When comparing Pexels vs Pixabay, the Slant community recommends Pexels for most people. In the question“What are the best resources for free stock photos?” Pexels is ranked 1st while Pixabay is ranked 3rd. The most important reason people chose Pexels is:
Find more info here: pexels.com/license
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Pros
Pro All photos are completely free even for commercial projects
Find more info here: pexels.com/license
Pro 2 million free photos
Pro Quality of images is great
Pro "Photos by color"
You can choose to browse through photos by their color. This is helpful when you are trying out a color motif on your IG and want to stick the same colors for creating typography posters.
Pro Create collections to save and organize your favorite photos
Collections can be public or private.
Pro Filter photos by color, orientation, or size
Ability to fine-tune your search to find exactly what you're looking for.
Pro Free API
Integrate thousands of world-class free photos and videos directly into your product (pexels.com/api).
Pro Download history
Never lose track of who the photographer is or that one photo you downloaded a while back and can't seem to find in your files. Download history is not public, so only you can view it when logged into your account (under collections).
Pro Free videos
Thousands of free HD videos to use in your projects (pexels.com/videos).
Pro Donation button
If you provide your PayPal email address, a "Donate" button will appear on your profile for users to be able to support you with a tip.
Pro Photo challenges
Recurring photo challenges with awesome rewards like cameras, drones, trips, and large cash prizes (pexels.com/challenges).
Pro Social links
Standalone social account links free you up to use your portfolio link in whatever way you want (link to your personal website, your print shop, etc.)
Pro View the top places photos are being used
Under the "Featured In" section of profiles, you can see the top websites that are using photos from that photographer along with links to the articles/pages.
Pro Integrated in tools
Integrated in tools like Sketch, Canva, and Photoshop.
Pro No ads
Although some images related to your search show up from sponsored web pages (notably shutterstock), they can hardly be labeled as adds. The section is well identified, related to the search, and does not make the page feel too distracting or unclean.
Pro Pixabay License
All imagery on Pixabay is under the Pixabay License (although material that appears within the images can be subject to copyrights).
Pro Free API
Also, commercial use is permitted.
Cons
Con A large number of unprofessional photos and especially vectors
The vector images can be quite unprofessional.
Con Scattered
Since pixbay is a free user driven service, it can be difficult to find some pictures related to the subject one is searching on. While in other instances, a flood of results appear because it is a very easy subject to shoot, eg. Road (flood of options), Surprise (debatable options).
Con Users vote for pictures to get approved or not
Pictures that are not going against the "Quality rules" can sometimes get declined.