Alamy Review 2024 + Exclusive 20% Discount!

Alamy is a stock photography agency with a long history in the market, offering high quality stock images with both Rights Managed and Royalty Free license available. They’ve over 145 million photos and a simple pricing system to provide you with the right visuals for your designs. Available on demand only, Alamy’s photos cost depends on the license type you choose. Rights Managed photos cost between $19,99 and $199,99 according to intended use. Royalty free images are from $49 to $365 according to size. You can also save using credit packs. Alamy is a traditional and reliable name in stock photos, so it’s certainly worth knowing about this agency.

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alamy review

Alamy stock photo agency is one of the oldest and biggest stock photo agencies on the internet. It has a huge collection of stock photos, continues to re-invent how people use and search for stock photos, and recently did a website makeover to make photo searching an easier and faster task.  Their soon-to-be patented search engine is unique and revolutionary in the industry.  With a database of over 160 million images, this has to be their customer focus.

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So, let’s move forward in this Alamy review.

alamy logoAlamy is a macrostock agency and the licenses they work with reflect it, with Rights Managed and Royalty Free options available. They focus on the commercial, designer, and editorial markets looking for customized usage of images, but they also recognize the ever-increasing need to acquire quality and inexpensive stock photos, which royalty-free licensing enables. Their new website design, which was launched in April 2010 has successfully incorporated some key features that are attractive to one time purchasers, bloggers, and web designers.

Alamy is not only a stock image seller but its website tools show that they are interested in educating their users about stock photography, how to use it and the support they need for understanding and communication.  Their stock photo glossary and their resolution and image sizing lessons are helpful for any stock photo user.

Alamy is dedicated to leveraging the efficiency and technical know-how to open up opportunities in the microstock market. The recent release of their iPad app attests to this. Additionally, in May 2011, they launched a dedicated German Website for this international market.

Alamy Review Basics

  • Over 160 million images making Alamy the largest stock photo database
  • 150,000 images added every day
  • Alamy has been online since 1999 – They're celebrating their 20th anniversary on November 2019
  • File types sold on Alamy are stock photos, illustrations, and vectors
  • Accepts payment by PayPal, Visa, American Express and MasterCard
  • Royalty-free and rights-managed  licenses available

Particulars

  • Fresh picks section with curated galleries (6 new collections added monthly)
  • Historical archive with historically relevant images
  • An advanced search engine that is Searchable by keywords, categories, licenses and buying options, region, ethnicity, release date, orientation, and reverse image search. This search tool is easy to use and navigate
  • Languages including English and German with international contact emails in Canada, USA, Germany, and India
  • Alamy has its corporate headquarters in Oxford, England with offices located in 4 other countries.

Buying Options

alamy buying options

Alamy offers a direct buying option and does not use credits or subscriptions.  They believe that users should buy Alamy stock photos, not credits, so all purchases are done per photo with prices shown in US dollars, Euros, and British Pounds.  This direct buying makes purchase prices transparent, licensing costs easy to understand and buyers can buy what they need when they need it.

Alamy direct buying:

Direct buying Pros

  • Prices are transparent
  • Licenses can be added to your shopping cart if needed and charged accordingly
  • No calculations required to determine the actual cost of images as there are no credit options

Direct Buying Cons

  • No subscription or package deal options for immediate discounts on bulk purchases or recurring customers. However, the agency is keen on working out special offers for your individual needs upon contacting them directly.

Image Searching Tools

alamy image search tool

Alamy has a search tool that is so easy to use that back in the day they applied for a patent for the technology. It is easy, finds the stock photos that you are looking for, and provides many options without being cumbersome. And now they also introduced a reverse image search feature that lets you use any image you want as a reference to find similar ones in their catalog. Their categories are extensive, keyword searches use four options for searches that are not coded so you do not have to memorize codes for a good keyword search.

Search options are defined as  follows:

Keywords including advanced keyword search

  • Licenses and releases
  • Collections-all or creative
  • Age
  • Number of people
  • Ethnicity
  • Viewpoint
  • Location
  • Image type
  • Date when it was taken
  • Minimum file size

All of these categories expand to include subcategories so your search is refined, search results are relevant and you can easily access their Creative collection for unique and higher quality images.

Alamy Licensing Options

alamy licensing options

Alamy has two licensing options, Royalty-Free and Rights Managed.  Rights Managed includes exclusive and non-exclusive categories with the licensing particulars determined at the time of purchase. The rights-managed licensing tool helps buyers determine their needs. The layout is easy to use and clearly outlines options.

Rights-managed image buyers need to answer the following questions in the licensing tool before they purchase and the price of the image is determined: Image use, details of use, image size, print run, inserts, placements, starting date, duration, territory, and industry. This calculation and outline take a few seconds and the buyer is provided options in each category.

Add-ons and Special Features

  • Creative Collection– The new Creative Collection is a series of creative images that are stunning, conceptual images from top international stock shooters.  Images are collected from premium photographers, cutting edge agencies, and include flexible pricing.  all in one place. Searches can segment the creative collection.
  • Education -Two information and educational resources are featured on the Alamy website. There is a stock photo glossary that explains stock photo terminology and the resolution/image size tool that helps new designers determine the best image for their needs.
  • National Geographic Image Collection– Alamy has an exclusive National Geographic image collection that highlights the best of the best in worldwide photos. This is a unique collection in partnership with National Geographic.

How to Search for Alamy Stock Photos Video:

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Alamy Summary

Alamyalamy logo is a seasoned player in the stock photography business with twenty years in the industry. Their site is user-friendly, functional, and modern, and their service is strongly oriented to giving stock photo buyers a sleek and pleasant experience.

If you are looking for subscriptions and cheapest-as-they-come images, this may not be the site for you, but their prices are competitive, their licensing options relatively inexpensive and for a one time buyer, the overall savings could be better than credit-based stock photo agencies.

Check out their site and collections for a better understanding of the functionality of their website, stock photo agency, and high-quality images. We hope you liked our Alamy review. Don't forget to grab our exclusive Alamy Coupon Code with 20% Off!

1 review for Alamy Review 2024 + Exclusive 20% Discount!

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  1. Avatar of Ed

    Ed

    Alamy was originally a macrostock agency that has turned to microstock. This is very true but it must be noticed that even RM pictures can now be sold as low as 10$ on Alamy !

    What is not true in your review:

    “Prices are transparent”: Not ture, prices displayed on the website are not the prices alamy sell the images to their customers. This is at least what they say to contributors when they realize they have sold at half the price displayed on the website (discount to clients).

    Despite squeezing the photographers by any means possible (“premium” scheme, distribution, microstock orientation, reducing contributors commissions from 60 to 50%, etc..), Alamy has still a narrow client base mainly made of UK newspaper who are buying really cheap (certainly not at the price displayed on the website).

    Problems with Alamy:

    – Their ranking system reflects more cronyism practices than real ranking You realsie after a while that a minority (the happy few) of contributors share the benefit and profits while the majority who are not in bed with alamy are just there to participate to the database populating while earning close to peanuts

    – Beware of your photos when they are sold as it happens that the same day, the photos appear on multiple websites while it has been sold to one client only What is the action of Alamy ? Nothing, not their problem. Why do they take so much commissions then if they provide nothing in return ?

    They have offices in the Uk, US and India (for obvious reasons as labor is cheap there but you get what you pay for).

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