Microstock Top 40

By Andrew Hudson Published: June 27, 2011 Updated: May 17, 2017

Here are the 40 most popular microstock sites to sell your photos, ranked by website traffic.

Microstock Top 40
Rank	Website	Traffic	Notes
1	shutterstock	288
2	istockphoto	1,192	By Getty Images
3	dreamstime	1,346
4	123rf	1,499
5	depositphotos	1,783
6	alamy	3,466	UK
7	fotolia	3,863
8	pond5	6,603
9	bigstockphoto	10,208
10	canstockphoto	10,928
11	twenty20	17,575
12	colourbox	22,951
13	eyeem	42,848
14	stockfresh	43,593
15	photodune	47,903
16	stocksy	55,625
17	pixtastock	60,506
18	featurepics	94,098
19	pixoto	101,073
20	foap	167,236
21	yayimages	191,442
22	panthermedia	213,572	Germany
23	clipdealer	226,165
24	crestock	229,294
25	photocase	301,518
26	stockphoto	309,902
27	mostphotos	320,223
28	fotolibra	408,510	Historical photos
29	cliparto	420,882
30	photospin	477,097
31	signelements	498,872	UK
32	scanstockphoto	564,036
33	zoonar	564,175
34	shotshop	688,997
35	solidstockart	763,882
36	fantero	1,099,403
37	photographersdirect	1,190,850
38	cutcaster	1,237,846
39	mediabakery	1,965,187
40	fotoarabia	2,009,837
41	graphicleftovers	2,160,181	By Envato
42	kozzi	2,909,455
43	imagevortex	3,126,561	Set your own price
44	imageselect	3,484,270
45	stockphotomedia	4,053,626
46	moodboard	4,754,733
47	inmagine	7,123,045
48	stockfuel	9,913,763
49	picturestock	17,530,101
50	photaki	No data
51	viscoimages	No data
Notes: Rank=Position in this group in order of most Internet traffic, according to Alexa as of April 21, 2018. Traffic=Alexa Traffic Rank as of April 21, 2018.

That’s a lot of sites. Here are the top 10 questions about microstock.

Comments

Reply by Anonymous

January 27, 2015

Do you receive money for each picture, even if no one buys a picture?

Reply by Andrew Hudson, PhotoSecrets

January 27, 2015

Hi,

On microstock sites, you do not receive money for each picture if no one buys a picture. You only receive money when someone licenses the image — you usually get a percentage of the license amount.

Andrew

Reply by Maxal

February 9, 2013

Can I know why you have not put http://www.gettyimages.com in your classification?

According to Alexa it is at the rank 3,506, so should be at the 7th position in your list (before snapfish, that asks a fee for inscription).

I know that iStock is awned by Getty, but they still are two independent companies (if I have understood well)

Reply by Andrew Hudson, PhotoSecrets

March 5, 2013

GETTY IMAGES

Hi Maxal:

Yes, Getty Images is a major stock agency, and owns iStock.

For this page on microstock agencies, I chose not to include Getty Images as they are not generally considered a microstock company. Getty is known as a “rights-managed” agency, which is a more selective and expensive licensing model than “royalty-free” which is the microstock model. Similarly I did not include Getty’s main rival, Corbis.

Instead I just included microstock websites which, for Getty, is their subsidiary iStockphoto.

Thanks,

Andrew

Reply by Maxal

January 20, 2013

Please can you explain better what means:

Rank, Traffic, Min, Max, Link & Notes, and to what correspond the numbers and the % ?

Reply by Maxal

January 30, 2013

Well, after some reflection I have understood that "Traffic" is a rank too :)

Thank you Andrew

Reply by

January 30, 2013

Thank you for your answer Andrew.

But I continue to not understand well.

Why if Shutterstock is at the first rank it has the lowest traffic.

And Why if Photorankr is at the 40 ranks it has the second highest traffic (not even the highest)?

Reply by Andrew Hudson, PhotoSecrets

March 5, 2013

TRAFFIC RANK

Hi Anonymous:

You are right, my notes do not explain the numbers fully. The number that I label as "Traffic Rank" is actually a rank (assigned by Alexa.com based on traffic). For example, Google.com has an Alexa rank of 1, meaning that it is the most visited website (has the highest traffic of any site).

Andrew

Reply by Andrew Hudson, PhotoSecrets

January 27, 2013

RANK, TRAFFIC, MIN, MAX, LINK AND NOTES

Hi Maxal,

Thanks for your comment. You are right, I have not explained the columns well.

For objective organization, I have ranked the websites by Internet traffic, as reported by Alexa.com. So RANK means the most Internet traffic, i.e. it is the most visited (most popular) of these websites. TRAFFIC is the traffic reporting rank given by Alexa. MIN and MAX are the percentage of revenue (rates) that photographers receive (as of the date when I built this page). LINKS &: NOTES provides links for you to find out the current rates and other information.

Andrew

Reply by Gretchen

November 22, 2011

I have found a very funny picture of my father circa 1950 (obviously, someone else unknown took it). I want to publish it and have postcards, posters, and the like made from it. How do I do this, especially since I only own the picture but didn’t take it myself? Thank you.

Reply by Wann

August 23, 2011

If i sell my photos, how will i get the money?

Reply by Andrew Hudson, PhotoSecrets

August 26, 2011

Hi Wann:

If a microstock agency licenses your photos, they usually pay you by electronic transfer via PayPal or direct to your bank account.

Andrew

Microstock Top 40