Shutterstock promo code: up to 30% off stock images

Shutterstock offers several subscription types for different needs:

Images (photos and illustrations):

• 10 images/month subscription: €29/month
• 50 images/month subscription: €79/month
• 750 images/month subscription: €159/month (i.e. €0.21/image — one of the lowest prices on the market)

On-demand pack: from €49 for 5 images (perpetual licence, no monthly subscription)

Videos: specific subscriptions from €79/month

Royalty-free music: separate subscription or included in some plans

Teams: from €379/month for multiple users with centralised management

Annual subscriptions offer 10 to 30% off versus monthly. The 15-day free trial is available on image subscriptions.

Shutterstock has one of the largest royalty-free image libraries in the world, with over 700 million pieces of content (photos, illustrations, vectors, videos, music). This library is fed by more than 2 million contributors worldwide — professional photographers, illustrators and videographers who share their creations in exchange for royalties. Shutterstock content covers every subject:

• Business: meetings, offices, teamwork, tech
• Lifestyle: family, travel, food, sport
• Nature and architecture: landscapes, wildlife, world cities
• Medical: anatomy, laboratory, health
• Abstract and design: textures, backgrounds, shapes

The quality and diversity of the catalogue is Shutterstock's main advantage over competitors like Getty Images or Adobe Stock.

Comparison of the three main professional image banks:

Shutterstock is the best value for standard commercial uses (websites, social media, brochures). Getty Images is the reference for editorial images (press, reportage). Adobe Stock integrates natively into Photoshop/InDesign — ideal for Creative Cloud users.

The standard Shutterstock licence authorises most common commercial uses:

• Website (all sizes)
• Social media
• Email marketing
• Brochures and print up to 500,000 copies
• Presentations

The Extended Licence is needed for:

• Printing over 500,000 copies
• Reselling a product including the image (t-shirts, mugs, etc.)
• Permanent display on billboards
• Use in resold templates

The extended licence is available per image for around €199. Always check the appropriate licence for your use — a licence error can lead to copyright infringement claims. Shutterstock has a licence-verification tool in your account.

Summary of Shutterstock offers:

Images unused within the month don't roll over to the next (except on-demand packs). If your usage is irregular, the on-demand pack is more economical than a monthly subscription.

Shutterstock is especially suited to communication agencies, design studios and content creators with regular royalty-free image needs. The Pro 750-image plan at €159/month (€0.21/image) pays for itself in the first week for an agency handling several clients. Team-focused features ease collaboration:

• Shared collections: organise images by client or project
• Lightbox: save selections without downloading
• Batch download: export several images simultaneously
• History: find all images downloaded by your colleagues

The Shutterstock API is available for publishers and developers who want to integrate image search directly into their creative tools. For business cards and print products to use those images on, see Vistaprint.

Shutterstock integrated a generative-AI feature called "Shutterstock Generate" in 2023, letting you create custom images from a text description (prompt). Unlike tools like DALL-E or Midjourney, images generated by Shutterstock Generate are:

• Legally secure: Shutterstock indemnifies businesses in case of a dispute over the generated images' rights
• Licensed immediately: the same commercial licence as standard photos applies
• Included in your subscription: a generation quota is included depending on your plan

This feature meets a growing need among marketing teams: getting custom visuals without a photo studio or graphic designer, while staying within a clear legal framework.

Cancelling a Shutterstock subscription can be done at any time from your account (Settings > Subscription > Cancel). For monthly subscriptions, cancellation takes effect at the end of the current month — you keep access until then. For prepaid annual subscriptions, there's generally no pro-rata refund if you cancel mid-year. The 15-day free trial can be cancelled at any time at no cost. Note: Shutterstock auto-renews subscriptions — remember to cancel before the renewal date if you don't wish to continue. Images already downloaded under a valid licence remain usable even after cancellation.

Shutterstock maintains its position as the leading image bank with a Trustpilot score around 4/5. Strengths: the immensity of the catalogue (700M+ content), image quality and diversity, competitive prices at volume (€0.21/image on the 750 plan), and legal security of the licences. Criticisms concern difficulty cancelling the subscription (reported by some users), uneven quality among the 700 million images (many generic, uninspiring shots), and growing competition from AI tools (Midjourney, DALL-E) that can generate specific images impossible to find in an image bank.

Shutterstock subscriptions auto-renew at the end of each period (monthly or annual). Shutterstock sends a reminder email before renewal. If you've activated the 15-day free trial and don't cancel before the trial ends, your paid subscription starts automatically. Shutterstock offers a 30-day refund on annual subscriptions for dissatisfied new subscribers — this condition should be checked in the current T&Cs. On-demand packs are non-refundable once credits are used.

In the high-tech & digital category, also discover Cewe for photo prints, MPB for used photo gear and Rakuten for tech deals.