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When you can’t find that perfect image for making website graphics, you usually turn towards stock photo sites.
For video projects, the equivalent of stock photo sites are stock video websites where you can find short video clips that are free to use with or without additional terms.
Ideally, you want to find stock footage that is free to use under the Creative Commons 0 license which requires no attribution and you can modify and use it for personal and commercial purposes.
However, there may be other licensing requirements such as attribution where you may have to credit, mention or link back to the original creator of the stock clip or the site where you downloaded the clip from.
These videos are great to edit into your video as b-roll or when you need a clip that would be otherwise inconvenient or too expensive to shoot yourself.
I’ve rounded up some of the best sites where you can find some of these stock video footage for free without the need for a subscription or payment.
Each site has their own rules and licensing requirements so be sure to read the licensing info on each clip that you decide to use.
Here are 11 sites where you can find royalty free stock videos for use in your next video project.
1. Pexels
Pexels is a great place to find totally free stock photos to use on your website but it’s also a very good place to find stock video clips too.
You can use these stock videos any way you please, in any project and you don’t need to give credit as all footage is under CC0 license (Creative Commons – no rights reserved).
This is usually the first website I go to when I want to find some stock footage to make YouTube videos. You can find footage of almost anything here by using the search box.
2. Pixabay
Like Pexels, Pixabay is another great go-to website for finding free images and they also have a section where you can download great high quality video footage for free.
The site has a large collection of videos in many categories and varying quality. There are lots of 4K videos as well as HD videos readily available to insert into your project and if you’re looking for green screen video, they have a lot of those too.
All video footage from Pixabay are under the no rights reserved Creative Commons license which means you can use them without having to credit anyone.
3. Videvo
I found this website while trying to convert one of my blog posts to video.
Videvo is another great place to find free stock videos. The videos are HD and 4K quality and you can find almost any situation or topic with a search.
With Videvo though, not all footage is free and you have to actually read the “licensing and usage” info to know what rights you have with the footage.
For example, while some free footage is royalty free and you can use them in any project, some footage cannot be used in videos for commercial purposes and some you have an attribution license which means you have to credit the original artist.
You’ll also need a Videvo account and a premium plan to download video where you don’t want to credit the artist if it has an attribution license.
4. MixKit
The quality of the stock footage on Mixkit is beyond amazing. And they’re all free to use with no attribution required. You should still check the licensing info just in case but from browsing the site, all the clips I saw were free with CC0 license.
Mixkit is a great resource for video marketers because they not only have videos but also have royalty free music and Premiere Pro templates.
The video library on Mixkit is updated frequently with new videos added every week.
5. Coverr
Coverr is another stock video website with great quality stock videos you can use for free in your video projects whether they’re for commercial use or non-commercial.
You do not need to give credit and can do anything with the videos except resell them or submit them to other stock video websites.
The site is updated with 7 new stock video clips every Monday.
6. Dareful
This site used to be called Stock Footage for Free but is now called Dareful. They still do the same thing but with a less descriptive name.
Dareful is a great source of free 4K resolution video clips that is totally free to download and free to use however you want to.
The catch though is that there aren’t a lot of footage to choose from. If my count is correct at the time of this writing, there are less than 50 clips on the entire site. Never mind the quantity though, the quality of the clips is probably what they focus on the most.
7. Videezy
Another website that has free HD and 4K resolution stock footage is Videezy. There are lots of content which you can browse through categories like aerial footage, slow motion, abstract, nature and more.
Downloading and using footage from Videezy requires attribution which you can do in either of two ways.
- Mention Videezy in the credits if you’re going to use it in broadcast media such as TV or YouTube.
- Link to Videezy if you’re using it on your website.
The only way around this attribution is to purchase credits to use the file or join Videezy as a premium member.
Most video footage is available for free while some are only available to premium members. This is clearly marked on the preview image with a green Pro ribbon where applicable.
8. Mazwai
There is no signup required to use the videos on Mazwai. I was very impressed with the selection of clips available which seems to include short films and other high quality video productions that were readily available for use as stock footage.
The quality of the clips are either 720p or 1080p. I didn’t see any 4K video clips.
Mazwai is a good source for stock footage as you can download and use the clips for free in any type of project except where specified. Some footage, though, requires that you credit the author. You should also read the license page for more info on how you can and can’t use the footage on Mazwai.
9. Vidsplay
Vidsplay has a large selection of stock footage for you to download and use in your personal and commercial projects.
The majority of the footage seems a bit generic but can be useful depending on what you’re using it for. Info about each clip is clearly visible on the video page for each clip.
While Vidsplay doesn’t charge or ask you to sign up, their terms of use says that you can only use the clips if you’re going to add substantial value to them such as using them in a larger video project.
Vidsplay asks that you credit them somewhere on your website, in the end credits of your production or in the description of the video (like on YouTube) if you’re going to use their footage.
10. Splitshire
There aren’t a lot of stock video footage on Splitshire which is primarily a site where you can get stock photos. However, they’re free to use and have a consistent style thanks to the fact that they were created by one videographer.
There are a few food videos, drone footage, nature and more which you can preview, download and use however you want.
11. Beachfront B Roll
Beachfront B-roll is a Blogger blog where you can find and download for free “unique HD stock video footage and animated backgrounds for any production purpose”.
You can preview each clip by clicking on a thumbnail which goes offsite to a video on YouTube. If you like the clip, you can then “right click and save” the video to your computer.
The site doesn’t seem to be updated any longer but the collection of stock footage is there to use for free without any type of attribution or credit required so it deserves a mention.
Conclusion
There is no shortage of free stock footage on the internet that is available for use in whatever video project you’re working on.
All these free stock video sites come with their pros and cons but you’re the one who gets to choose. You should always check the licensing info to see how any clip can be used.
The ideal footage will be free for usage in commercial work without need for attribution. This is why my favorite sites are Pixabay, Pexels and I’m also impressed by Mixkit.
These sites are a great option for paid stock video sites like Shutterstock and StoryBlocks where the quality and selections are very high but more costly since you need a subscription or budget to access these clips.
Let me know in the comments what you think about these stock video sites and if there are any that I should have included.