Best Sources for Stock Images for Ruby on Rails Applications

Learn how to find and use stock photos in your Ruby on Rails applications, including both paid and free services.

Unless you have the power to design images from scratch, you need to source them. Luckily, you have tons of options for sourcing images. Many of them are free, so you don’t have to pay a thing when you use images. Whether you choose a free site or you pay for your images, you can expect to find some amazing photos online.

Unsplash

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If you don’t have any money in your budget for images, check out Unsplash. The site is full of free high-resolution photos, and there aren’t any usage restrictions. That means you can build a commercial application without worrying about usage rights when you use one of these photos.

Browse through the site’s collections to find images that best represent your web development project. Then download the image and use it in your application.

Go to Unsplash

SplitShire

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SplitShire is another great choice if you want to use free images for your Ruby on Rails application. While you do have the option to buy all of the photos and get them in an easy-to-use zip file, you can just download one image at a time for free.

The site has a variety of categories, making it easy to find the right photo for your project. You can also download free videos from the site.
If you don’t find what you’re looking for today, check back again tomorrow. The site adds new copyright-free photos every day.

Go to SplitShire

New Old Stock

If you want to include vintage images in your Rails application, New Old Stock is perfect for you. This site has vintage photos that are available in the public archives. They are copyright-free and free of charge. Some include specific historic events, while others are nature shots.

Go to New Old Stock

Death to the Stock Photo

If you don’t have time to go to a website to look for photos, check out Death to the Stock Photo. Sign up for the email list and the site will send you free stock photos every month. Then you can pick through the photos you want to use and add them to your project.

While the photos are free for commercial use, there are a couple of rules you need to follow. First, you cannot redistribute the photos. You also can’t act like you own them. For instance, don’t say “Look at this great photo that I took.”

If you can comply with those rules, you will love this site.

Go to the New Old Stock

Bigstock Photo

If you don’t mind spending money on images, you should look at Bigstock Photo. This site contains over 33 million photos, vectors, and videos, so you can easily find exactly what you need. You can look through the categories or search by keyword. You can also check out the trending keywords.

Go to Bigstock Photo

With so many options available, you should not have any trouble finding the perfect images for your Rails application. Once you have your images in place, you will be one step closer to designing the perfect website.

Jordan Hudgens

Jordan Hudgens

I've been a software engineer for the past decade and have traveled the world building applications and training individuals on a wide variety of topics.


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