Alamy is a stock photo service that provides businesses and individuals with royalty-free images, videos, panoramic photos, and more to help bring their presentations, marketing campaigns, and other visual elements to life. The company collates the work of photographers from all over the world, and adds new content every day so the images are always fresh, unique, and varied. Alamy is easy to work with, offering a flexible pricing structure and no long-term commitments to sign.
Alamy has a tremendous library of stock images and other design materials, totaling a staggering 210 million images, vectors, videos, and 360-degree panoramas. Alamy boasts some prestigious clients including Microsoft, The Economist, and Bauer Media Group. So that definitely adds credibility to the quality of these images. Here are a few things that, in our opinion, make Alamy stand out:
Alamy doesn’t just have an extensive library. It constantly adds new items to its inventory. In fact, you’ll find more than 100,000 new images every single day. This is a major benefit for businesses and consumers looking to stand out or be unique (i.e., you won’t need to use the same old stock photo that everyone has seen already). What’s more, Alamy photographers come from all over the world. They’re sourced in 173 different countries so you really get a different variety of styles and vibes, not just your cookie-cutter images you’re used to seeing elsewhere.
Alamy is known for its top-quality customer service. For one thing, the team is available via phone, email, and live chat. Live chat automatically wins points for any business. And it is especially the case in stock photo services because this type of customer service is not widespread in the industry. Alamy customer support is conveniently available in multiple languages so you can speak to someone in your mother tongue.
Alamy is built on a platform of generosity and ethical practice. The company has donated more than $6 million over the years to various good causes. Some worthy recipients include medical research and educational advancements. Alamy also donates to world betterment projects like distributing solar lamps to needy villages in Haiti, Southern India, and Southern Sudan.
Alamy has terrific search options. You can narrow down the search using filters like “black and white” or “cut outs.” You can limit the number of people in the shot, and even tell Alamy to search for a specific viewpoint. Use advanced search options to filter down even further. We had a lot of fun using this search functionality because it was just so user-friendly and had so many options. Alamy also has great categorization and we especially liked the awesome image search that lets you search for an image by using an image. Nice!
We’ve already mentioned the enormous collection of stock photography that Alamy has on offer. This includes:
Alamy also has custom licenses available for tailored business needs.
Alamy doesn’t work like most online stock photography services. Usually you’ll be asked to sign up for a monthly or yearly contract that includes a certain number of downloads per time interval. Other companies offer image bundles. These give you a certain number of download credits that you can use indiscriminately as needed.
Alamy doesn’t work with either of these structures. Instead, it allows you to purchase stock images on a one-off basis. Yes, it does have bulk-purchase discounts for bigger fish. But in general, Alamy makes it easy for individual consumers and businesses to purchase royalty-free stock photos without the long-term commitment. Here’s how it works in a nutshell:
It’s all very straightforward.
Since Alamy has a somewhat different type of pricing structure, each of its categories can be purchased individually and at different rates. If you are buying royalty-free images, vectors, videos, etc., then the pricing is based on the size of the file you need. Alternatively, if you are buying royalty-managed images, vectors, videos, etc., then the pricing will be determined by the use case for which you are implementing the stock images.
Here’s a look at some of the pricing options available from Alamy:
| Plan | Price |
| Personal Use | $19.99 |
| Presentation and newsletters | $19.99 |
| Websites | $49.99 |
| Magazines and books | $69.99 |
| Marketing package: Small Businesses | $59.99 |
| Marketing package: Large Businesses | $199.99 |
| Plan | Price |
| Website and social-media sites | $399.99 |
| Virtual reality or game apps | $479.99 |
| Digital publishing | $524.99 |
| TV programs | $599.99 |
| Marketing package: Small Businesses | $479.99 |
| Marketing package: Large Businesses | $639.99 |
| Plan | Price |
| X-small | $49.99 |
| Small | $95 |
| Medium | $190 |
| Large | $245 |
| X-large | $315 |
| XX-large | $365 |
| Royalty-free JPEG and vectors | $9.99 |
| Royalty-free 360-degree licenses | $675 |
So purchasing from Alamy is a lot easier and more flexible than it is with other online royalty-free stock photo services. You can buy exactly what you want without any long-term commitments, and you won’t end up purchasing costly bulk packages that you didn’t need.
What’s also nice about Alamy is how willing it is to work with you. For example, for corporate clients, Alamy has group deals and discounted rates on bulk purchases. For another thing, the company will create hi-res files on demand. You can view these files and only pay for the project if you like the results, i.e., there's no commitment. That’s a tremendous perk that most other online stock photo services won’t offer.
Alamy has a reputation for excellent customer service, and from our experience, it lives up to that reputation. For one thing, there are plenty of ways to reach out to customer service including by phone, email, live chat, and social-media channels. Customer service is also available for a lot more than answering basic questions. For example, Alamy customer support can help you pick out the right images. You can hop on a live chat, talk to a representative about your needs, and walk through the search process together with a real live expert. This is an amazing option for anyone who doesn't really know what they’re doing in terms of stock images and searches.
In addition, Alamy even has a service that will search for and find the images you are looking for. You give the team your specifications, and they get to work. This is a great option for corporate businesses, or people who can afford the luxury of not wasting their own time sifting through thousands of search results.
Customer Support Line:
866 671 7305
sales@alamy.com
The website also lists local numbers for customer support in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, and many others.
Alamy has one of the most diverse stock content libraries online today, competing with the big dogs like iStock, Shutterstock, and the like. The stock photos, vectors, videos, 360-degree images, and more that you can find here are sourced from professional photographers that hail from all over the world. So you really get an eclectic flavor with this content library. What’s more, Alamy has great customer service that is ready and available to help – a big plus. Add to that flexible pricing options, some of the best filters and search options we’ve ever seen, and brilliant photo quality, and it’s not hard to understand why Alamy is one of the most popular options for online stock images today.