As a graphic designer and avid consumer of stock imagery, I‘ve tested my fair share of stock photo sites. When it comes to finding high-quality, affordable images and vectors, Vecteezy stands out from the crowd.
In this comprehensive Vecteezy review, I‘ll cover everything you need to know about this stock image marketplace, including:
- An overview of Vecteezy‘s offerings
- An in-depth analysis of image quality and selection
- A breakdown of pricing and licensing models
- My experience using the Vecteezy platform and editor
- Customer service, trustworthiness, and ease of use
- Vecteezy vs. leading competitors like Shutterstock
- Pros, cons, and final verdict – is a Vecteezy subscription worth it?
After reading this review, you‘ll have all the information you need to decide if Vecteezy is the right stock image source for your creative projects and business.
What Does Vecteezy Offer?
Founded in 2007, Vecteezy aims to provide designers with worry-free access to stock photos, vectors, illustrations, video footage, and templates.
The Vecteezy marketplace connects graphic artists who want to monetize their work with customers seeking affordable licensing for commercial and personal use. Contributors upload their photos, vectors, and video clips to Vecteezy‘s collection. Customers then purchase a monthly subscription plan or credits to download content based on their usage needs.
Some key details about Vecteezy‘s offerings:
- Huge Collection: Over 1 million photos, vectors, and videos spanning every category imaginable. New files added daily.
- Freemium Option: Users can browse and download select watermarked comps for free before subscribing.
- Affordable Pricing: Subscription plans start at $7 per month for unlimited downloads. The most expensive plan is under $15/month.
- Easy Licensing: Subscribers get full commercial licenses and attribution isn‘t required.
- Additional Resources: Font bundles, editable templates, overlays, and graphics packs available for licensed users.
- Built-In Editor: Licensed Vecteezy users can access a basic editing program to customize downloaded images and vectors.
Next, let‘s take an in-depth look at Vecteezy‘s image quality and selection.
Image & Video Quality Analysis
With over 1 million images in its marketplace, Vecteezy offers an immense variety of stock content across every category. But how does the actual quality stack up against leading stock sites?
To find out, I analyzed hundreds of Vecteezy‘s highest downloaded and editor‘s choice images plus a randomized sampling of files. Here is an overview of my quality assessment:
Resolution & Size: The majority of photos are 2000 px to 3000px on the long edge. File sizes range from 2MB to 6MB on average at 300dpi, sufficient for prints. The best images can enlarge nicely to poster sizes.
Image Sharpness & Clarity: Photos are almost universally in-focus and vibrant. No noticeable compression artifacts, noise, or grain. The usage requirements keep low-quality images off Vecteezy.
Diversity: Thousands of unique, creative images uploaded daily. Trending categories include 3D animation, cinemagraphs, and illustrated backgrounds. No overused "filler" files.
Authenticity: Photographers provide detailed descriptions and camera specs proving authenticity. No false advertising or "too good to be true" shots.
Styling & Art Direction: Strong consistent aesthetics, color palettes, and visual themes within each collection. Most images have professional art direction.
Vectors & Illustrations: Scalable SVG files with clean lines and gradients. No ragged edges or compression issues around text or intricate details.
Video Quality: Clips in 4K, HD, and standard resolutions to suit any project scope. No awkward cuts, shakes, or amateur footage.
Ultimately, I found Vecteezy‘s photo and vector quality equal to premium marketplaces like Adobe Stock. The enormous selection does contain some less polished user-generated content mixed in, unlike curated agency sources. But overall image quality far surpasses discount sites littered with pixelated files.
Next up – how do Vecteezy‘s licensing models and pricing compare?
Vecteezy Pricing & Licensing Breakdown
Vecteezy offers flexible purchasing options to suit individuals and teams with varying needs:
One-Time Credits: Buy packs of 1, 5, or 10 credits from $1 to $2 per image. Credits never expire.
Monthly Subscription: For $14/month, download unlimited standard photos and vectors. 25% discount for yearly ($108 billed once).
Unlimited "Pro" Plan: $24/month grants full access to all HD content and premium resources too.
Team Accounts: Add up to 10 seats under one $199/month enterprise account with full content access.
How do Vecteezy‘s licensing rights compare? Here‘s an overview:
- Standard License: Unlimited commercial and personal use like print, web, broadcast, and merchandise. No public display over 10,000 allowed.
- Pro License: Unlimited commercial use PLUS public display over 10,000 people. The broadest rights offered on Vecteezy.
- Attribution: Not required but appreciated. Most images list requested credits.
- Exclusivity: 100% royalty-free. Others can license the same content.
- Editing Allowed: Yes, you can edit images as desired for projects.
The combination of affordable pricing plus broad licensing makes Vecteezy extremely budget-friendly compared to giants like Shutterstock. You‘ll understand why when I cover Vecteezy vs. the competition next.
But first, let‘s unpack my hands-on experience as a Vecteezy user.
Vecteezy User Experience & Editor Review
As a subscriber for over 2 years, I‘m intimately familiar with Vecteezy‘s platform. Here are the major highlights:
Intuitive Interface: Easy search, top categories, lightbox previews, and a floating toolbar for downloads. Clean, uncluttered, responsive layout.
Lightning Fast Searches: Results appear nearly instantaneously thanks to predictive search algorithms. Automatically suggests related images too.
Robust Filters & Facets: Refine image selections using filters for orientation, people, color, and more. Sort by newest, most popular, or editor favorites.
Smooth Download Process: Click download from the lightbox and files go straight to the folder you designate. No extra steps required.
Handy Image Details: Every file lists release date, resolution, size, tags, equipment used, and more. Contributors provide usage instructions also.
Seamless Account Management: Effortless dashboard access to subscriber benefits like unlimited downloads, font bundles, and special deals exclusive to your membership level.
Capable Image Editor: Vecteezy‘s browser editor enables cropping, resizing, color adjustments, text insertion, and layering visuals with blend modes. It meets basic modification needs for static images and vectors. As a power user, I prefer the editing capabilities in Photoshop and Illustrator instead for advanced adjustments. But Vecteezy‘s editor is great for quick tweaks.
Overall, everything about Vecteezy is designed for user efficiency. I breeze through downloading dozens of images faster than on any other stock site thanks to the intuitive setup.
Next up: How Vecteezy stacks up against the stock image competition.
Vecteezy vs. Shutterstock & Adobe Stock
As one of the first budget-friendly stock libraries, Vecteezy forged a unique positioning amongst entrenched titans. But with its smaller content libraries and limited editor, Vecteezy can‘t match the capabilities of leading stock agencies…or can they?
Here‘s an overview of how Vecteezy compares to Shutterstock and Adobe Stock, two prominent premium marketplaces:
Price: Vecteezy wins hands down, with subscriptions starting under $10 per month. Shutterstock‘s entry-level personal plan runs $29/month for just 350 images. Adobe Stock requires a full Creative Cloud subscription at $52+/month.
Image Quality & Variety: Vecteezy holds its own thanks to strict standards and a growing contributor base. But Shutterstock and Adobe Stock offer vastly bigger libraries with over 200 million files each to pull ultra specific images from.
Selection Experience: Vecteezy has better predictive search, easier refining, and faster downloads. But Shutterstock and Adobe Stock have more advanced AI auto-tagging for drilling down niche requests.
Licensing & Usage: On par across the board – all three sites provide commercial licensing suitable for global brands. Vecteezy offers similarly comprehensive rights for a fraction of the price.
Account Perks: Vecteezy provides font bundles and templates. But Shutterstock and Adobe Stock offer time-saving tools like image categorization, workflows, virtual lightrooms, and promotional resources.
Editors: Vecteezy‘s editor handles basic edits only. Adobe and Shutterstock integrate with Creative Cloud so you can modify images extensively in Photoshop and beyond.
The final potential dealbreaker? Customer service and reliability. Let‘s cover those next.
Vecteezy Trustworthiness & Support
Two critical yet often overlooked considerations for any stock site are site security and customer service. From my experience, Vecteezy performs well in both regards:
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Secure Encrypted Checkout: Vecteezy uses industry-standard encryption for transactions through trusted payment processors like Stripe and PayPal. I‘ve never experienced suspicious charges or billing errors when renewing my subscription.
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DMCA Protections: Images are prescreened by staff to prevent trademark infringements or legal issues. Vecteezy promptly removes any reported problematic content also.
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Help Center: The online knowledge base contains detailed walkthroughs on account setup, managing subscriptions, using credits, and more. Answers most basic troubleshooting questions.
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Direct Email & Chat Support: Friendly customer service reps respond to inquiries within 24 hours in my experience. I always get issues resolved quickly and painlessly through email or live chat.
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High TrustPilot Rating: Out of over 8,400 Vecteezy reviews, 87% are 5 stars. Customers widely praise the value, licensing freedom, and contributor payout model. Negative reviews mostly cite limitations uploading content, not using the service.
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7 Day Money-Back Guarantee: If you‘re unsatisfied with your Vecteezy subscription within a week, just contact support to cancel and receive a full refund.
From both my firsthand experiences and overwhelmingly positive independent reviews, I can confirm Vecteezy offers a trustworthy service on par with industry leaders. Top-notch security infrastructure and helpful customer service instill further confidence in relying on this platform.
Vecteezy Pros & Cons
Pros
- Incredible value subscriptions from $7/month
- Million+ high-quality photo and vector options
- New files added daily to keep selections fresh
- Easy commercial licensing included
- Smooth searching and download workflows
- Helpful customer support via chat and email
Cons
- Smaller library than Shutterstock & Adobe Stock
- Limited editing capabilities compared to Adobe Creative Cloud
- Stricter image upload policies than leading sites
- Less niche content due to smaller contributor pool
The pros far outweigh the cons in my book. Vecteezy nails the core elements of a stock site – pricing, licensing, quality, and selection variety – while keeping the user experience simple.
Sure, larger companies boast bigger libraries and better integrations. But typical buyers don‘t require 250+ million files nor intensive editing suites.
For most personal and business usage, Vecteezy provides all the graphical assets you need at a fraction of the cost.
Is a Vecteezy Subscription Worth It?
In my experience using and reviewing dozens of popular stock libraries, Vecteezy consistently overdelivers value to creators and entrepreneurs.
You‘d spend 3X+ more elsewhere trying to secure the same commercial licenses, selection quality, and seamless UX that Vecteezy offers.
If you‘re on a budget or just starting a business, Vecteezy is by far the most affordable complete stock site. Take advantage of the free trial to sample quality before subscribing.
For marketing teams, small agencies, merchants, bloggers, social media managers, and other professional creators, a Vecteezy Unlimited subscription costs a tiny fraction compared to traditional stock sites…with nearly the same license freedom and features in my opinion.
Without question, I wholeheartedly recommend Vecteezy to anyone seeking an immense commercially-licensed image and vector collection for less. A Vecteezy subscription lets you reallocate budget to other mission-critical aspects of building your brand and creations.
I‘m beyond satisfied after using Vecteezy for years myself. I hope you found this detailed review helpful for determining if Vecteezy meets your specific stock content needs!
Still have questions? Get in touch or contact Vecteezy‘s stellar customer support team directly. Happy creating!
