13 Most Famous and Complete Stock Video Libraries for Video Creators

Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock footage is called a “stock shot” or a “library shot”. Stock footage may have appeared in previous productions but may also be outtakes or footage shot for previous productions and not used. Examples of stock footage that might be utilized are moving images of cities and landmarks, wildlife in their natural environments, and historical footage. Suppliers of stock footage may be either rights managed or royalty-free. Many websites offer direct downloads of clips in various formats. Learn about 13 Famous Stock Video Libraries for Video Creators.

Stock footage companies began to emerge in the mid-1980s, offering clips mastered on Betacam SP, VHS, and film formats. Many of the smaller libraries that specialized in niche topics such as extreme sports, technological or cultural collections were bought out by larger concerns such as Corbis or Getty Images over the next couple of decades.

Stock footage is a great resource for video and film creators to save time and money in realizing their vision. If you are in the video production, filmmaking, or other related fields, you probably heard about it before. And truth is, even if you never heard of stock footage before, you have been seeing it hundreds of times a day every day, as most of the audiovisual productions in TV, film, and the Internet are using it. But what is stock footage? And how can you use it to improve your video creations? Well, you’re about to find out.

You can buy stock footage clips easily at a stock imagery agency. Some stock and microstock agencies include stock videos in their offer, in addition to stills and other media types. And some agencies specialize in the footage. In any of them, you can search, find, and buy a license to use a stock video clip. You don’t buy the clip itself, but the rights to use it in your project. There are different license types that grant different rights for usage. Most cheap stock footage agencies work with Royalty Free and Rights Managed licenses for video. To become a real expert in buying stock footage, check out our Definitive Guide to Buy Stock Video!

Stock footage can be used to integrate news footage or notable figures into a film. For instance, the Academy Award-winning film Forrest Gump used stock footage extensively, modified with computer-generated imagery to portray the lead character meeting such historic figures such as John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and John Lennon. One of the largest producers of public domain stock footage is the United States government. All videos produced by the United States military, NASA, and other agencies are available for use as stock footage. There are a number of companies that own the copyrights to large libraries of stock footage and charge filmmakers a fee for using it, but they rarely demand royalties. Stock footage comes from a myriad of sources including the public domain, other movies and television programs, news outlets, and purpose-shot stock footage.

Here are some of the most famous video stock libraries:

1. Freepik Videos

Freepik is a platform famous for its vast library of quality-controlled content of videos and other graphic design assets provided by its expanding online community of contributors. With stock footage, images, vector designs, fonts, and now video added to the mix, video production just got a little easier with everything you need in one place. All stock footage is available in 4K and HD resolution, even the free ones, so your personal or commercial projects stay competitive and easy to work with. Premium members will benefit from no need for attribution, unlimited downloads, and access to higher-quality content.

2. Videvo

Videvo.net is as well-known stock library offering thousands of free video and audio clips. In addition to their free library, they offer some premium subscription plans that expand their video and audio selection with tens of thousands of clips, all guaranteeing royalty-free licensing and video editing quality. Their plans are simple and their prices are among the most competitive on the market. They currently offer over 1.5 million videos and over 200,000 audio clips.

3. Pexels

For many videographers, Pexels is the free stock video site they’ll use. Along with photos, Pexels provides Go Pro action videos, drone footage, and a wide mix of other free content. Their library includes pieces clearly marked under Creative Commons 0 license videos.

4. ShutterStock

Shutterstock also has a colossal collection of footage with 85,000 new clips added per week to their stock video section. Beyond the somewhat convoluted pricing, all subscriptions and clip packs include a standard license that covers web usage and live performance (such as corporate presentations, concerts, and musicals with an audience size limit of 500,000. You will need additional licensing for broadcast, theatrical releases, and streaming services such as Netflix.

5. Pond5

Pond5 is one of the largest royalty-free stock video sites with over 17 million clips. Their membership plans are $199 monthly ($999 per year) and include: 10 downloads per month from their collections; Membership pricing on other 4K and HD stock footage; Rollovers on unused downloads For 4K and 4K+ downloads, they give you the RAW and .mov file. They also provide free format conversion.

6. Envato Elements

Envato is a go-to site for stock resources if you’re looking to create different types of content. With individual plans starting at $16.50 per month, you also get unlimited access to assets like Powerpoint templates, graphics, WordPress themes, and audio tracks. Each license covers the right to utilize the Item through communication to the public (performance), broadcast, display, distribution, and reproduction.

7. Dareful

Dareful offers free 4K stock video footage you can use whether you’re looking to incorporate holiday-themed b-roll or aerial footage to establish a scene. With Dareful, you can integrate their content into commercial projects.

8. ProVideoFactory

ProVideoFactory’s stock video site offers unlimited downloads for over 150,000 clips used also by BBC, NBC, Samsung, and other big brands. Their HD plan includes royalty-free licenses to those clips and 10% off the ala carte premium library for $149 annually. Their 4K package provides a 50% off discount to their premium library plus a $300 bonus towards it for $299 per year.

9. Biteable

Biteable is a web-based video tool that allows you to create professional-quality videos in a matter of minutes. You can browse their library of over 800,000 free stock video footage clips and create a video for free. If you’re searching for specific types of video stock footage,  you can narrow down the video stock options by keyword, or even use one of the pre-made video templates to streamline the video creation process.

10. Storyblocks

Storyblocks contains over 1 million HD, 4K, and 4K+ clips. Their subscription-based site offers three membership options:  Basic at $19 Monthly, Unlimited Video at $39 Monthly, Unlimited All Access at $65 Monthly.

11. Videezy

Videezy’s stock video site contains both free and paid options. If you’ve got a tight budget and looking to avoid paying for footage, look out for the green “Pro” tagged thumbnails. Keep in mind you can use their free stock for commercial productions, but they require you attribute the videographer.

12. Artgrid

Artgrid is a subscription-based service for video creators and filmmakers that was launched in 2019 by Artlist, one of the top royalty-free music platforms. For a monthly fee starting at $25, you get unlimited access to an entire library of high-quality hand-picked video clips from some of the best cinematographers. Artgrid backs up their curated library of professionally shot footage with a 14-day money back guarantee.

13. Pixabay

Pixabay’s free stock video features a large range of commercial-free content with no credit required. While their content can be used for commercial purposes, the restriction Pixabay outlines here.

Images: Canva