15 Best Stock Footage Sites for YouTube [FREE]

So, you need video content. More precisely, free video content. That’s awesome, because according to the 2023 video marketing statistics, 80% of people are convinced to make a purchase when they watch the product or service video.

In this article, you will learn about the 15 best free video content or stock video websites, where you can find awesome footage that you can use in your website, ad campaigns, YouTube videos or social media posts.

Best Website of Free Video Content

• Pixabay
• Pexels
• Videvo
• Videezy
• Coverr
• Life of Vids
• Vidsplay
• Freestock
• Stock Footage for Free
• Clipstill
• MixKit
• Splitshire.com
• Free Nature Stock
• Dareful
• Mazwai

Free Video Content Website #1. Pixabay

Pixabay is an online platform where users can download photos, video footage, and other graphic assets for free. The site offers a wide range of media content, including Creative Commons-licensed pictures and graphics.

Users can upload their own videos or images as well as search through the site’s library of photos or footage, to find what they need.

Free Video Content Website #2. Pexels

Pexels is one of the most popular sites for free stock photos and videos that can be used in blogs or presentations. They have a vast library of images that are available to download at no cost.

Pexels offers free and high-quality stock footage to use in your creative projects. All of their videos are licensed under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) which means you can use them with no need to ask permission from the owner of the footage.

Free Video Content Website #3. Videvo

Videvo offers thousands of free HD stock videos, plus some 4K clips for purchase at their online library.

The video clips on Videvo have a wide range, from professional high quality to amateur. Some are delivered as MP4s and others in QuickTime format.

Free Video Content Website #4. Videezy

Videezy is a free stock video site that has an extensive library of HD and 4K videos. Plus, the site features some really nice aerial drone footage.

The quality of the clips varies, but there are professional ones available too.

There are a lot of free stock video clips available on Videezy, but there are also a selection of premium content available for commercial and personal use. The premium clips have a green “Pro” tag on their thumbnail.

If you use free stock videos from Videezy, you need to include attribution.

Free Video Content Website #5. Coverr

Coverr features a wide variety of beautiful free stock videos, making it easy to find the perfect movie clip to use in your campaign.

In addition, this website simplifies the process of using the available images. Just click on the video you like and include it in your webpage or movie. No fees, registration or approval required.

Coverr doesn’t have the amount or depth of video that the other sites on the list do, but this site offers the right combination of aerial photographs, timelines, and movie clips from different projects.

Free Video Content Website #6. Life of Vids

If you’re looking for free stock videos, Life Of Vids is worth checking out. The site has a small catalog of videos but the ones available are high-quality. Note that this website is owned and operated by marketing agency Leeroy.

All of our clips are free to use for personal or commercial purposes. You will need to include attribution on the video though. Redistribution on other platforms is limited at 10 stock videos per project though.

Videos can be downloaded in HD format at various resolutions. You can also browse through several categories including “Food”, “Nature”, “People”, etc. Life of Vids lets you pick the resolution you prefer for your specific needs.

Free Video Content Website #7. Vidsplay

Vidsplay is another site with a large library of free stock videos, with new clips added weekly.

All videos on this site are free to use for personal or commercial purposes.

However, Vidsplay requires you to “visually” add a credit link to Vidsplay.com somewhere on your site to credit the owner.

Most of the free stock videos on the site are delivered as MP4. You can also easily see the details of each stock video, such as resolution, frame rate, length, and others, under the preview track.

Also, you don’t need to create an account to download clips from the site.

Free Video Content Website #8. Freestock

Freestock is another stock video website that offer creative assets to the creative community.

Their team operates with the creator’s needs in mind, and they make sure that their collection has relevance to who seeks stock video.

Free Video Content Website #9. Stock Footage for Free

As the name states, this website has Stock Footage for Free. That’s right, they offer professional quality stock footage and video. It comes with a royalty-free license, allowing creators to use it in all types of productions.

Free Video Content Website #10. Clipstill

If you’re looking for stock footage for marketing, then Clipstill is where you want to go. Clipstill provides free video clips with royalty-free for use in advertising, marketing and websites.

Free Video Content Website #11. MixKit

Much like Coverr, MixKit doesn’t require signup or attribution to the owner of the stock footage, in order for you to download and use the high-quality videos available.

Free Video Content Website #12. Splitshire.com

Another website with great collection of high-quality videos, is Splitshire.com.

The videos are free to use without having to provide attribution. They have great quality, all the way to 4K.

Free Video Content Website #13. Free Nature Stock

This website’s name explains it all. Yes, Free Nature Stock has a lot of free nature-based stock video in FHD up to 4K.

This is another great site to use completely for free, with no attribution required.

Free Video Content Website #14. Dareful

Dareful is the home of high-quality 4K free stock video footage. With their small collection of awesome videos, you will find mostly nature-based videos.

Free Video Content Website #15. Mazwai

Mazwai is fairly small website, with approximately 500 video clips in HD and 4K quality.

Their clips are hand-picked by their in-house team of professionals.

What is Video Content or Stock Video?

Video content, stock video or stock footage is basically the same thing. Usually used as B-roll, stock video is pre-filmed footage that can be purchased (or downloaded for free on these websites), and used in a variety of projects or film productions.

This video content footage can be licensed, but for the last couple of years, it’s more common to see royalty-free footage that doesn’t need attribution to the owner. It saves a lot of time to filmmakers, and most of the time, money, for not shooting original material.

These video clips are filmed for a general purpose, so that they can fit in most videos and be used in all sorts of productions.

Types of Video Content/Stock Footage:

• Short clips
• Sport clips
• Animal clips
• Family videos
• Nature videos
• Aerial videos
• Cityscape videos
• Food videos
• Slow-Motion clips

Where to use Video Content?

Every filmmaker has his own idea, and the potential use of stock footage is only limited by our own imagination. But it’s fair to say that are certain ways that stock video is most commonly used. Below are three ways of using stock footage.

Video Content/Stock Footage as B-roll

B-roll is complementary footage that it is used in videos or films, TV shows or news broadcasts. It is considered as secondary footage and it’s used to link together different primary shots.

Stock Footage in Marketing and Advertising

This footage can be used as primary or b-roll in commercials, ads or other videos that don’t require the original video footage.

Stock Video as Backgrounds

Sometimes, all we need is a good background, and that’s when stock video comes in. Stock footage can be a great source of background videos, usually, they can be used in websites, green screens, or video playback on an event screen.

What is a Video Copyright?

Copyright is the right to reproduce an element of creative work, in this case video content. Copyright is usually a complex subject, but in the simplest terms, whoever owns a copyright, is the only person who has the right to publish, reproduce or use the video as you want.

There are some copyright attributes that you should be aware of:

Exclusivity

The holder of the copyright is the only owner of the rights to publish the creative work, benefit from it, or let others publish or benefit.

Assignability

The holder of the copyright can transfer the rights to others in a legally valid form.

Internationality

The copyright is protected by international law.

Limited Duration

In several countries, such as, United States, United Kingdom and Australia, copyright protection last throughout the lifetime of the owner plus 70 years.

Limited Applicability

Certain uses of copyrighted works can be permitted under the principle of fair use, (and that’s where it fits most of free stock footage).

No Copyright vs Royalty-Free Videos

Although we may think that Copyright Free and Royalty Free is the same thing, they actually aren’t. There is a clear distinction that if it is copyright-free, then there is no copyright, and royalty-free means that the video has a copyright.

To understand these terms better, let’s take a look at them separately.

Copyright Free

Copyright free, if taken literally, means that the work is “free of copyright”. Usually, this is in the public domain, which means that you can do more or less with them.

Attribution may or not be required. There are no restrictions on what you can do with them, including selling, creating new works based upon them, or distributing online.

But if you, for instance, want to use the video on YouTube, you may be not able to monetize your videos.

So when approaching a work that claims to be Copyright Free, it is very important to make sure that it actually is, and if you comply with the license terms.

Royalty-Free

Royalty-free means that an element of video content is free from royalties, meaning that you don’t need to pay the owner.

When a video is used in a film production, the creator, oftentimes, will negotiate a form of ongoing payment for the use of their content. This is called royalty.

Royalty-free doesn’t mean that the work is free from acquiring, or that there aren’t restrictions on its use.

Royalty-free works can also be free. Many free stock video websites allow you to download and use videos that you don’t need to pay a royalty or a license fee. These are not public domain or copyright-free videos and they have limitations on their license.

Bonus: Three of the Best Premium Stock Video Websites

Storyblocks

Storyblocks has a huge collection of great stock videos that you can access for a monthly fee.

There is a great deal of time-lapses, aerial footage and videos with different environments and situations.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock is the best-known premium stock videos and photo library that it is online.

Their interface is very well designed, which makes it easy to find any video that you’re looking for.

iStock

iStock is an online platform that will help you discover 4K, HD and SD videos.

It provides categories like nature, architecture, food, and others.