If you create content for a living — or even just for fun — you have almost certainly landed on Pexels or Pixabay at least once. Both platforms offer free, royalty-free media that you can use commercially without attribution. But they are not the same, and choosing the right one for your workflow can save you hours every week.
We run MediaFlow, a tool that searches both platforms at the same time, so we have spent a lot of time analysing exactly how they differ. Here is the honest breakdown.
What Pexels Does Best
Pexels has built its reputation on curation. Every photo and video on the platform is reviewed by a human editor before it goes live, which keeps quality consistently high. The colour grading tends to be modern, the compositions are strong, and the models look natural rather than stock-photo stiff.
- Video quality — Pexels has some of the best free 4K footage available anywhere online. If you are putting together a brand video or a YouTube intro, Pexels footage will not look cheap.
- Diverse subjects — Pexels actively recruits photographers from underrepresented regions, so you get genuine global diversity rather than a sea of smiling office workers.
- Simple licensing — The Pexels licence is one of the most permissive in the industry. Download, use commercially, modify — no attribution required.
Weakness: The library is smaller than Pixabay. If you search for something niche — a specific piece of equipment, an obscure landscape — you may come up empty.
What Pixabay Does Best
Pixabay wins on volume. Over 4 million assets, contributed by a large open community of creators. That means you will almost always find something for a given search, even if the quality is more variable.
- Illustrations and vectors — Pixabay has a large collection of illustrations and vector graphics that Pexels simply does not carry. Great for presentation decks, thumbnails, and social posts.
- Music and sound effects — Pixabay also hosts free music tracks, which is useful if you want a one-stop shop for a video project.
- Quantity — Need twenty different angles of a coffee cup? Pixabay probably has them.
Weakness: The open contribution model means quality varies a lot. You will scroll past some genuinely dated-looking images to find the gems.
Licensing: Are They Actually the Same?
Both platforms use a "do-almost-anything" licence, but there are nuances worth knowing:
- Neither requires attribution, but both appreciate it.
- Neither allows you to sell the media as-is (i.e. you cannot package Pixabay photos and sell them as a stock pack).
- Both allow use in commercial projects, advertising, and products.
- Pixabay added a new licence in 2019 — make sure you are reading the current Pixabay licence, not an outdated summary you found on a blog.
The Verdict
For video content and high-quality editorial photos, Pexels wins. For volume, illustrations, and niche subjects, Pixabay wins. The smartest move is to search both at the same time — which is exactly what MediaFlow lets you do in a single search.
How to Search Both at Once
Instead of opening two browser tabs and running the same search twice, you can use MediaFlow to query Pexels and Pixabay simultaneously. Results are displayed side by side, and you can filter by media type, orientation, and quality — then download with one click. No API key needed.
Related: Top free stock footage websites in 2026 · Free stock footage with no attribution required · Pixabay vs Unsplash compared