We have included a variety of websites, including microstock and microstock sites, online markets, and ecommerce platforms.
We’ve provided all the details you need about each, including their pros and cons, payment structures, royalty rates, and much more.
You can sell your photos online through your website, as you keep all the profits. In minutes, you can create your website and begin selling using Solfy.
If you don’t want to create your website, Photo Dune will be the best option for selling stock images. You can set your price, and the platform will deduct a fee for each sale.
Envato Elements also offers a popular stock photo website. The site uses a model of subscriber-share, so how much you make will depend on the number of times your photos are downloaded.
Your website
Sellfy is the easiest way to do this. The easiest way to achieve this is by using. Sellfy allows you to sell products on an existing website or create a new store within minutes.
Here are some reasons why selling your photos on your website is a great idea:
You’re essentially giving up control when you sell your photos on stock photo websites and third-party marketplaces. You may have restrictions on the pricing or licensing of your photos. And you’ll lose a lot of control over how your shop and products look.
When you sell on your website, this is not the case. You can set any price you like, configure your checkout how you wish, and control the look of your storefront.
You get paid a small fraction of what the customer pays in royalties when you sell via third-party websites.
When you sell on your website, you don’t have to deal with an intermediary. Everything goes directly to you.
It’s easy to create your photography shop. Everything can be set up within 10 minutes. Sign up for Sellfy. Upload your photos to make your product pages and connect your payment processor. You’re now ready to sell.
Sellfy was designed to sell digital products such as photos. It’s easy to use and charges no additional transaction fees.
It also comes with built-in tools for marketing to increase sales. You can even use it as a print-on-demand fulfillment service.
Sellfy can automatically fulfill orders, so you don’t have to worry about fulfilling them yourself.
Plans start at $19/month. You’ll need to register your domain separately if you wish to connect it. Start with a free 14-day trial.
Photodune
The best site to sell royalty-free photos is Photodune. It is one of the best sites to buy and sell photos. The site has a large customer base, which makes it easy to make sales.
Photodune is part of Envato’s network, which is why we prefer it to other stock photo websites. All the sites that fall under Envato have clearly defined target markets.
These offers are primarily aimed at web developers and designers, who tend to spend more and buy more than the average consumer.
Prices can vary depending on the seller. However, most charge between $5 and $10 for a regular license or $50 to $100 for an extended one, which is more than most microstock websites. Envato takes a fee from the sale so that you won’t get all of it.
If you choose to be an exclusive author, your author fee will range between 12.5% and 37.5 %. If you’re a console author, the price will be 55%.
Even though many photographers find Photodune more successful than other stock sites, there is no guarantee that you will make sales. Envato reports that only 37% of market authors make money each month.
Envato Elements
Envato Elements, another website for stock photography under Envato’s umbrella. It uses a subscription-based payment model, unlike Photodune.
Envato and Photodune are different in the way they pay their authors.
Sign up as an Author and upload your photos to the platform. Customers who have an Envato Elements membership can download and use these photos for free. They do not pay for each image.
The money is then divided up based on how much each subscriber paid and the importance of your photos to them. Here is where things get a bit complicated.
Envato distributes 50% of its subscription revenue to its authors. This 50% is divided between the authors who created the items that each subscriber purchased.
Imagine that in any given month, a subscriber will only download one of your images or one image from another author.
The money that they paid you for the subscription that month will be divided between both of you and Envato. You’ll each earn 25%, and the remaining 50% will go to Envato. How does it work?
This model has a downside: You’ll make less money when your photos are used than you would if you sold them separately.
It’s much easier to sell this way. Envato claims that 98% of the authors who publish on Elements make money each month (and 99% every year). This is a much higher percentage than the 37% who make money from Photodune.
Etsy
The best marketplace to sell photos online is Etsy. Etsy is a global marketplace that attracts millions of buyers every month.
Etsy has a clearly defined target market. The majority of Etsy buyers are young, crafty women (86%), so photos that appeal to them are the ones that sell well.
Etsy allows you to sell more images than stock sites, but not as many as if you were selling your store.
Set your price so that your earning potential will be high. Etsy charges only 6.5% in transaction fees plus $0.20 per listing, which isn’t bad. Your first 40 listings will be free.
You can also decide the type of product you wish to sell. You could, for example, sell your photos digitally and provide different licensing options. You could also connect Etsy with a print-on-demand app such as Printful to sell your photos in physical form.
Sign up for Etsy is free, and you can create your store in just minutes.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock allows contributors to sign up and upload photos for free. They can then earn money each time their images are downloaded.
Shutterstock’s popularity is its best feature. Shutterstock is arguably the largest stock photo website on the Internet, with millions of users and over one billion dollars paid to contributors.
It’s very competitive. You compete with thousands of other sellers on microstock sites such as Shutterstock. You’re also up against thousands of free stock photos.
The market rate is low. If you want a decent income, you’ll need to download a lot of photos on Shutterstock. Quantity is more important than quality.
Commission rates vary depending on how many licenses you sell in a year. They start at 15% and go up to 40%. You earn more if you sell more.