Shutterstock va Gettyimages

Shutterstock vs Getty Images – What To Choose And Why?

Shutterstock and Getty Images are both very popular among users. Both of them have unique features, which make them special. You might be curious about making a choice out of these two for specific requirement/s. Probably you’ll understand them better in this Shutterstock vs Getty Images comparison.

Those who don’t know about their differences, they can get confused. They mostly think that Gettyimages and Shutterstock offer the same facilities to their customers.

Here, we will discuss everything about both of them. So that you can get an idea and choose the right one for yourself. If you are still not sure about using stock photos, then follow the rest of this article.

Since both of these players are mostly used for photos. Therefore, it’s imperative to put a bit of emphasis on stock & premium photos. However, we shall also discuss the other types of assets appropriately.

Why do we need stock or premium digital assets?

  • By using stock photos, you can get the right imagery at the right time.
  • You won’t need to shoot photos or edit them by hiring a photographer, photo-editor or graphic designer.
  • An audience group can be targetted by using a specific type of digital asset.
  • You can easily get group photos of diverse people without putting a lot of effort.

Here, we are going to discuss & compare the leading two contenders, Shutterstock & Getty Images.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock vs Gettyimages
Source: Shutterstock

Shutterstock is one of the largest used platforms of digital assets. Important to realize that it keeps the world’s largest collection of over 371 million assets. Such a large collection includes stock images/photos, footage, vector graphics, music tracks, and editorial.

Approximately 1.7 million people use it every week. Creators from different platforms upload different kinds of photos, which can be suitable for almost everyone. For example, publishers, video editors, newsrooms, websites & graphic designers, etc.

Features & Advantages

Shutterstock offers you various kinds of features and facilities. Although it can also depend on pricing and plan. The very first thing is you can make a free account on Shutterstock. On a free account, they will let you sort all different kinds of assets and save them. They also offer you multiple pricing and plans so that you can choose them according to your preference.

  • You can get extraordinary search filters from Shutterstock. For one type of situation or keyword, they have multiple filters to offer.
  • You can also customize brand content.
  • Moreover, maximum customers love to use Shutterstock. Thus, it has a lot of positive reviews at various customer review/feedback sites.

Benefits

Firstly, it’s a reliable platform. Shutterstock is among the most trustable and secured platforms, according to reviews distributed over various reliable platforms. The highest ratings are the confirmation of good service, and we all agree to it.

And its biggest benefit is that most probably you’ll get amazing assets to express your ideas in visual form. This is not the case with its many competitors.

Cons

  • Shutterstock photos don’t offer any free trial. You have to buy a plan first to try it.
  • There is no comprehensive pricing option, that covers all types of assets. For instance, you have to purchase images, music, video etc with separate plan options for each. Consequently, it is tough to manage all purchases and balance left in each one.

Why choose Shutterstock?

  • Foremost reason is that, it keeps most versatile collection of assets. It is most probable at here only that you’ll find the most impressive collection for any keyword.
  • It make sure that enough collection will be there for Keywords related to latest events or terms. Moreover, 200,000+ assets are added on daily basis, it ensures the updated library.
  • You can also find stock photos according to your preference easily, even without searching. It has different categories of photos, for example, seasonal, festive, conceptual, etc. Just click on the right category to choose the right asset.

Pricing

Pricing varies with the type of assets you are picking.

1. Images

Shutterstock offers you two types of plans, single-user pricing & multiple-users pricing. This is not applicable to the editorial.

Single user pricing is suitable for small businesses, websites, and bloggers. Further, it provides two pricing options: Subscription & On-demand Packs.

  • Subscription based pricing starts from $49/month to $249/month with no contract. It gives you access from 10 to 750 photos per month. However Annual commitment & Annual billing plans offer better pricing for same plan.
  • On-deman packs are available in the pack size of 5 & 25.

Multiple user pricing is suitable for businesses of all sizes, agencies, and enterprises. Varies with the team size. Pricing starts from $379/month (750 images) for a team of 2 users.

Editorial images starts from $199/image, or 25 images pack in $2,479.

2. Music

You have two options to choose from.

  • Unlimited Music Subscription, priced in @16.6/month.
  • Individual music track pricing with Standard license (SL) & Extended license (EL) in $49 & $419 respectively.

Moreover, there is Premium Beat with an amazing track collection. Here either you can Subscribe for $64.94/month for 5 tracks, or go for individual license purchase (SL & EL options).

3. Footage

Its pricing is designed in a way that footage collection can either be used by a youtube video maker or even by a Film-maker.

There are three types of collections, for which pricing varies.

  • Video subscription starts from $99/month for 5 clips. Else you can go for 5/10/25 clip packs plan, starts from $299 for 5 SD clips. Each pack has options to choose SD, HD or 4K footage, each comes in different pricing. To clarify, this collection doesn’t include the Elements & Select clips.
  • Shutterstock Elements, starts from $79/clip. To point out these videos are captured by cinema-grade advanced cameras.
  • Shutterstock Select comes in $399/clip. Must be remembered that this is most premium footage collection offered by them.

You may also like to know the leading Shutterstock alternatives.


Getty Images

Getty Images
Source: Getty Images

Gettyimages is one of the most expensive and trustworthy platforms among users. One must appreciate the excellent photographic skills of its contributors. Thus, you can get the best quality photos from it.

Present-day Gettyimages is the result of numerous acquisitions over a period of time. Eventually, it became a very niche player in providing the most premium content.

Must be remembered that Gettyimages is a specialist in providing historical, sports, entertainment, and media content.

Some people would complain, maybe Gettyimages is not affordable! Surely, that is true. However, their quality of images is all ready to define their pricing.

Features

Gettyimages, give us many useful features, which are not common in other stock photo platforms.

  • It offers you tons of filters, including editorial options. You can apply these filters to any photos you want to. Also, every filter of Gettyimages is user-friendly and robust. It means you can sort out and find an appropriate filter more easily. It can differentiate between color, location, style, collection, photographer, etc.
  • Custom content delivery. Surely, you’ll not find it elsewhere. To point out, you can request them to plan a custom-shoot. Which categorically target and deliver. Moreover, it provides access to over 160k international events from various sectors. Which is an excellent way for your brand to connect with your audience.
  • Custome & flexible usage rights, for your project to make it financially feasible.

Benefits

  • The best-in-class service of delivering the niche content is the best benefit of Gettyimages.
  • From quality images to excellent filters, you can get all of these very easily from one platform.
  • You can also get creative by using the editorial features.
  • One of the most attractive features of Gettyimages is, you can customize your images here. They take care of their customers very efficiently by listening to their requests in one-on-one conversations.

Why choose Gettyimages

Gettyimages serves you a huge variety of premium assets. If you want an all-in-one solution for your specific requirement of photos, then this is the best platform for you.

Moreover, it’s unlikely for a platform to provide customized photos, but Gettyimages does it well.

On top of that, you get the option of giving permission to use that particular asset. If you don’t want anyone to use that particular image you are using, then you will have the option. In this way, that asset will remain exclusively for you. Of course, you have to pay for that.

Also, Gettyimages give you the option to choose the quality of your demanded photo. If you intend to use an asset for an exclusive project, then you might want high-resolution images. From, Gettyimages you can get that very easily.

You can also request your Getty photographer to produce the image as per your requirement.

Cons

The price of Gettyimages is a bit higher in comparison with Shutterstock. However, it is due to its quality and exclusive nature.

Pricing

You can purchase multiple packs as per your requirement.

They have two popular packs, 5 & 10 packs of images.

The regular price of a single image can be from $175 to $499, depending on the quality and resolution of the image. Purchasing packs of images can lower the price a bit from $10 to $75.

To point out, Gettyimages don’t have any monthly or weekly or daily plan for their customer. You can also download as many images as you want in one day, however, every time you have to pay the charge for that particular image.


Shutterstock vs Getty Images

Comparison table: Key information

ShutterstockGettyimages
Year of Inception20031995
HONew York City, New York, USASeattle, Washington, USA
Sales Turnover$667 Million(2020)NOT FOUND
Total customers1.4 million1.5 million
Types of assets Royalty-free photos, vector, and illustrations, video clips, music stocks Stock images, editorial photography, video, and music
Total digital assets371 millionOver 200 million
SpecialtyShutterstock ImagesImages
Other renowned entities/websites under its UmbrellaRocketstock
BigStock
Offset
Beimages
Premiumbeat
iStockphoto
Unsplash
Photos.com

Types of LicensingLicensing of stock media and production servicesRights-managed and royalty-free images, audio and video  
Best forShutterstock ImagesDigital images, video

Features comparison: Shutterstock vs Getty Images

  • Ease of use & Navigation – In Shutterstock, you can get features like search filters, easy-to-use tools, and a global marketplace. In Gettyimages, you can get editorial facilities, high-quality content, and custom content option.
  • Licensing structure – The license structure of Shutterstock is licensing of stock media and production services. On the other hand, the license structure of Gettyimages is Rights-managed and royalty-free images, audio, and video.
  • Specialization of digital assets – Shutterstock has multiple types of digital assets. For instance, royalty-free stock photos, vector graphics and illustrations, video clips, music stocks. On the other hand, Gettyimages have stock images, editorial photography, video, and music.
  • Pricing comparison – Regular price of a single image in Gettyimages can be from $175 to $499 depending on the quality and resolution of the image. Purchasing packs of images can lower the price a bit from $10 to $75. For single-user in Shutterstock, you can choose any plan from $49/ month to $249/month. It gives you access from 10 photos to 750 photos per month. The price for multiple users can extend up to $479/month.
  • Customer support – For Shutterstock, you can visit their website and click on customer support to solve your queries. You can also contact them on the given information on their website. In Gettyimages, you can send them Email with details by visiting their website or calling on  the local office.
  • Best for – Both of the platforms are best known for their digital stock images and video clips.

Shutterstock vs Getty Images for Contributors

Key information:

DetailShutterstockGettyimages
Contributors (number)1.2 million200,000+
Commission structurePayment per photo downloadPayment per license purchase
Total commission to contributors till date$1 billionNOT FOUND

Features comparison

  • Eligibility criteria – Shutterstock and Gettyimages have kind of the same criterion for creating an account. You must be over 18 years old & must not share the document of another person to create an account. You must not open a second account without permission.

  • Guidelines for Photos, camera, resolution, etc. –For Shutterstock, you have to have all the copyrights of that photo. Posting public contents are not allowed. Your content should not violate any human rights guideline like bondage, forced labor, etc. You cannot add any watermark or logo to your image. For Gettyimages, you have to submit photos with good resolution. You have to submit from 3 to 6 photos at the time of application. You have to possess all the ownership of that content.

  • Contributor friendly – Both platforms are contributor friendly. They have a different policy for supporting their contributors. You can send them email or call on the local office to solve your problem anytime.

  • Support for contributors – Shutterstock pays a percentage to the contributors for their content. It is based on per download. Gettyimages also pays a percentage to the contributors for their content.

Conclusion

These are all the details about Shutterstock and Gettyimages. They have some similarities and differences both. You can choose the most appealing one according to your taste. Both of them are appropriate for professional use.

If you find reading the whole article bothersome, then just take a look at our comparison table. You can get the whole idea of both from them. To know the detail, obviously, you should do everything carefully. We hope you have enjoyed our article and it will help you to choose the right kind of stock photo platform.

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