Pixabay vs Shutterstock

Pixabay and Shutterstock both land on Depends.

Pixabay

pixabay.com

Analyzed September 21, 2026

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Use it for zero-budget blogs, mockups, and background imagery where a copyright scare is survivable.

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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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Pixabay versus Shutterstock
Compare	Pixabay	Shutterstock
Verdict	Depends	Depends
Best for	Bloggers needing free images	Marketing teams buying licensed images at volume
Who it's not for	Book or album cover designers	Anyone needing a few free images
Privacy	Main site shows no security page; the Pixabay Images WordPress plugin carries multiple CVEs including a 2025 RCE.¹⁰	No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.
Support quality	No support-specific evidence found	Cancellation complaints dominate negative reviews
Public sentiment	Users love the free commercial-use model but repeatedly report copyright claims and demand letters from third-party uploads.^¹	Public reviews skew sharply negative on billing and cancellations, while long-time contributors report steadily shrinking earnings.¹⁶
Biggest gotcha	Contributor uploads you don't own can produce demand letters; you carry the legal risk^³	Auto-renew traps: FTC fined $35M over cancellation hurdles. Calendar your renewal date and cancel in writing.¹⁵

Pick Pixabay when

Bloggers needing free images
Background footage and mockups
Zero-budget creators
Prototypes and internal decks

When Pixabay is not a fit

Book or album cover designers
YouTube creators using its music
Brands needing legal indemnification
Anyone who cannot risk a demand letter

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

Trustpilot reviews of Pixabaytrustpilot.com
review
Coverart: Beware Pixabay . Reddit r/selfpublishreddit.com
review
Demand letter after using a Pixabay image . Reddit r/COPYRIGHTreddit.com
review
Copyright claim on a Pixabay song . Reddit r/NewTubersreddit.com
review
Pixabay review . TechRadartechradar.com
review
Pixabay G2 reviewsg2.com
review
Pixabay FAQ (Canva acquisition)pixabay.com
official
Pixabay Content License Summarypixabay.com
official
Vecteezy vs. Pixabay comparisonvecteezy.com
news
CVE-2025-4413: Pixabay Images RCE . SentinelOnesentinelone.com
security
Pixabay Images directory traversal . Wordfencewordfence.com
security
CVE-2015-1366 . NVDnvd.nist.gov
security
Pixabay API pricingapis.io
official
Limited variety thread . Reddit r/web_designreddit.com
review
FTC: Shutterstock to Pay $35 Million to Settle Allegationsftc.gov
news
Trustpilot . Shutterstock Customer Service Reviewstrustpilot.com
review