Shutterstock Reviews

A couple cents for hard work, uploading, a trained eye, a lifetime of education, tens of thousands of dollars in equipment that constantly needs to be updated and maintained, countless hours of editing, uploading, keywords, categorizing, and descriptions. Someone in this equation is very very greedy and taking what little bit of food in the best of times could be bought with the already low prices you paid out only to be slashed by 60% or more.. There is a big movement with all the photographers to contact all the photo buyers to explain our position of how we are being taken advantage of.. I have 15 years experience and over 3000 pictures on this app, thousand of hours spent getting my pictures on this app and I would have made more money today picking up a bottle off the road and getting the deposit on it.

I’ve been selling on stock sites for quite awhile now, and this app has to be at the bottom for me. They pay the least (quite literally pennies) and have the most stringent uploading regulations, and when rejected aren’t explained well enough at times…I highly suggest going to Twenty20 (ten times more enjoyable, and pays significantly more)

I make a lot of stickers for scrapbooking so I looked into different sites to see where was the best to get free sticker sheets, I used my 10 free images but I found myself not being too fond of my selection so I cancelled my subscription about two weeks before it ended and got renewed. AUTO RENEW was OFF. Yet a couple days before I ended I was still charged for it. I had to call customer support and they told me it was a charge for the upcoming month, why would they charge me DAYS early if I had already turned off auto renewal??? The rep even agreed that It was good I called when I did but why would they even try to charge you i was so annoyed and it made me not even want to try out this platform in the future.

For an image download service, this app is way overpriced. The only reason I tried this app was because I have to create presentations regularly, and I like to use stock images in my presentations. The images from this app are average, nothing spectacular. The free images available through MS PowerPoint are of the same quality. this app is too expensive for what you get. For $50/mo, you get 10 downloads. You can sign up for the annual plan at $30/mo, but trying to cancel is like pulling teeth. You also have to pay the difference between the monthly and annual if you do complete your year commitment. Don’t bother wasting your money!

I wish I could copy the link to my collection in Shutterstock !!!!
Why can’t I do that I don’t see it anywhere!!! So now I have to go to the browser and login again just copy the link? Please add this feature!
Please let me know where I can do this so I can change my writing for Shutterstock! OK I’m looking around to see that in the description it says you can share your collections I have an iPhone 12+ so maybe this is just a feature that has been disabled in this phone please let me know guys

Kpedney’s inability to understand is should bring sympathy. this app advertises a FREE app & royalty FREE images. You don’t find out the expense until AFTER you’ve registered and given your personal information to SS to do with as they will. That’s the usual price of anything FREE on the internet. Not necessarily from one that exacts fees. There is nothing FREE on this site/app that I could find.

There are plenty of websites that do offer FREE image downloads of varying quality. No one denies Kpedny or others the right to try to recoup the expenses they have in doing photography. The complaint lies in the false representation of “royalty FREE images” that still incur a significant cost.

I’m deleting Shutterstock , cancelling my account and, if I plan to pay for images, I will buy them from a site that doesn’t misrepresent itself.

What’s not to understand?

BTW, do you know the music and movie industries also incur costs? I’m sure you don’t expect to download their content for FREE either.

This is a company that is taking in free content that they put zero money or effort into creating, editing, keywording, etc. and is now giving themselves a raise to an 85% commission. This leaves a pittance of 15% for the creators.

The this app head office is located in lavish, opulent space the Empire State Building, among the most expensive real estate in the planet. The new ceo is pulling in over a million a year in salary and bonuses. What they are doing to the longtime, loyal contributors that have come to rely on the income generated from years of hard work is inexcusable and they should be ashamed of themselves.

Please consider Adobe, Alamy or Pond5 for your stock media purchases. They are the more “fair trade” of the options out there and you will be supporting the independent artists that need it, now more than ever. Thank you.

They promoted PNG file on their site over Shutterstock to find out the image has the shutter stock image on top and the checkers in the background after paying $40 for 4 images. Customer service said they’d give me a credit for 5 free pics and they didn’t neither will give you any money back for their lack of efficiency and error on their part. Oh, and if you call them they’ll be closed. If you have a project and are on a budget well, they can’t help you.

This comment will stay this way to warn people of what they are getting selling products with their images on top and png checkers in the back promoting its a png when IT IS NOT. Neither they tell you that you need to have adobe photoshop to fix the image. What a joke.

I am a business owner and as such I never tear my clients this way, especially if I’m at fault.

I’ll make sure all my marketers know and are aware of such scam.

You thought getting paid 25 cents was bad. Just wait. SS just warned us in 6 days we’ll be getting compensated even less. Stating “this app aims to provide customers with competitive plans and pricing, while fairly compensating our contributors for the time and talent invested in the production of their work.” So now, making less than 25 cents and image is fair? For the sometimes hours of work I put into projects. This is absurd! Horrible excuse to insanely profit off of the ones make them all the money.

Decent platform with decent images but I am done being burnt with their auto renew features. If you purchase a subscription for ANYTHING you have to go in and turn off the auto renew feature or you’ll be continually billed month after month. To me when I purchase a 30 day subscription, I only want it for 30 days. Therefore this doesn’t work for me and I now use a competitors digital assets instead. Customer service is mediocre.

I created an account on my computer then downloaded Shutterstock to use and track on my phone and when I go to log in is says account and passwords don’t match. I changed password and tried again but still same issue! Seems this is only for laptop use!

I can’t even look at my saved collections on Shutterstock. I’ve even deleted the entire app & reinstalled, hoping it was an update glitch, as that’s when this problem first started- 3-4 months or so ago when the last update loaded. Everything is sooo bogged down, it’s easier just to go thru Chrome on my iPhone. Not worth Shutterstock space it takes up on my phone at this point. Huge waste.

Signed up for a free trial and forgot to unsubscribe. Had to pay $30. Went into my account and selected to not renew my subscription, but they still charged me $30 the next month. I then found out the subscription is yearly even though you Chet charged monthly, and I had to pay an extra $20 to cancel what I intended to be a free trial. $80 for one image.

On May 26th this app suddenly gave its contributors a 6 day notice that they would cut their earning by 60%. They sent an unclear, haphazard communication (with one correction mail hours later) on how they would screw over the very people who make the content you love.

Buyers : Please take your business to Adobestock, their fair payouts mean you'll always have beautiful up to date images

Im not able to choose color during search for images, while on site this option is available

When I first got this subscription I was able to download and edit 10 images per month. I was happy to pay the over the top price of $30 a month for that privilege. This lasted three months, then all of a sudden the subscription has changed...I am only able to download select images and I am unable to edit in Shutterstock. In order to get most images I have to pay additional fees...WTH. With the changes that you have made Shutterstock is way too expensive and a complete waste.

Sent a photo in and was rejected for lack of editorial info. Corrected that and resent only to find out it had to much noise. Both could have been mentioned in the original rejection but I guess that would be to much trouble.

I currently need to log in thru a web browser to view how many downloads I have left for the month. Doesn’t look like Shutterstock shows that info. Also would be cool if there was Dropbox integration. Otherwise it works well!

It’s easy to love Shutterstock for the diversity and quality. Using it is easy. My graphic artist for my company swears by it.

Shutterstock is great if you don’t want to pay for anything but get inspiration for other things

The pictures are fantastic. Every picture I clicked on I was told I needed to upgrade to a paid subscription. So I deleted it off my phone. To log out of the account was an impossible task!

Don’t waste your time or your money they’re fake they sell you “pictures images” that already on the web I purchased an image that cost $9.99 and Google penalized me for using an image that it’s not belong to me and that’s hurt my ranking on Google so be aware I contact them request for refund they denied the refund

I paid 9.99 for an image that was not able to download because I didn’t have a “valid subscription.” This “valid subscription” wasn’t needed to make the purchase.

I am unable to download through Shutterstock pics I’ve purchased through the website.

Great source. But there aren't recommendations for similar images/from the same artist on app.

I have been a subscriber for several years and appreciate the depth of pictures and vectors just wish it cost less

All the reference an artist could ever ask for !

As a freelance graphic designer, shutter stock is a must have to my arsenal of tools. Just love the vast selections of design and formats. Couldn’t run a successful business without it!

I am finding everything I need !

I am enjoying using the pictures. It's amazing how many artists contribute their work.

Shutterstock has been a catalyst for my inspiration in creating art! It’s great that I can store in categories of my own choosing and that it’s free to collect ideas. I love it.

Excellent photos, artistically taken