Shutterstock Best Review in 2020 : Details, Pricing & Feature

Over the years, the Shutterstock.com brand has been famous for everyone who wants royalty-free images for some of their work. Shutterstock’s image bank is one of the most complete as it has one of the largest image databases. Are you interested in it? Let’s get to this Shutterstock review.

Shutterstock Review | A Brief History

Shutterstock was founded in 2003 by photographer and programmer John Oringer (the company’s current CEO). It all started as a website where John gave 100,000 royalty-free photos. The main difference in his proposal is that instead of selling photos and asking for a minimum purchase (like the competition), Orringer makes a monthly contribution, which allows the client to pay a fixed number of images per month, instead of a fixed fee.

This innovative idea was so successful that it soon elevated Shutterstock to the royalty-free photo market on the web and has been there ever since. Over 15 years since its inception, the contribution of stock photography has extended to the entire market and has been adopted by all relevant image banks. Shutterstock quickly opened the door for photographers and designers worldwide to sell their images through their website.

As a result, the site has expanded dramatically. Not only does it hold a library of more than 300 million photos, vectors, and illustrations, but also a collection of millions of pieces of video and more music and sound. Today, Shutterstock is a royalty-free audiovisual content marketer and a preferred image bank for many buyers.

Shutterstock Pricing: to Buy Cheap Photos Online

From the outset, Shutterstock’s mission was to provide photos that were not royalty, good quality, and cheap. Their innovative proposal, a monthly subscription to stock photos, has proven to be a great way to achieve that goal. But they also offer a way to buy low-end photos individually without having to pay from time to time through image download packages.

Shutterstock subscriptions: More and lucrative photos

Shutterstock subscriptions set the standard of pricing and sales in almost every image bank on the market, because they cost much less per image so that buyers can access hundreds of downloads every month in a straightforward way.

There are Shutterstock plans that offer up to 750 image downloads per month. You can rent them for as little as a month and as long as a year. As you increase the compression period, the monthly cost of the plan will decrease, and the price of photography will fall. Here is the detailed pricing asked for in this Shutterstock review:

Shutterstock Monthly Plans:

• 750 images / $ – $ 249 ($ 0.33 per image)
• 350 images / $ – $ 199 ($ ​​0.57 per image)
• 50 / mo – $ 125 ($ 2.57 per image)
• Images 10 / mo – $ 49 ($ 4.90 per image)

Shutterstock Annual Plans:

• 750 images / $ – $ 199 ($ ​​0.27 per image)
• 350 images / $ – $ 169 ($ 0.48 per image)
• 50 / mo – $ 99 ($ ​​1.98 per image)
• Images 10 / mo – $ 29 ($ 2.90 per image)

As you can see, these subscriptions allow you to buy very cheap photos for less than a dollar and $ 0.27 each. Moreover, the subscription does not discriminate in image size or resolution so that you can get the highest quality at the same price. These plans give you hundreds of downloads per month, so you are always guaranteed access to new, high-quality photos for your projects.

If you continuously need lots of photos, subscribing to Shutterstock is a great option to save money and ensure high-resolution materials for your work.

Shutterstock image packages: less investment, more flexibility

Now, if you don’t use 750 pictures every month, then subscription may not be the best option for you. The price is easy, but if you drop hundreds of unused downloads every month, you will lose money. Also, subscribing to a plan means committing to paying a monthly fee for an extended period. Shutterstock has an option for all buyers who want fewer photos and don’t want to accept payment from time to time: image packaging.

These are download packs that you can buy in advance and use when you want to buy a photo. They are of two sizes and are divided by resolution. Here are the full prices:

Photos and vectors of all sizes

1. Picture 25 – $ 229 ($ 9.16 per image)
2. Picture 5 – $ 49 ($ 9.80 per image)

Small and medium photos

1. 60 pictures – $ 229 ($ 3.81 per image)
2. Picture 12 – $ 49 ($ 4.08 per image)

As you can see, the more photos you buy at Shutterstock, the lower each cost you will save in the long run. Thus, buying images individually is a little more expensive than doing it through subscriptions. Still, there are other advantages of image packaging, which can cover the slightly higher costs of individual downloads.

First, image packaging provides you with the number of downloads you need. But the apparent advantage of this option is its flexibility: download packs are valid for one year from the time they were purchased, allowing you to buy them today, and use them when you need 12 months, without having to worry about monthly limits or use Downloads without.

Also, you can get more pictures and lower costs depending on your resolution requirements. If small or medium photos meet your needs, you can get up to 5 times more downloads and lower unit prices than using photos and vectors of any resolution.

In this way, image packaging gives you the ability to control how much you spend and when you are using your downloads correctly. If you think you’re using too many pictures, but you don’t always know when to store these packages and use them when you need them. This is also an excellent way to try the Shutterstock service without committing to a long commitment before deciding whether a subscription is for you.

Shutterstock Review | conclusion

I hope this Shutterstock review will help you decide if you are looking for alternatives among the various stock image services on the market. Shutterstock is a web site and is one of the best if you need lots of pictures for your work or personal projects.