Whether you’re a seasoned graphic designer or just starting out, making use of pre-designed elements is an excellent way to save time and work more efficiently. Today, I want to share with you seven of my favourite vector sites for quality resources. If you’re designing a website, a t-shirt, a poster, or anything else, you’re sure to find vectors that will prove to be extremely useful.
The Best Vector Sites
Here are seven of the best sites for finding high-quality vector graphics and illustrations that can be incorporated into your work.
Vecteezy
Vecteezy has been one of the most popular sites for vector graphics since it launched in 2007 (right around the same time that the Spoon Graphics Blog launched). Today, Vecteezy is a large creative marketplace with millions of vectors, as well as stock photos and stock videos.
At Vecteezy, you’ll find a combination of free downloads and premium resources. The free licence allows for personal and commercial use, but you must provide attribution. If you don’t want to provide attribution, you can upgrade to a Vecteezy Pro subscription for $14 per month (if paid monthly) or $9 per month (if paid yearly). The Pro subscription also gives you access to millions of premium resources.
Where Vecteezy really stands out is in terms of value. The selection of free vectors is among the best you’ll find anywhere, and the value of a Pro subscription really can’t be beaten. Pro subscribers get unlimited downloads of vectors, photos, and videos. If you’re a freelance designer, a blogger, or anyone else who needs a lot of quality resources, the Pro membership will prove to be an outstanding value.
Another perk of the Pro subscription is access to bundles that are available for a limited time. These bundles may include types of resources that otherwise wouldn’t be found at Vecteezy, like fonts, Lightroom presets, Photoshop templates or add-ons, and photo overlays. Pro subscribers can download one bundle per week at no additional cost. With some of the bundles including hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of resources, this is a significant perk.
Of course, you’ll find a wide variety of types of vectors at Vecteezy. They’ve got backgrounds, icons, UI elements, repeating patterns, hand-drawn illustrations, and much more.
Highlights of Vecteezy:
● Offers a mix of free and premium vectors.
● Also offers stock photos and videos.
● Massive collection of resources.
● Pro subscribers get unlimited downloads for as little as $9 per month.
● Pro subscribers can also download 1 bundle per week.
Vexels
Vexels offers a much smaller selection of vector graphics (currently less than 60,000), but it’s an ideal option for anyone who designs and sells merchandise like t-shirts or other print-on-demand products.
In addition to the standard vector graphics, Vexels also offers PNGs and SVGs with transparent backgrounds, PSD mockups, and PSD t-shirt designs. You’ll also appreciate useful online tools like a mockup generator, t-shirt maker, and logo maker.
While the vector graphics can be used by designers for a variety of purposes, the content and tools provided by Vexels will be most useful for those who design and sell merchandise. In addition to using the stock files to create your own designs, Vexels offers a wide selection of pre-designed t-shirts and other items you can start selling right away.
Pricing at Vexels is a little more complicated because they offer two different types of subscriptions (Merch and Design), each with three different price points. The Design subscriptions are available at the lowest price, but you’ll need a merch subscription if you want to use the resources to design and sell merchandise.
Design subscriptions start as low as $9.99 per month (if paid monthly) or $6.50 per month (if paid annually). This plan allows for 100 downloads per month.
Merch subscriptions start as low as $29 per month (if paid monthly) or $21.99 per month (if paid annually). This plan includes 100 downloads per month plus two design requests (you can request that they create specific resources to add to their library).
Highlights of Vexels:
● Ideal for designers who sell t-shirts or other print-on-demand products.
● Offers vectors, PNGs, PSDs, mockups, and some online tools.
● Pricing starts at $21.99 per month for those who want a licence to sell merch.
VectorStock
VectorStock is another site that’s been a popular resource for many years (also launched in 2007). Like Vecteezy, VectorStock offers a combination of free and premium vector graphics, but you won’t find photos, videos, or any other types of resources here.
The free vectors from VectorStock can be used for both personal and commercial projects, but you must provide attribution. The premium vectors can be purchased in a few different ways, including pay-per-image, pre-paid download credits, or a subscription.
VectorStock offers a few different subscriptions, but none of them provide unlimited downloads. The cheapest plan starts at $49 per month for 60 download credits. Unused download credits roll over to the next month.
Highlights of VectorStock:
● Offers a mix of free and premium vectors.
● Provides a large library that includes millions of vectors.
● Subscription pricing starts at $49 per month for 60 downloads.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock is known for being one of the leading stock photo sites, but they also have a massive selection of vector images. With more than 70 million vectors, their library is probably the largest you’ll find.
Like most stock photo sites, Shutterstock offers a few different options for customers. You can purchase download credits to use whenever you want (must be used within two years), but the prices are quite high. The best value is 25 download credits for $229. Subscription plans start at $29 per month, which allows you to download 10 images.
Overall, the selection at Shutterstock is outstanding, but the prices are higher than other sites.
Highlights of Shutterstock:
● Incredible selection of more than 70 million vectors.
● Also offers stock photos, video clips, music, and 3D models.
● Subscription pricing starts at $29 per month for 10 images.
Freepik
At Freepik, you’ll find a selection of both free and premium vectors. Aside from vectors, Freepik also offers photos and PSDs.
The free downloads can be used in personal and commercial projects, but you’ll need to provide attribution. If you don’t want to provide attribution, you can upgrade to a Premium subscription. With the subscription, the requirement for attribution is waived, and you’ll also get access to a much larger selection of premium resources.
Premium subscriptions are priced at $14.99 per month (if billed monthly) or $10 per month (if billed annually). You’ll be able to download up to 100 files per day, so the prices are much lower than some competitors like Shutterstock and VectorStock (but slightly higher than Vecteezy).
Highlights of Freepik:
● Large collection of vectors, photos, and Photoshop files.
● Some resources are available for free. Others require a premium subscription.
● Subscriptions are as low as $10 per month.
● Download up to 100 files per day with a subscription.
Depositphotos
Like Shutterstock, Depositphotos is one of the top stock photo websites. However, Depositphotos also offers an impressive selection of more than 50 million vector graphics. Of course, Depositphotos offers other types of resources like photos, videos, music, and sound effects.
While the selection of vectors at Depositphotos isn’t quite as large as Shutterstock’s library, the prices are more reasonable. For on-demand downloads of images, 25 credits will cost you $99 (as compared to $229 at Shutterstock).
Subscription plans start at $29 per month if billed monthly, and you can download up to 30 images on that plan.
Highlights of Depositphotos:
● Large selection of more than 50 million vectors.
● Also offers stock photos, videos, music, and sound effects.
● Subscription pricing starts at $29 per month for 30 images.
Envato Elements
Envato Elements is a popular subscription-based service that offers unlimited downloads of vectors, stock photos, video templates, graphic templates, fonts, and more. If you use a lot of creative assets, the value of an Envato Elements subscription is outstanding.
Unfortunately, Envato Elements doesn’t have a separate category for vectors. There are many vector files in some of the other categories like graphics and graphic templates, but the process of searching specifically for vector files is a bit cumbersome.
A subscription to Envato Elements is $33 per month (if billed monthly) or $16.50 per month (if billed yearly).
Highlights of Envato Elements:
● More than 50 million creative assets available.
● The selection of vectors is not as strong as the other sites on this list.
● Subscriptions start at $16.50 per month and allow for unlimited downloads.
Final Thoughts on the Best Vector Sites
All of the sites on this list are excellent resources for vector graphics, although there are some significant differences in pricing and the number of downloads you’ll get with a subscription. Overall, Vecteezy is a top recommendation based on value and selection. Vexels is also an excellent choice for those who design and sell merchandise.
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