iStock vs Storyblocks

iStock licenses royalty-free photos, illustrations, vectors and video clips for advertising, websites, blogs, presentations, video productions, podcasts and other uses. Its Essentials collection covers everyday content; Signature is a collection of handpicked material exclusive to iStock. The service also offers AI image editing to add or remove objects, extend images, change backgrounds, edit by prompt and upscale generated images to 4K. iStock says its AI is trained exclusively on licensed content, not visuals or data scraped from the web, and that generated images receive automatic legal protection of $10,000 per image. Licensed files include a $10,000 USD legal guarantee, with an Extended Legal Guarantee available up to $250,000 USD. Basic costs $29 a month and Premium costs $70 a month, each billed annually with 10 downloads monthly. Premium + Video is listed at $125 a month, with a new-customer offer noted; Unlimited AI costs $14.99 a month. iStock also offers one free Signature photo each week and free illustrations and video clips each month. API access is available, and a plugin links Dropbox for accessing, sharing and collaborating on content across devices.

Storyblocks provides subscription access to stock media and tools for video production. Its library contains over 10 million human-made assets, including footage, templates, music, sound effects, photos, vectors, and illustrations. The AI Toolkit offers video editing, video generation, and image generation; voiceover is available on some plans, and features use monthly credits. An Adobe Creative Cloud plugin brings the library into Premiere Pro and After Effects for searching, previewing, and downloading assets. Maker is an online video editor connected to the library, and Maker for Teams adds brand kits, collaboration tools, and custom templates. Templates are available for Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, and Apple Motion. A free account includes watermarked previews, folders, and Maker video creation, but there is no free trial membership. Essentials costs $21 a month billed annually; Unlimited All Access costs $30 a month billed annually; Small Business costs $40 a month billed annually. Small Business covers one employee at an organization with fewer than 50 employees and excludes agencies, production companies, and broadcast companies. Business pricing is available by quote.