iStock (previously known as iStockphoto vs. Shutterstock) and Shutterstock are microstock agencies that have been at top of the stock photo industry consistently since their dawn in the early 2000s, leading the group of what was called the “Big 6” most important microstock companies.
Both agencies launched with very different buying models, each pioneering in their own style, but fierce competition drove them to adjust their offers, and now they share more features than originally did. Competition, expansion, and business strategies have led them to remain the best stock photo sites to date.
As a buyer, it can be difficult to decide which of these two agencies would better meet your needs. But here you will find a comprehensive comparison between the two different offers, their pricing points, and the core value of each of them.
Our iStock vs Shutterstock analysis is almost like a stock photography pricing guide… with wrestling mascots!
Hey, if you want to consider more stock agencies, you can take a look at the 5 Shutterstock Alternatives Compared or on our 7 cheapest stock photo subscriptions here. If you like comparative analysis like this one, check our next, Shutterstock vs Adobe Stock facedown!
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iStock vs Shutterstock: The Similarities
- Free membership – Both agencies have free sign-up to access their service and explore their offer.
- Free weekly photos – Both agencies offer weekly free stock photos that are released regularly to their members on the website. None of them has free photo galleries. Find the iStockphoto free photos here and the Shutterstock free photos here.
- Free trials – These two image sites have a free trial for new customers and they're very similar. The iStock free trial gives you 10 free Essential or Signature images for one month. The Shutterstock free trial gives you 10 free images for one month.
- Royalty-free licenses – Both image banks sell images under a royalty-free license, which is cleared for commercial use. This makes the pictures a lot safer to use than other alternatives, like free images from the web, which can be troublesome and potentially cause you legal problems with copyright infringement.
- Large image libraries – Both agencies have large image libraries and add new content regularly. They're a popular choice amongst photographer contributors, which helps in the constant feeding of new images.
- Complimentary partner sites – They both highlight a partner site that offers wider pricing points and a more modest collection of images. Shutterstock's partner site is Bigstock (sometimes called Bigstockphoto). iStock's partner site is Thinkstock and of course Getty Images.
- Multiple language support – Both agencies deal in multiple languages to better serve international customers.
- Forerunners in stock photography – Both agencies are pioneers in the industry. iStock is considered the very first microstock agency founded in 2000, the precursor of the microstock model.
Shutterstock was the first company introducing the stock photo subscription model when launched in 2003, that was later adopted by most other agencies. Both agencies have been in the stock photography market for over a decade, and are widely considered the leaders in the industry.
iStock vs Shutterstock: The Differences
Now let's have a good look at what these agencies do differently from one another, as that is what ultimately will help define which one is the best for you.
Particularities in iStock's Offer
iStock's buying model has evolved since it came to life in 2000, particularly in the past 2 years.
Their pricing system is based on “credits”, an independent pricing unit whose value has changed throughout the years (many stock agencies replicated this system too – you can learn more about credits here). Originally, they only offered different sizes of credit packages that buyers could buy on demand and then use credits to buy photos. Later on, when Shutterstock came around, they introduced “subscriptions for credits”, meaning you could purchase monthly credit packs for a monthly fee. Finally, in 2014 they introduced actual subscriptions.
In the origins, they had several different collections. The main collection contained budget images for everyday needs, and other higher-priced collections had exclusive and high quality photos and videos. But in 2014 they redesigned their offer, creating only 2 collections called Essentials and Signature and new subscriptions plans that applied to them.
We have a whole iStock pricing breakdown post for you! But what is worth knowing, is that iStock has a variety of buying options for all budgets and all creative needs: subscriptions of low and high volume, for budget-friendly and for exclusive content, as well as credit packs with great flexibility.
Unlock the iStock Free Trial with 10 Free Images for 30 Days
This special free trial lets you access to one month of an Essential and/or Signature subscription for free, including 10 image downloads of your choice from the Essentials collection!
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Our exclusive offer gives you a bonus pack of 10 free image credits, completely free of charge, with the purchase of any iStock monthly subscription!
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This new and exclusive deal lets you save 25% off the regular price on the purchase of any iStock credit pack from 18 credits and up! Save big with the flexible credit packs that let you download images and videos indistinctly, with credits that never expire!
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Learn more about this agency in our full iStock Review.
This is what iStock offers today:
- Photos, vector illustrations, and video content.
- Essentials collection for lower-priced, everyday needs images.
- Signature collection of higher quality, exclusive content (this collection englobes all former high-quality collections like Vetta, Signature+, etc).
- Credit packs for on demand purchases. The individual credit price is $12, but this price is reduced the larger the credit pack is. There are packs from 1 and up to 300 credits.
- Credits are good to download images and videos, from any collection. And as long as you log in to your account once a year, credits never expire. They're the most flexible buying option.
- Individual image price is 1 credit for Essential photos and 3 credits for Signature images.
- Subscriptions tailored for volume size and collection, with monthly download limits. Can be hired month by month or per year. A Signature subscription gives access to both Essentials and Signature libraries.
- Their recommended subscription is $100 a month for 10 monthly images from Essentials and Signature.
- Subscriptions have the lowest per-image rates of all buying options.
- Possibility to roll unused downloads from one month over to the next.
- Team subscriptions give access to multiple users to the same account.
- Extended licenses, only available for on demand credit purchases, are 18 credits each.
- Each bonus right is sold as one Extended license
- Great search tool and highly searchable library that makes it easy for buyers to find the photos they want.
| Monthly Download Limit | Subscription Price ($ USD) | Price per Image ($ USD) | Subscription Price ($ USD) | Price per Image ($ USD) |
| 10 | 40.00 | 4.00 | 100.00 | 10.00 |
| 25 | 65.00 | 2.60 | 149.00 | 5.96 |
| 50 | 100.00 | 2.00 | 230.00 | 4.60 |
| 100 | 149.00 | 1.49 | 299.00 | 2.99 |
| 250 | 199.00 | 0.80 | 399.00 | 1.60 |
| Monthly Download Limit | Subscription Price ($ USD) | Price per Image ($ USD) | Subscription Price ($ USD) | Price per Image ($ USD) |
| 50 | 89.00 | 1.78 | 199.00 | 3.98 |
| 100 | 129.00 | 1.29 | 259.00 | 2.59 |
| 750 | 166.58 | 0.22 | 333.25 | 0.44 |
| Credit Pack | Pack Price | Price per Credit ($ USD) | Buys (Volume-Type of Images) | Saves (from regular price) |
| 1 | 12 | 12 | 1 Essential | |
| 3 | 33 | 11 | 3 Essential/1 Signature | 8% |
| 6 | 60 | 10 | 6 Essential/2 Signature | 17% |
| 12 | 115 | 9.58 | 12 Essential/4 Signature | 20% |
| 18 | 170 | 9.44 | 18 Essential/6 Signature | 21% |
| 24 | 220 | 9.16 | 24 Essential/8 Signature | 24% |
| 36 | 325 | 9.02 | 36 Essential/12 Signature | 25% |
| 60 | 520 | 8.66 | 60 Essential/20 Signature | 28% |
| 150 | 1250 | 8.33 | 150 Essential/50 Signature | 31% |
| 300 | 2400 | 8 | 300 Essential/100 Signature | 33% |
See iStock full Plans and Pricing here
Are you ready to buy photos from iStock? Then get your iStock Membership here, and don't forget to save up to 25% with our special iStock Promo Code!
Highlights in Shutterstock's Offer
Shutterstock has also modified its original offer in the years since its launch.
They launched in the market introducing an innovative buying model, the stock photo subscription. Shutterstock was the first agency in offering a limited number of downloads for a flat, periodic fee. Many other companies, including iStock, included this model in their own offers. Their subscriptions varied a bit, but right now their plans have different monthly download limits.
We have even covered their pricing in a full Shutterstock pricing post here! You might want to take a look at our 5 Shutterstock alternative agencies compared. If what you want is to sell your work on Shutterstock, don't miss our Shutterstock Contributor review!
Shutterstock itself adopted the on demand sales option in its own style, in the form of image packs that you can pay upfront, without using credits. Their image packs are priced in USD. Initially, they had different price points depending on image quality, but now they have one pricing scale for all image sizes and resolutions. The larger the pack you buy, the cheaper each photo costs.
This agency doesn't have exclusive content, in the sense that they don't make exclusive distribution deals with any contributor. They highlight the newest and best-selling images in their search results and on their website.
Get 15% Off on Shutterstock subscriptions and image packs
You can read more about the company in our full Shutterstock Review.
This is what they offer today:
- Over 88 Million photos, vector illustrations, and video content.
- Over 800,000 new photos are added weekly.
- Image packs for on demand purchases, priced in USD, starting at 2 images and up to 25.
- Individual image price depends on the pack bought, starting at $14.5 and as low as $9.16 each.
- Subscriptions are tailored by volume size, and also by the number of users. Can be hired monthly or annually.
- Their cheapest subscription is $199 a month for 750 images monthly, with an annual plan.
- Team subscriptions grant access to multiple users to the same account.
- Extended licenses are available only as separated image packs, starting at $99,50 per image and as low as $67,96 each with the largest 25-image pack.
- They have only one Extended license (named “Enhanced”) that includes different bonus rights.
- Recently improved search engine that uses computer vision to find and suggest the best images to fit your needs. Includes a reverse image search from any image you drag and drop on their search bar.
- Shutterstock Creative Flow platform offers online tools for creatives and business owners that include image editing, content planning, content discovery, and more. Learn how to get Shutterstock Creative Flow for free!
| Monthly Download Limit (N° of Images) | Subscription Price ($ USD) | Price per Image ($ USD) |
| 10 | 49 | 4.90 |
| 50 | 125 | 2.50 |
| 350 | 199 | 0.56 |
| 750 | 249 | 0.33 |
| Monthly Download Limit (N° of Images) | Subscription Price ($ USD) | Price per Image ($ USD) |
| 10 | 29 | 2.90 |
| 50 | 99 | 1.98 |
| 350 | 169 | 0.48 |
| 750 | 199 | 0.27 |
| Monthly Download Limit (N° of Images) | Subscription Price ($ USD) | Price per Image ($ USD) |
| 10 | 299 | 2.49 |
| 50 | 979 | 1.63 |
| 350 | 1,649 | 0.39 |
| 750 | 1,999 | 0.22 |
| Image Pack | Pack Price ($ USD) | Price per Image ($ USD) |
| 5 | 49 | 9.8 |
| 25 | 229 | 9.16 |
See Shutterstock full Plans and Pricing here
Do you want to buy Shutterstock photos? Sign Up with Shutterstock here. And don't forget to grab our Shutterstock Coupon Code to save more on your stock photos!
iStockphoto vs Shutterstock: Which One is Best for You?
As we said, both these microstock agencies have strengths that put them under an umbrella of excellence as options to buy stock photos. They've millions of high quality images, simple buying systems, and affordable prices.
iStock and Shutterstock Price Comparison
| iStock | Shutterstock | |
| Commitment | 1 Year | 1 Month |
| Monthly Price | $333.25 | $249 |
| Price per Image | $0.44 | $0.33 |
| iStock | Shutterstock | |
| Commitment | 1 Year | 1 Month |
| Monthly Price | $166.58 | $249 |
| Price per Image | $0.22 | $0.33 |
| iStock | Shutterstock | |
| Minimum Purchase | $12 (1 Credit) | $29 (2 Image Pack) |
| Price per Image | $12 | $14.5 |
Note: Edited, June 9th, adding more comprehensive comparative observations on multiple buyer needs.
Which one can give you the best value stock photos depends on your particular needs.
- Quality Images? If quality in resolution and content is important to you, you need to keep in mind that iStock prices the highest quality images higher, and Shutterstock doesn't. However, iStock's lower-priced images, from the Essentials collection, are very good quality and great for everyday stock photo needs.
- Only a couple of photos? If you're only looking to buy a couple of images, the decision depends on what quality you're after. If everyday, budget photos would do for you, then iStock could be a good choice: You can buy 3 Essential images with a 3 credit pack for $33, paying $11 per photo. At Shutterstock, 5 images cost $49, and that's the minimum investment.
- More control and flexibility in on demand purchases? If you want to control exactly how much you spend on stock photos and avoid time limitations, iStock's credits are convenient. With credit packs you can decide exactly how much you want to pay, and also how many and what kind of images you want. And you can buy videos too! A big plus is that credits never expire: as long as you log in to your iStock account once a year, all your credits remain usable. Shutterstock sells video separately, their image packs are pre-made, so they aren't as flexible, and they expire one year after the purchase date.
- Some images with better quality but not exclusive? If you want a higher quality, however, then Shutterstock could be for you: you get 5 images for $49 versus 4 Signature images for $115 at iStock.
- Images on a regular basis? If you need to buy stock photos on a regular basis, then the best option is to get a stock photo subscription. At both agencies, hiring an annual plan (with monthly download limits) is cheaper than getting a month-to-month renewable subscription.
- If you only need a few images per month, iStock has you covered. They have plans for 10, 25, and 50 photos per month, at $40, $65, and $100 respectively. Keep in mind these prices are for Essential images only. They also have subscriptions that grant access to both Essential everyday images and Signature high-quality, exclusive images. Signature subscriptions have a higher price point but are very affordable for the quality of images you get.
- If you will need lots of stock photos every day, you need larger volume subscriptions. In this case, Shutterstock has one of the best stock photo subscriptions. Their plans give you 350 images a month for $199 (or $169 if you hire the annual option) and 750 images for $249 (or $199 with the annual plan). This means you're getting 750 photos for as little as $0.33 per image, with just a one-month commitment, and for even less with an annual subscription.
iStock also offers 750 images a month plans. And if you are willing to take a one-year commitment, they have the cheapest stock photo subscription with Essentials: 750 images a month for $159, where every image costs $0.21 each. - You need lots of images, but you don't want a one-year commitment? Then Shutterstock is for you. This agency offers large volume subscriptions that can be renewed on a month-to-month basis, so you don't need to commit for longer than a month.
- You need lots of images constantly, but without losing unused downloads? iStock subscriptions come with an additional benefit. With an annual plan (or if you renew your monthly plan), all the downloads you didn't use are rolled over to the next month, so you never lose the downloads you pay for. At Shutterstock, the download limit expires and gets restarted month to month, so if you don't use up all of your downloads, these are lost at the end of the month.
- High quality production images? Shutterstock has a larger library than iStock. For this reason, they have more variety in content. But Shutterstock doesn't curate higher valuable content from everyday stock photos, at least not for their main service. iStock has the Signature collection of photos from their exclusive contributors. Signature images have a higher production value and a higher quality in content overall than Essential images. For this reason, they are priced higher. However, Signature subscriptions give you access to both Essentials and Signature images. If you can use higher quality images, then a Signature subscription is absolutely worth the extra cost. A Signature subscription for 750 images a month costs $399 (or $0.53 per image) monthly and $319 (just $0.42 per image) with an annual plan. For only a few more cents per image, you are getting the value that you can't get at Shutterstock.
- Team Access? If you need to have your team or clients access the account and see the downloaded images, the most convenient agency depends on how many users you need to add. For 2 users, both agencies are even with a $300 a month subscription.
But for larger than 3 members teams, if everyday budget images are ok for you, then iStock is cheaper: for 4 users, for example, iStock costs $433 a month vs Shutterstock's $499. Keep in mind this refers to iStock's Essential non-exclusive collection.
Shutterstock's subscriptions give you access to their entire library. - What about Extended licenses? Here too, depends on your needs, but overall Shutterstock offers a better deal. You can get 2 Enhanced licensed images for $199 ($99,5 each), and this license includes rights to use photos in unlimited copies, in products for resale, and in large TV or media productions. At iStock, these different rights are bought separately, and each Extended license costs 18 credits (from $144 to $170 depending on the credit pack you have).
iStock vs. Shutterstock Price Comparison Condensed:
- iStock has cheaper price points for budget images
- Shutterstock has a larger library and more variety in content
- iStock credits are more flexible
- Shutterstock has a simpler subscription structure
- iStock subscriptions have more benefits like rollovers of unused downloads
- iStock's Team accounts are cheaper for large teams with budget images
- Shutterstock's Team accounts give access to their entire library
iStock's Exclusive Images
If you look for exclusive photos, then this will be the decisive factor.
iStock is the only one of the two agencies that offer content that is unique to their site, and can't be found in any other microstock agency.
iStock Signature not only englobes several exclusive collections that were previously much more expensive but also offers images with a higher production cost and overall higher quality in terms of content. For many buyers, this is an added value in iStock's offer.
Shutterstock doesn't provide exclusive content, so it's likely that you can find the same images from their collections in a different agency.
If you think that the bonus of using photos that are less widely available (and so less common) is worth paying a higher price for the photos, then you must go with iStock.
If exclusivity is not a concern for you, then your particular buying needs and the comparisons you read above will guide you to choose the best option.
iStock vs. Shutterstock Exclusive content:
iStock provides exclusive, high-value content in a higher-priced collection.
Explore iStockphoto and Shutterstock for Free Before Committing
Sign up as a member is free of charge on both agencies. This means you can set up an account and browse their offer without committing to any kind of purchase.
It's clever to seize this benefit as a chance to have a closer look at the different options and then decide which buying model and agency works best for your needs.
Plus, by registering you'll have access to each agency's weekly free photos, another good opportunity to explore the quality and utility their images have for your projects, without paying anything.
Which One to Pick? iStock vs. Shutterstock?
The truth is both agencies are par in almost every aspect. Only you can decide. The convenience of one over the other will always be bound to your individual needs as a buyer.
As for us, Shutterstock is the winner for clients who need many photos consistently, a super huge library with lots of variety and new photos every week. But if you need exclusive content and a more thoughtfully organized selection, iStock is the winner in that case.
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iStock vs. Shutterstock
Who wins?
You decide!
Tell us your verdict in the comments!
Hi,
I am a semi-pro who wants to get income from my photos – streets, places, scenary,etc. I also have a friend whose iphone photos are popular on social media and is advised to sell those photos.
Could you advise what’s the best site for us, and how much we will be charged roughly, please?
Thank you,
John
Hi John, we address your questions and more details on where and how to sell images in our Honest Guide to Selling Photos Online. We recommend you check it out, and if you have further questions, feel free to ask them in a comment in that section, if it’s in our knowledge, we’re always happy to help.