Depositphotos
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if your team downloads many licensed images monthly and wants photos, video, and music from one library.
Comparison
Depositphotos vs Shutterstock
Depositphotos and Shutterstock both land on Depends.
Shutterstock
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy only if you need volume licensed stock media and will track auto-renewals closely . the library is real, but billing practices earned a $35M FTC settlement.
| Compare | Depositphotos | Shutterstock |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Teams needing constant fresh imagery | Marketing teams buying licensed images at volume |
| Who it's not for | Occasional users needing one or two images | Anyone needing a few free images |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.14 | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed. |
| Support quality | License-flag complaints; BBB disputes listed | Cancellation complaints dominate negative reviews |
| Public sentiment | Buyers like the library breadth and pricing, but Reddit threads flag copyright-claim headaches and contributors report low earnings.¹ | Public reviews skew sharply negative on billing and cancellations, while long-time contributors report steadily shrinking earnings. |
| Biggest gotcha | r/selfpublish users report infringement flags even after buying licensed images . keep purchase receipts.³ | Auto-renew traps: FTC fined $35M over cancellation hurdles. Calendar your renewal date and cancel in writing.16 |
Pick Depositphotos when
- Teams needing constant fresh imagery
- Self-publishers and bloggers at volume
- Agencies needing photos plus video and music
- Buyers via AppSumo lifetime deals
When Depositphotos is not a fit
- Occasional users needing one or two images
- Teams terrified of copyright flags on licensed files
- Anyone avoiding subscription commitments
- Contributors expecting meaningful payouts
Pick Shutterstock when
- Marketing teams buying licensed images at volume
- Content teams wanting photos, video, and music in one subscription
- Enterprises needing indemnified AI-generated content
When Shutterstock is not a fit
- Anyone needing a few free images
- One-off buyers . subscriptions auto-renew and are hard to cancel
- Contributors expecting meaningful income
- Budget teams tired of confusing pricing tiers
Sources
- Depositphotos Trustpilot reviewstrustpilot.comreview
review
review
- Experte.com Depositphotos reviewexperte.comreview
review
- Depositphotos BBB complaintsbbb.orgreview
- Microstockgroup: low earnings discussionmicrostockgroup.comreview
- Microstockgroup: personal details requested by emailmicrostockgroup.comreview
- Depositphotos on AppSumoappsumo.comofficial
- Depositphotos plans FAQdepositphotos.comofficial
- Depositphotos cancellation policydepositphotos.comofficial
- Standard and Extended License Agreementdepositphotos.comofficial
- Depositphotos security pagedepositphotos.comsecurity
- Nudge Security profile: depositphotos.comnudgesecurity.comsecurity
- Depositphotos completes $5M funding roundfinsmes.comnews
news