In a previous post I wrote about free image resources. Most of them are great images. But, sometimes you cannot find what you are looking for or you need a more professional image.

Of course you may use famous image galleries as Getty Images or Corbis or any other. But these images are not cheap!

Luckily, there are many image banks selling royalty free professional images for a low price. How does this work? You can buy credits for a reasonable price (e.g. 20 USD). These credits are valid for about a year. Each image costs some credits, depending its size and resolution. So, you can buy cheap yet quality professional images starting from 0.20 USD. If you need more images in a regular basis, their subscription plans will work for you.

Let’s see the most important of them.

123RF Stock Photography

http://www.123rf.com

Credits are “tokens” that you can use to download and license content. Our credit packages start at €12.50 and they can be purchased online. A specific amount of download credits will be deducted for every content that you download on 123RF.com. The amount that you require for each download depends on the type of license you require as well as its size. You may continue to download content, as long as you have sufficient Credits in your account. Credits pack expire after 12 months. However the expiry term will be automatically extended for a further 12 months if you purchase a new pack before expiry. With a subscription, you may download a set limit of images and illustrations depending on the plan that you choose. This download limit will reset itself daily. You may continue downloading as long as your subscription plan remains active.

There is also a Free Images section available.

Fotolia

http://www.fotolia.com

Credits: Choose from our Pay-As-You-Go plan, and purchase credits for as low as 0.74 € each, in quantity. Credits are valid for 365 days from the date of purchase, so you’ve got plenty of time to select the images you need. Subscription: If you need a lot of images on a regular basis, you’ll want to purchase a subscription plan. Simply choose the type of subscription you need (daily or monthly quota) and start downloading high-resolution images, vector illustrations and video footages from 0.16 € per file!

There is also a Free Images section available.

Dreamstime

http://www.dreamstime.com/

The credit is our site currency and you use credits to download images. For each image downloaded, a certain number of credits will be deducted from your account, as per the credit price scheme displayed on the image detail page. Unused credits are kept in your account for future use for exactly 12 months from purchase date. Subscription plans are not credit-based, instead you are allowed to make a number of downloads each day. The image price differs for the two payment options.

There is also a Free Images section available.

Depositphotos

http://depositphotos.com

Depositphotos is a stock website and agency that sells images and videos across dozens of categories under a royalty-free license. We work with photographers, illustrators and videographers to sell their works through subscription and single-order credit plans. Prices vary depending on the plan you choose, and we accept all popular payment methods.

Bigstock

http://www.bigstockphoto.com

Bigstock offers Credit Packs starting at €39 (Buy them as you need them) and Subscription Plans (Whether you need a little or a lot, subscription options have you covered).

There is also a Free Images section available (one image per week).

Photaki

http://www.photaki.com

Credits are Photaki’s currency. All prices are listed in credits. 1 credit = 1 euro. Credits are valid for one year from the time of purchase. Once this period of time is over, the credits lose their value and they cannot be used. Subscription: If you need a lot of images this is the cheapest option. From 0.20 € / image.

Envato

http://www.envato.com

The Envato Marketplaces allow anyone to buy or sell digital goods like WordPress themes, background music, After Effects project files, Flash templates and much more. The marketplaces are home to a thriving community of over 500,000 users, authors and buyers and every day hundreds of new files are added.

You can find images at

• http://photodune.net
• http://graphicriver.net

Envato approach is different from previous. There are not credits or subscription plans. You can directly buy any photo. It is not so cheap as others, but it worths a look.

Do you know other cheap yet quality image resources? We welcome your feedback. Leave us a comment.