[Review] StockUnlimited – The Alleged “Netflix of Stock Imagery”

Bear with me as I say this… Stock images have always been a pain.

I mean, when you’re working on a design project — be it for web, print, or whatever — it always seems like you’re missing that one perfect image that accurately visualizes the message you’re trying to convey.

The problem is not that there aren’t enough stock graphics out there, but that most of them are hugely overused; and thus making it really difficult to remain original and maintain uniqueness of work.

This is particularly valid when it comes to the recently popular directories of free images. The sole fact that they are available for free means that a lot of people flock to these directories first. Hence, originality is tough.

Then, there is the issue of licensing.

We’ve all heard cases of designers getting into trouble for downloading images that were distributed illegally from free repositories such as Flickr. The designers were then forced to pay significant fines for using images that they — as it turned out — didn’t have the right to use.

So copyright-free images aren’t that safe to use after all, especially for any sort of commercial purpose.

So, what can we do? Where can we get original and affordable images that can be used for commercial design projects? And how do we get a significant supply of it?

This is where StockUnlimited comes into play.

Today, we look into what the platform has to offer, and what makes it the Netflix of stock imagery.

Here is our review on StockUnlimited:

What is StockUnlimited?

In a sentence, StockUnlimited is a repository of stock visuals for designers, businesses, and professionals.

There are over 600,000 visuals in the library and growing. This includes images, photos, vector graphics, infographics, icons, and clipart with 3,000 new files added monthly to keep their library fresh and trendy.

As shown in the screenshot below, some of their more popular categories include animals/wildlife, technology, outdoors, buildings/landmarks, business/finance, celebrations, floral and sports.

StockUnlimited also recently launched their audio library — this is worth subscribing to for those who require audio in their work.

Here is a sneak peek into some of their popular searches:

The est part:

StockUnlimited works on a subscription basis. This means that you only have to pay for the membership type you want and then you can get unlimited downloads as per your chosen subscription.

Let me say this again since it’s one of their main differentiating factors compared to other popular stock repositories: In order to use StockUnlimited visuals for your design projects, you don’t need to pay for each image individually. You can download as many as you like once you have subscribed to their membership.

What else makes StockUnlimited stand out is their super-simple licensing model.

First off, you don’t have to worry about legal matters regarding licensing issues (for example the situation with free images that I described earlier). StockUnlimited guarantees that their content is always properly licensed.

Essentially as a designer, you can just grab the image you need and use it right away. No hassle. This makes it the perfect solution for startups when working on marketing or sales materials — where fast turnaround is crucial.

The price

There are 3 subscription tiers for StockUnlimited’s images and the prices vary depending on the length of your subscription.

The most cost-effective solution is the one in the center — the one with 3-year access for $139, which makes it around $3.86 / month — a real bargain compared to the standard $9 / month plan.

Similarly for audio, there are 3 subscription tiers that is also based on the length of your subscription. 3-years access for StockUnlimited’s audio would make out to be $4.69 / month — which is only half the price of the monthly plan.

If you just want to test out StockUnlimited’s collection, you can create a free account which will allow you to download from a limited library of 60,000 visuals.

Note: If you want to resell the media you get from StockUnlimited, the extended license are available at $20 per content.

The bottom line

In the end, I have to say that I am impressed with StockUnlimited.

The clear membership model is really tempting, and is a true bargain if you tend to use a lot of images and vectors in your projects.

For example, with a subscription model like this where you don’t need to pay per image, you can test multiple images per project before selecting the one that’s perfect. With a standard stock repository (where you pay per image and/or per image size), doing something like that would cost you a fortune. With StockUnlimited, it’s still just one simple membership fee no matter how many images you download.

My recommendation is to just go for it and test it out. If you don’t want to commit to a 3-year plan, you can get the 1-month subscription; which should be more than enough time to see if StockUnlimited is something that fits your needs.

To learn more about StockUnlimited’s offerings and try them out, you can go to StockUnlimited.com.

What do you think of StockUnlimited? Are you enjoying their library of visuals? Feel free to let us know in the comments.