other editorial content.
• Fine Art America: FAA will earn you money if you sell images as prints.

Which Is The Best Site For Selling Photos?

By all means, all top platforms above deserve a spot on the list of best places to sell photos online. However, you probably don’t have the time to offer your images on the best stock photo websites that are willing to accept them.

So, which one is the best and will pay you better while allowing you to have the most control over your content?

• Alamy (up to 50% commission)
• 500px (100% royalties for exclusive photos)
• Stocksy (up to 75% of the purchase price)

My Closing

Nowadays, the opportunities to make money by selling images online and on social media platforms are here to stay.

The earning process will begin once you pick a selling platform. Don’t hesitate to do that sooner rather than later!

With that said, I’m open to any questions you might have on this topic. Share your thoughts with me, and I’ll get back to you.

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