Designing an online learning course? Producing a short film? or leading a big advertising agency? If doing either of them, you will be very well familiar with stock video sites. You also must be aware of the fact that any process which involves video making is always time-consuming, costly and requires many resources. It is not always a possibility that the producer is able to arrange for all the required resources. I mean what if one needs a video clip of the shooting star? You cannot really stare at the sky all night, waiting for a shooting star with a camera in your hand. It sounds so unreasonable! So what is the other option and how can it be done? Well. the stock video sites are the answer to this query. These sites not only provide the required footage but they also make them available in HD and 4K dimensions.

It is obvious that you can find various sites for your next stock footage on the web, but we present to you a list of the best premium stock video sites with a good evaluation of their pros and cons and how you can use them with full potential.

The first one on our list is Pond5. The stock footage websites with over 5,00,000 clips available on their site.

Pros:

1. Pond5 offers a large library of stock video footage in both HD and 4K dimensions
2. They also offer control over license and distribution in bulk
3. Buyers can search using keywords, categories, featured media and media type

Cons:

1. Being a little pricey, their prices can vary from 35 US dollars to 1000 US dollars per video clip
2. They have no free videos

If you are browsing the site for commercial use, it is recommended to sign up for their membership plan. Their membership plan has two categories i.e. monthly and annual. Yes, the videos become royalty free after purchasing the license. So go on and hunt some beautiful time-lapse, underwater and firework footage on pond5.

Dealing in the video production industry, you must have heard about Shutterstock. This stock video site offers a wide range of video clips with a 99% chance that you will find what you’re looking for in this big library of millions of stock footage video clips.

Pros:

1. Shutterstock’s has a great tag search feature
2. They offer plans with different pack sizes other than the regular individual purchase, the packs come in the combination of 6 or 10
3. Large library, images can be found in almost every category

Cons:

1. The site is mostly recommended for corporate use
2. The prices at Shutterstock vary widely due to which, due to which it is used more often for commercial use

So if this works for you, get working with Shutterstock find your stock video.

If you’re someone who is looking out for stock videos on a daily basis, Storyblocks is the site for you.

Pros:

1. The site makes sure to upload new content every week for its users with two libraries— member library and marketplace
2. Other than HD and 4K footage, you also can find After Effects Templates and Motion Background on the site
3. The Storyblocks subscription has been considered as much more reasonable than the rest of the sites with two options i.e. basic and unlimited

Cons:

1. Unfortunately, the users complain that the best stock videos are found in the market place whose access is not included in the plan but users get a 40% discount with the subscription
2. You have to compulsorily subscribe to the 1 year plan for unlimited downloads plan

Envato Elements is the same website which operates VideoHive.com — famous for graphic elements.

Pros:

1. Comes with a subscription plan which gives the user access to unlimited downloads and licenses for commercial use
2. Other than stock video footage, subscription to Envato Elements will offer you WordPress themes and plugins, sound effects, video templates, graphic elements, photos, and presentation templates
3. Cancel your subscription at any time and still retain the rights to use any items that you downloaded as a subscriber

Cons:

1. Their video library is not as comprehensive as other sites
2. Before downloading any item, you will have to either register it for use on a specific project or download it for trial use

Though their library is small, the subscription is worthy of the money due to the additional features offered.

Images Bazaar provides creative images & videos with Indian faces. You will mostly find Indian culture inspired stock footage on this site, other than that you can search for lifestyle, corporate and nature video clips in high quality.

Pros:

1. Large library of 1.5 million stock footage
2. Has a fast and user-friendly image search engine
3. The downloaded images/videos can be used for a long period of 10 years

Cons:

1. The subscription is priced at a higher side
2. Recommended and suitable for business purpose only
3. Their video library needs more content

The subscription to Images Bazaar comes in two categories i.e. Small-size pack and large-size pack. These packs are subdivided into 4, 8 and 20 stock footage.

With stock video themes like video from above, Point-of-view video and Sony Pictures video, Getty Images is certainly one of the best premium stock video sites for commercial use.

Pros:

1. The best feature about this website is that they offer coverage of events with celebrities and recent news stories
2. Their packs include any combination of royalty-free creative photos, videos, illustrations, vectors, and most editorial images. but as long as you sign in at least once a year
3. Works for both commercial and editorial use

Cons:

1. Many of their photos might have an embed feature which is not preferred by all
2. All rights-managed images with a non-expiry scheme are excluded from the packs

They are categorized as large images (4K and HD videos), medium images (SD videos) and small images (Web videos) with packs of 5 and 10 each, and is totally worthy of your money.

Knot9 offers unique 4K Indian stock footage without a doubt! The competitive price and good quality make Knot9 suitable for both personal and commercial use, especially for publishers and advertisers.

Pros:

1. They have a huge library of free royalty free stock videos for commercial use. Their videos are royalty-free
2. Available at very reasonable costing and is completely budget friendly. The videos under subscription plans are a steal deal
3. The video clips are available in the dimensions of 4K, FHD, HD and SD and can be purchased individually.

Cons:

1. The library content is not huge.
2. New in market as compared to other global competitors.

Knot9 works every day to new generate new content for its users. The variety of genres they offer is great— from nature to technology and especially desi Indian foods, Indian Spices stock videos is what the website is primarily known for. So if you’re looking for stock videos with Indian models at a budget, you know your go to destination is knot9.

HD and 4K video clips, motion graphic templates and what not! Adobe Stock brings carefully curated stories as stock video with a high quality of HD and 4K.

Pros:

1. The website is known for its creative content such as shadows and silhouettes, nature views and visual
2. Credit packs of 2/ 5/ 10 and 18 HD videos available
3. One month free trial

Cons:

1. The pack doesn’t provide much flexibility and states that ‘If you reside outside of Japan, unused credits automatically expire 12 months from the date of purchase. If you are a resident of Japan, unused credits automatically expire 6 months from the date of purchase
2. Not affordable for all

Adobe Stock has definitely made its mark in the industry due to its premium quality, automated keyword feature and additional offerings.

iStock.com is a brand which comes under getty images but has a speciality of its own. Here, you can get 4K video clips and stock footage at very reasonable prices. They offer various categories of video clips such as abstract, time-lapse, slow-motion, pets, architecture etc.

Pros:

1. Affordable subscription and credit system
2. Large 4K library available at competitive prices
3. The plans are flexible and suit every budget type

Cons:

1. Search system not as intuitive as others
2. Not recommended for editorial or print media industry

The site works on credit purchasing for stock video and a subscription plan for stock images which sounds like a great deal

123RF, the website which focuses on their corporate clients offers stock video with trending categories such as romance, wedding, babies, vintage, which seems to be their USP.

Pros:

1. Feature of giving the user’s agency a centralized login to create lists, share, and license footage as one company
2. Lightbox feature where you can shortlist your favorites
3. “Similar image” option for better search

Cons:

1. Your credits expire after a year
2. No option to purchase a plan of fewer than 40 credits

All of this be considered, 123RF is one budget friendly, high quality stock video site with vast content that is why we did not miss this one on the list.

The above sites are definitely the best ones to bookmark for your list of stock video sites if you’re looking for the high quality and premium stock videos for your next project. You can choose your go-to site based on the categories and genres, decide on the basis of the subscription plans and pricing or simply evaluate the pros and cons mentioned in the article. In the end, remember with new sites launching continuously, it is necessary to understand what you need and then plan to buy the footage from the respective sites.