4.6/5
G2 rating
44 product reviews
Report
Should I Use Pexels?
Free stock photos and videos
Worth it
Worth itUse it if you need free, high-quality stock photos or videos — there is no purchase decision or paid tier at all.
Totally free stock photos, videos and API, owned by Canva. Great default; avoid if you need exclusivity or indemnity.
Confidence: Medium
$0
Price
Photos, videos and API are free
Yes
Free tier
No paid plans found
Canva
Ownership
Acquired in 2019
Value for money
5
Everything free, commercial use included
Ease of use
5
Users repeatedly call it easy
Feature depth
4
Photos, videos, free API
Support quality
2
App Store reviewer says company doesn't care
Security posture
3
Site clean; plugin CVEs; no security page
Pros
Cons
Gotchas
- highWordPress plugin users must patch: SSRF CVE-2024-25915 (CVSS 8.8) and RCE CVE-2024-613212
- mediumCannot resell unaltered images or redistribute them as stock⁹
- mediumCopyright questions recur on Reddit; no releases provided, so vet identifiable people
- lowGuess: free API is rate-limited per key (details truncated in source)²
Best for
- Bloggers and marketers needing free images
- Video editors sourcing B-roll
- Developers wanting a free stock API
- Small businesses with zero content budget
Not for
- Anyone reselling stock images as-is
- Guess: Brands needing indemnified, model-released imagery
- Guess: Agencies wanting exclusive or editorial photos
- Guess: Teams needing paid support or SLAs
Pricing
Everything
$0
- Unlimited free photos and videos
- Commercial use allowed
- Free API access
Security
No vulnerabilities found for pexels.com itself; severe CVEs affect its third-party WordPress plugin, and no security page was found.
- CVE-2024-25915: SSRF in Pexels WordPress pluginServer-Side Request Forgery rated CVSS 8.8 in the 'Pexels: Free Stock Photos' WordPress plugin — not the site.12
- CVE-2024-6132: RCE in Pexels WordPress pluginRemote code execution vulnerability in the WordPress plugin, per NVD.13
- Stored XSS in plugin versions <= 1.2.2Authenticated contributor stored cross-site scripting in the WordPress plugin, per Wordfence.14
What users say
Reviewers largely praise Pexels as a dependable, easy, high-quality free stock source, with occasional complaints about curation and support.
“Pexels is excellent! I can't say enough”
“I like that Pexels is easy to use, ha”
“DO NOT download pexels because they DO NOT care about”
Alternatives
Compare Pexels with each alternative.
Unsplash
Free, artsy photos; widest variety per Zapier roundup
Pexels vs UnsplashPixabay
Similar free photos and videos, plus illustrations
Pexels vs PixabayShutterstock
Paid stock with broader, exclusive catalog and indemnification
Pexels vs ShutterstockFull analysis
Based on 20+ public sources; several quotes and snippets were truncated in source data.
Sources
- Pexels Free Stock Photo & Video Licensepexels.comofficial
- Is the Pexels API free to use?help.pexels.comofficial
- Pexels Reviews on G2g2.comreview
review
- Pexels Trustpilot reviewstrustpilot.comreview
review
- Pexels App Store reviewsapps.apple.comreview
review
- Canva acquires Pexels, Pixabaycanva.comnews
- Pexels — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.orgnews
- CVE-2024-25915: Pexels WordPress plugin SSRFsentinelone.comsecurity
- CVE-2024-6132: Pexels WordPress plugin RCEnvd.nist.govsecurity
- Pexels plugin stored XSS — Wordfencewordfence.comsecurity
- Pexels security pagepexels.comofficial
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