Comparison

Istockphoto vs Pexels

Istockphoto lands on Depends, and Pexels lands on Worth it.

Istockphoto

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Buy if your team licenses images regularly and wants Getty-backed rights and indemnification; subscriptions reward volume.

Worth it

Confidence: Medium

Use it if you need free, high-quality stock photos or videos . there is no purchase decision or paid tier at all.

Istockphoto versus Pexels
Compare	Istockphoto	Pexels
Verdict	Depends	Worth it
Best for	Marketing teams buying images weekly	Bloggers and marketers needing free images
Who it's not for	Anyone needing a handful of images . free sites cover you	Anyone reselling stock images as-is
Privacy	Mature Getty-owned vendor with a HackerOne response policy; only finding is a 2009 phishing incident.¹²	No public vulnerabilities found for itself; severe CVEs affect its third-party WordPress plugin, and no public security page was found.
Support quality	Refunds granted per Reddit; 927 Trustpilot reviews	App Store reviewer says company doesn't care
Public sentiment	Opinion is split: some find the entry price reasonable, while others complain bitterly about annual subscription renewals.^¹	Reviewers largely praise Pexels as a dependable, easy, high-quality free stock source, with occasional complaints about curation and support.
Biggest gotcha	Annual subscription rates are the loudest user complaint; read renewal terms before committing^³	WordPress plugin users must patch: SSRF CVE-2024-25915 (CVSS 8.8) and RCE CVE-2024-6132