Stock footage is perfect for creators who don’t have access to the tools needed to create their own video footage. We’ve summed up our 5 favourites along with what we love, and don’t love, about them.
A few stock clips can go a long way when it comes to creating videos for your brand or project. There are now a wealth of websites offering beautiful, high quality and varied stock footage; perfect for making your content look more professional, engaging and eye-catching.
Pexels
As well as offering royalty free images, Pexels offers a wealth of beautiful stock footage for commercial and non-commercial projects. Under their Pexels license, you can use and modify all footage completely free of charge, without the need for attribution.
We love their mix of landscape and portrait footage and their options to download in different quality versions. They have such a huge variation of beautiful and professional looking clips too; there’ll be something that’s guaranteed to suit your projects.
What we love
- Great variation of footage
- No attribution required
- Can modify clips
What we don’t love
- No 4k video
- iStock footage pops up in search results
Pixabay
Like Pexels, Pixabay has it’s own license, allowing you to use all footage free of charge commerciall and non-commercially. Modifications are allowed and you don’t have to provide attribution either.
We love their search layout, and their huge range of beautiful footage; especially their drone and landscape footage.
What we love
- Great drone/landscape videos
- No attribution required
- Amazing clip variety
What we don’t love
- Not many portrait videos
- Variable quality
Mixkit
Mixkit has 2 licenses: their free license allows you to use and modify videos for any commercial and non-commercial projects totally free of charge. Their other license, the restricted license, only allows for non-commercial uses so be wary when searching for clips.
We love their way of searching by categories and find the mini-descriptions in their grid view super useful as it removes the need to preview each video to know what’s going on in it.
What we love
- Mini-descriptions of videos when browsing
- Varied clips to suit different projects
What we don’t love
- Not all clips can be used non-commercially
Videezy
Videezy has various different licenses; their free license means you can use and modify video clips for commercial and non-commercial use however you must attribute Videezy whenever you use them.
We love their aerial and background categories and the fact you can see video dimensions and fps in the descriptions. However, be wary of the green ‘PRO‘ video clips which require a paid subscription to be used.
What we love
- Good mix of categories
- Strong aerial and nature footage
What we don’t love
- Requires attribution
- No way of previewing clips without opening them
Coverr
Coverr supplies free-to-use footage for both commercial and non-commercial projects, and attribution is not required (however is always appreciated).
Their ‘collections‘ make it easy to find similar themed videos which will suit any project. However, don’t get caught out by the Shutterstock videos that are interlaced in the search results as these cost to be used!
What we love
- Themed collections
- Only one type of license
What we don’t love
- Requires attribution
- No way of previewing clips without opening them
Whatever your content, brand or business, you’re guaranteed to find footage to suit your need.
Do you know any other great royalty-free video websites? Let us know in the comments!
