Pexels vs Shutterstock

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

Pexels

pexels.com

Analyzed September 21, 2026

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.

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Shutterstock

shutterstock.com

Analyzed September 25, 2026

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.

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Worth it Pexels Depends Shutterstock Independent comparison on Should I Use It

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Pexels versus Shutterstock
Compare	Pexels	Shutterstock
Verdict	Worth it	Depends
Best for	Bloggers and marketers needing free images	Marketing teams buying licensed images at volume
Who it's not for	Anyone reselling stock images as-is	Anyone needing a few free images
Privacy	No public vulnerabilities found for itself; severe CVEs affect its third-party WordPress plugin, and no public security page was found.¹²	No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.
Support quality	App Store reviewer says company doesn't care	Cancellation complaints dominate negative reviews
Public sentiment	Reviewers largely praise Pexels as a dependable, easy, high-quality free stock source, with occasional complaints about curation and support.^⁵	Public reviews skew sharply negative on billing and cancellations, while long-time contributors report steadily shrinking earnings.
Biggest gotcha	WordPress plugin users must patch: SSRF CVE-2024-25915 (CVSS 8.8) and RCE CVE-2024-6132¹²	Auto-renew traps: FTC fined $35M over cancellation hurdles. Calendar your renewal date and cancel in writing.¹⁶

Pick Pexels when

Bloggers and marketers needing free images
Video editors sourcing B-roll
Developers wanting a free stock API
Small businesses with zero content budget

When Pexels is not a fit

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

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

Pexels Free Stock Photo & Video Licensepexels.com
official
Is the Pexels API free to use?help.pexels.com
official
Pexels Reviews on G2g2.com
review
Pexels Products . 113 Reviews on G2g2.com
review
Pexels Trustpilot reviewstrustpilot.com
review
Pexels Review: Free Stock Photos, What's the Catch?experte.com
review
Pexels App Store reviewsapps.apple.com
review
What happened to Pexels.com??? . Reddit r/editorsreddit.com
review
YSK about Pexels . Reddit r/YouShouldKnowreddit.com
review
Canva acquires Pexels, Pixabaycanva.com
news
Pexels . Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
news
CVE-2024-25915: Pexels WordPress plugin SSRFsentinelone.com
security
CVE-2024-6132: Pexels WordPress plugin RCEnvd.nist.gov
security
Pexels plugin stored XSS . Wordfencewordfence.com
security
Pexels security pagepexels.com
official
FTC: Shutterstock to Pay $35 Million to Settle Allegationsftc.gov
news