In the bustling realm of digital content, visual appeal reigns supreme. From websites to social media platforms, captivating images are essential to capturing the audience’s attention. Bigstock, a popular stock photography platform, has been a go-to resource for professionals seeking high-quality visuals to enhance their projects. In this Bigstock review, we’ll walk you through how Bigstock works, explore its pricing structure, discuss its free options, pros, and cons, and even introduce some likely alternatives.
Whether you’re a marketer, blogger, or business owner, this Bigstock review will equip you with the information you need to make an informed decision. Without wasting any time, let’s jump into our article!
Review Summary
Bigstock is the microstock photo site owned by Shutterstock. It is not the best but the prices are low if you buy lots of images and the license also have limitations. The quality of the images needs to be improved.
Pros
- Diverse Content of Collection
- User-friendly Interface
- Intuitive search filters
- Flexible Pricing options
- Affordable Videos.
Cons
- Diverse Content of Collection
- User-friendly Interface
- Intuitive search filters
- Flexible Pricing options
- Affordable Videos.
- Limited Free Options
- Low quality images
- No legal coverage
Creativevault.net
Website
Images
Pricing
Free Trial
License
Overall Rating
Table of Contents
Overview
Bigstock is a microstock photography site founded in 2004 that sells online royalty-free images via a credit-based system. Many amazing royalty-free stock images, photos, and vectors are here. Bigstock isn’t the best choice, but prices are low if you only purchase pictures in bulk. The quality of images could be better, and the license is very narrow. The company was acquired by Shutterstock in 2009.
How Does Bigstock Work?
Bigstock is a user-friendly stock image platform offering thousands of images, illustrations, vectors, and videos. This platform functions on a credit-based system, allowing you to purchase credits exchanged for downloads. With Bigstock, you can access good-quality images that cover a diverse range of styles and niches.
Users can search for content through keywords, categories, or specific themes; its intuitive search and filtering options help you narrow your search results by keywords, categories, orientation, color, etc. But compared to other sites like Adobe Stock and iStock, the quality of Bigstock may need to improve in many ways.
Licensing Options
Bigstock has two types of licenses for its content: Standard royalty-free and Extended royalty-free. Let’s take a look at both of them :
Standard License
Content purchased under the Standard license can be used for Printing services like business cards and posters. And you are allowed to use the images and videos for your social media, Blogs, etc. It is a single-user license and has a reproduction limitation of 250,000 copies. You can not resell or redistribute the items under the Standard license.
Extended License
Content under Extended license has more flexibility on usage, but it comes with a higher price. It doesn’t have any limitations on reproduction products. You can resale images on physical products, including shirts, hats, mugs, calendars, stationery items, cards, and other small items. And also use pictures for magazines, newspapers, books, book covers, and textbooks for editorial and advertising purposes. The license covers more than you thought, but it also has limitations on some usage. You can read full details on the usage agreement here!
Bigstock Pricing
Bigstock sells images and videos through subscription and on-demand credits. The subscription plan is ideal for consistent image needs and comes with the best price per photo. While on-demand credits are a flexible option, the costs must be lowered compared to competitors.
Subscription Plan
Bigstock offers subscriptions that grant users access to a specific number of monthly downloads. Plans vary in terms of the number of downloads and duration. It has two different programs, including Monthly and daily subscriptions.
Daily Subscription: The plan grants you access to a limited number of daily downloads. But it only sometimes fits how you use the images. So that is why many users prefer Monthly subscriptions. Depending on the plan you choose, you can get 5- 50 downloads per day, but you will have to pay for the whole month in advance, which is confusing. Here are the following plans
Number of downloads | Plan Duration | Total Images | Cost per Image | Total Cost |
5 Images/Day | 1 month | 150 | $0.53 | $79 |
5 Images/Day | 3 months | 450 | $0.44 | $199 |
5 Images/Day | 12 months | 1,825 | $0.35 | $639 |
10 Images/Day | 1 month | 300 | $0.33 | $99 |
10 Images/Day | 3 months | 900 | $0.30 | $269 |
10 Images/Day | 12 months | 3,650 | $0.27 | $969 |
20 Images/Day | 1 month | 600 | $0.28 | $169 |
20 Images/Day | 3 months | 1,800 | $0.26 | $459 |
20 Images/Day | 12 months | 7,300 | $0.22 | $1,589 |
50 Images/Day | 1 month | 1,500 | $0.22 | $329 |
50 Images/Day | 3 months | 4,500 | $0.21 | $929 |
50 Images/Day | 12 months | 18,250 | $0.16 | $2,879 |
Monthly Subscription: The plan grants you access to a limited number of monthly downloads. The price depends on the program you choose, between 25 to 200/ images per month. The cost per image is expensive, but the pricing structure is not confusing, like a daily subscription. Here are the following plans.
Number of downloads | Plan Duration | Total Images | Cost per Image | Total Cost |
25 Images/Month | 1 month | 25 | $2.76 | $69 |
50 Images/Month | 1 month | 50 | $1.58 | $79 |
100 Images/Month | 1 month | 100 | $0.99 | $99 |
200 Images/Month | 1 month | 200 | $0.94 | $189 |
On-Demand Credits
For those with sporadic or infrequent visual needs, Bigstock offers on-demand credit packages. With this option, users can purchase a specific number of credits which can be used to download images, illustrations, vectors, or videos. It’s a versatile choice for those who prefer flexibility without committing to a subscription. You can get 10 – 500 credits available for sale, but if you need more than 500 credits, you can choose the credit pack size according to your requirements. The larger credit packs are more cost-efficient compared to smaller packs.
Number of credits | Price | Price/credit |
10 | $35.00 | $3.50 |
25 | $49.00 | $1.96 |
100 | $169.00 | $1.69 |
250 | $339.00 | $1.36 |
500 | $495.00 | $0.99 |
Overall, Bigstock’s pricing structure could be clearer and more expensive than many platforms. You will only get the best prices when you purchase the content in bulk quantity, which is unsuitable for many users. Other sites offer cheap subscription plans with unlimited download options, such as Storyblocks, Motion Array, Envato Elements, etc. If you are on a tight budget, you can go with one of these platforms to get high-quality images cost-effectively.
Bigstock Free Trial
Bigstock Offers a 7-day free trial to its new users who need to become more familiar with the service. During your trial period, you can download 35 Images for free. Compared to other services, Bigstock offers a generous trial. To start a free trial, follow Below Steps Correctly.
- Click on the Visit Now Button
- Enter Your Email and Click on START MY FREE TRIAL
- Choose any Plan and Click on Add a new card
- Enter the Required Details and Submit
- Your Free Trial Account Will Be Activated
It is Completely Free to Create a Free Trial Account, and You won’t Be Charged anything for your free trial, and you can cancel it anytime.
Alternatives
Stocksy
$15–$125/ image
Stocksy is a Royalty-free stock photo and video service that offers millions of photos, vectors, illustrations, and videos. Stocksy does not offer subscription plans or free trials; Users must go with the individual content purchase. However, it is more expensive than other sites, but it has simple and clear licensing options, and the content quality is good. Read More….
Dreamstime
$25/ mo
Dreamstime is a stock photo and video service that offers millions of high-quality images, graphics, and videos for creative projects. It has a wide range of content, including intro-stock music and audio clips from professional musicians and producers. You can download thousands of royalty-free intro-stock music audio clips on Dreamstime. Read More….
Alamy
$9.99 – $639.99/ mo
Alamy is a stock photo and video service with over 311 million images and videos. Still, the quality is modest, and prices are high compared to other platforms and the complexity of its licensing terms because the usage of the content determines the price. Alamy only sells on-demand images, or you can buy image packs to save money. Despite these flaws, Alamy remains a popular platform for buyers looking for a large collection of stock images and videos. Read More….
Conclusion
So far, Bigstock is a viable option for accessing good-quality stock images, catering to various visual content needs. It’s user-friendly interface and flexible pricing make it a platform worth considering for individuals and businesses. At the same time, the prices of images and videos are costly, which is unsuitable for many users with low budgets. And the quality of Bigstock needs to be improved compared to the market.
We recommend some free resources like Pixabay, Pexels, Unsplash, Mixkit, and Canva, for newbies to get familiar with stock media, or if you have a low budget, you can subscribe to affordable platforms like Picjumbo, Artlist, Pond5, etc.
