With the boom in video content creation for platforms like YouTube, there has been a huge increase in demand for stock videos.
Perhaps this term was unknown to everyone a few years ago. However, today, it is on the lips of anyone who wants to create a video.
Just as designers use stock images for their creations, video publishers are doing the same with the multiple video libraries that exist on the web.
Imagine if a video creator had to make his own videos about topics as diverse as travel, nature, people, and business.
Wouldn’t it take hundreds of hours to collect all those videos?
Not very practical, is it?
That’s why there are the stock video platforms, whose goal is to provide you with short videos of different topics, of the highest quality and royalty-free, to save you those hundreds of hours so you can dedicate them to create your own content.
Usually, the best royalty-free video platforms are paid. You know, everything that’s top-quality has a price.
But what if I told you that there are lots of sites with 100% free videos, and I’m going to show them to you next?
You’d still read the article to the end, wouldn’t you?
Well, make yourself comfortable and enjoy, because I’m going to present to you the best options for you to download quality stock videos at zero cost, many of them without copyrights.
However, before you do that, there’s something important you need to know to avoid copyright issues with your videos.
Although you may have thought they were the same, free stock videos and royalty-free stock videos are NOT THE SAME.
Difference between Free Stock Videos and Royalty-Free Stock Videos
There has been a trend to think that all the videos that are free are because they are not copyrighted. However, this is completely wrong.
Many of the platforms I will show below offer free videos without copyright but, in the same way, they will also offer free videos with copyright that are under Creative Commons licenses.
Understanding the Creative Commons License
This license offers the author of the video to grant permission to the public to share and use their video under the terms they deem appropriate.
In other words, the author of the video that is under the Creative Commons license will choose the way you will be able to use their video.
And how do we know how we can use the video?
Well, there are 4 different conditions that, depending on how they are combined, we can use the video in one way or another.
These conditions are:
Attribution -A-: In any use of the video, it will be necessary to mention the author of the video.
Non Commercial -NC-: The video cannot be used for commercial purposes, that is, we cannot use it to make money directly or indirectly.
No Derivate Works -ND-: The video may not be used to create another video derived from it.
Share Alike -SA-: You can use the video to create other videos, as long as you keep the same license that the video had with the Creative Commons license.
From these four conditions come the various Creative Commons licenses.
If you want to know more about them so that you don’t have future problems with the videos you download, we recommend that you take a look at this complete guide on what is music without copyright.
Even though the guide is based on songs and not on stock videos, its content on the different types of licenses that exist will be just as valid for videos, and it will be of big help to you. Guaranteed!
What if the videos I download are in the public domain?
Public domain videos are videos that are not protected by copyright and therefore can be used without mentioning the artist, receiving any permission, or paying any fees.
Put another way, Public Domain Videos are videos like they have belonged to anyone so they can be copied, distributed, or used for free.
The videos you find on the following platforms may be in the public domain.
It’s true that it would be a bit strange to find videos in the public domain. Mainly because they would have to be videos that:
- Either they were created before copyright existed (back in 1710)
- Or their copyright has expired, with 50 to 70 years have passed since the author’s death.
As you can see, it’s a very unlikely scenario.
However, there is a Creative Commons license that is often confused with the public domain: the Creative Commons Zero license (CC0).
Creative Commons Zero (CC0): Free stock videos for any use
The videos that are under this license can be used with total freedom because,
- They are not protected by copyright
- They can be used without mentioning the artist
- Can be used for commercial purposes
- It is possible to create derivative works with them
- It is not necessary to keep the same license in the final product
- They are 100% free
What is the difference between public domain videos and videos licensed under Creative Commons Zero?
In practice, there would be no difference, as both allow full use of the music track without any barriers.
However, the difference is that:
- In the public domain, the video would become public when at least 50-70 years have passed since the author’s death
- In the Creative Commons Zero license, the author is the one who decides to release his work voluntarily from the moment of its creation
If you want to know more about the public domain and this license, we recommend you click on the link.
You will find a complete guide and, although it is focused on the music scene, it will be very useful to understand perfectly everything we have just told you.
Now that you’re clear on the differences between free and royalty-free stock videos (Creative Commons Zero), it’s time to introduce you to the best platforms for getting free, quality stock videos.
The 3 best platforms for free royalty-free videos
Below we will show you the platforms that we have considered the best for getting free videos that you can use in your projects.
Pixabay
Pixabay is one of the online platforms with the largest amount of free stock videos in its library.
Acquired in 2018 by Canva, it is a website with more than 200 videos available, and it is positioned as one of the most extensive stock video libraries, all of them under the public domain.
This means that you can use them for any purpose -including commercial purposes- for free and without the need for any mention or compensation.
The categories of your videos are so diverse that they will surely fit the theme of your video. They range from animals, architecture, or finance to sports, music, travel, and more.
Not only do they have videos, but you can also purchase royalty-free music, photographs, vectors, or illustrations, all in free-to-use format.
Additionally, they have a community of video enthusiasts who maintain and add videos to the platform, as well as many other professionals who decide to altruistically collaborate with the platform.
It is undoubtedly one of the best options for acquiring royalty-free video loops.
Pexels
Also owned by Canva since 2018, as the previous platform, Pexels is another of the best sites to download quality stock videos for free.
Perhaps you would know it better as a platform to download free stock images, as it was originally conceived.
But the truth is that they also have a large video library with hundreds of royalty-free videos in HD quality and from very different categories, among which are
- Street
- Water
- Drink
- Animals
- Timelapse
- Mockup
- and many more!
No web registration is required. Simply choose the video(s) you like and click on the “Download for Free” link. Simple, isn’t it?
Plus, you can download as many free videos as you really want, with no download limit. However, if you are going to use them for commercial purposes, make sure you can use them for that purpose.
And don’t worry about attribution issues or mentioning the artist, as this is not a requirement for using the videos.
Check out their collection of free royalty-free video loops shared by their community here – you’ll love them!
Videvo
And our third platform in the ranking of the best for acquiring free stock videos (and not the least important one) is Videvo.
This website offers a great number of videos and motion graphics in HD and 4K qualities that you can download for free.
You can choose from a wide range of themes: from people performing everyday actions to videos recorded from drones or time-lapses from nature videos, among many others.
You’ll also have access to numerous music tracks and sound effects to complete your video.
The platform is maintained by its members, who add new quality material every week, so you’ll find new videos and music tracks often to give your videos a fresh start.
However, unlike the other two platforms, where you can download the videos for free without any requirements, there are some requirements on Videvo.
- First of all, before downloading the videos, you must confirm that the video will not be redistributed in its original form.
- In some cases, it will also be necessary to share the videos on Facebook or Twitter in order to download them.
- Most of the time, you will need to credit the author of the video to use it.
- Finally, you should be careful how you use them and read the licenses carefully, as some of them will only be allowed for editorial use and not all of them will be valid for commercial use.
And if you think you need that video you liked so much and you want to use it without mentioning the author and for a commercial purpose, Videvo can provide you with a paid version of its platform.
By paying $14.99 per month, you’ll become a premium user, which will remove the restrictions and give you access to a catalog with more than 125,000 additional clips. Just another option you have, an option that you don’t have to buy if you are looking for free stock videos.
Once we’ve looked at the above platforms, you can tell that you have more than enough resources to buy royalty-free videos at zero cost.
But since at Legis Video we always want to offer you more and more, we have decided to expand that list of free platforms.
Other 5 options to find Free Stock Videos
Apart from the three previous ones, which we believe are the best for acquiring free stock videos, there are also other platforms on the Internet that provide free videos.
Below you will find 5 other alternatives that will multiply your options.
Mazwai
Mazwai is a website that was created with a clear purpose: to provide the public with free archive material, with great quality and a cinematographic style that can be used in many audiovisual projects.
This platform works directly and without intermediaries with selected artists, so any video you find can be used in your projects without any future problems with copyright.
Each of their videos has passed the quality filter by Mazwai’s team of experts, something that guarantees you to find a selection of stock videos with the best quality, with the security you need regarding copyright, and that you will not be able to find anywhere else.
So to use the videos in this impressive collection you’ll need to attribute the work to the authors of the vast majority of their videos.
A negative point of the platform is that it does not offer categorization, that is, you will not find defined categories to find the video you need. You will be able to search for it by related words, but it may take a while to find it.
However, its advantages far outweigh its disadvantages and we strongly recommend that you try this great platform.
Videezy
Videezy is a platform that, beyond offering free stock videos, is formed by a community of creatives who love to create and share material of all kinds and for everyone.
It has a large number of HD videos classified by various categories so it’s easy to find the video you’re looking for:
- Aerial
- Animals and Wildlife
- Slow-motion
- Travel
- Nature
- Art
- and many more!
You can also filter them according to the following criteria:
- File type
- Type of License
- Resolution
- Format
- Best match
The only thing to consider, besides making sure that the video you want is licensed for the use you need, is that you will need to subscribe to the website in order to download the royalty-free video loops.
But once you’ve subscribed, it’s all advantages!
Pond5
Pond5 is 
an online marketplace that aims to offer royalty-free material. In fact, it has the world’s largest collection of stock material, with over 10.5 million files, including stock videos.
If you enter the video section, you will find more than 20 million royalty-free video clips available, updated daily with thousands of new audiovisual pieces.
You’ll have a search menu at your disposal where it’s hard not to find the video you’re looking for.
From the most popular keywords to different video collections or categories ranging from 360 videos with virtual reality or aerial shots, to more common ones like lifestyle, people, politics, or fast motion videos.
Plus, you’ll have a variety of filters that make it easy to find the perfect video:
- Resolution
- Use (commercial or editorial)
- Duration
- FPS
- Number of people and gender
- Collections
- Additional Filters
In fact, in this last filter “Additional Filters” you can find the filter that we must mark to find the free videos: Public Domain (free).
Apart from videos, the company also offers other types of material that will help you in the production of your audiovisual pieces, such as stock music, sound effects, stock photos, 3D models or templates.
At the same time, it is a platform that, in addition to offering a free library with more than 10,000 videos of public domain that you will be able to use as you wish, also has paid material. In case you need to go one step further and get more exclusive videos.
ClipCanvas
ClipCanvas is a subscription service through which you can find large collections of royalty-free videos, as well as images or backgrounds.
At the same time, like many other royalty-free libraries, they offer a section of videos completely free in HD format.
This section has approximately 172 free videos to download, of about 10-20 seconds more or less, and to download them, it is necessary to register in the platform.
It is true that they do not usually update this section, but having 172 free videos without copyright at hand is not something you find every day, is it?
Coverr
Coverr is a platform that was created with the idea of offering greater accessibility to stock videos to interested audiences around the world.
Its creators, who also make recordings in their free time, maintain the illusion of offering other entrepreneurs like them their own creations on their own website.
And to make it happen, every Monday they offer all their subscribers 7 new videos with a great quality, which you can download for free without having to be registered on the platform.
You can use them in any project, either personal or commercial, since, as they explain in their own website, “they provide a non-exclusive and irrevocable license to copy, modify, present and use the videos, even for commercial purposes”.
In addition, you don’t need to ask permission or credit any author, although you know how we feel about that: if someone gives you something of quality and even for free, how can you not thank them by attributing the work?
We were thinking of ending the article at this point but we decided not only to create a good guide but to create the best guide on free stock videos.
So, we’re going to push the boat out and offer you a bonus with 9 more platforms.
Discover them!
[BONUS] 9 more ways to get free stock videos
- Dareful. A platform that offers royalty-free stock videos in 4K format that you can use in both commercial and personal projects. The videos are licensed under Creative Commons and you can download them only if you register on the platform -no need to enter forms of payment-.
- Life of Vids. Another of the most talked-about free and royalty-free stock video platforms, known to the community as the “golden goose” of content creators. It has over 200 royalty-free HD videos, clips, and loops that you can use without copyright restrictions. There is no need to give back to the authors, but if it’s a good video, why not? After all, they allow you to use it for free and it would be a way to thank them and encourage them to make more videos like it.
- Mixkit. A platform where you can find, literally said by them “Impressive stock video clips, stock music and templates for Premiere Pro …” and all available for free and for you to use freely.
- X Stock Video. It is a much more basic website than the previous ones, however, it meets the requirements to enter among these alternatives to get free stock videos. When you register, you can download videos from many different categories such as people, animals, technology, buildings, nature, etc.
- Archive.org. This is one of the non-profit organizations that allows you, in addition to downloading stock videos, to do the same with a multitude of photos, music, films, books, and websites that belong to the past. And if you are not only a content creator but also a curious person, you can also use its WayBackMachine tool, where you can see how the most important websites were throughout their history.
- iStockPhoto. If you join the platform or log in (if you are already registered) you will be able to download up to three exclusive video clips from their Signature collection for free. And if you come back every month on a regular basis, you’ll also be able to get more free material for your creative projects.
- Vimeo. It is considered as one of the alternatives of YouTube, and one of the things that few people know is that you can also find in that portal a lot of HD videos without copyrights that you can download for free.
- Vidsplay. This platform is constantly adding stock videos. In fact, every week you can find new stock clips completely free of charge that you can download and use at no cost by obtaining their non-exclusive rights. Although we recommend that you take a look at the terms and conditions so that you don’t get any unpleasant surprises.
Conclusion
Stock videos are an essential type of material for anyone who wants to devote himself to the creation of audiovisual content.
Without them, our videos are likely to be less attractive to our audience and therefore they may lose interest in our content.
While there are paid platforms with stock videos such as Envato Elements, Artgrid or Shutterstock, there are also many free alternatives where you can find quality recordings at zero cost.
And we don’t mean just free stock videos, but also royalty-free stock videos, which you can use either for personal or commercial projects.
If you’ve made it this far, you’re in luck, because now you know that there are no less than 17 platforms where you can find royalty-free clips and loops to complete your creations.