If you’re looking for the Envato Elements alternatives for digital design and content creation, more options are available than you might expect.
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What Is Envato Elements
Envato Elements is famous for its huge collection of royalty-free photos, graphics, audio, and videos. There are other options as well. Many alternatives serve different needs, including top free stock image sites and platforms for photo sharing and cloud storage.
We carefully tested different alternatives to Envato Elements, looking at the user interface, cost, experience, and stock media libraries. This thorough review gives you an idea of each option, including their pros, cons, best features, and how they compare to Envato Elements.
We would love to help you find the best Envato Elements alternatives that fit your needs and budget and improve your creative process.
List of Envato Elements Alternatives Free and Paid
Here is a list of both free and paid alternatives to Envato Elements.
- Motion Array
- Storyblocks
- Divi
- Pixabay
- Unsplash
- Shutterstock
- CorelDRAW
The Best Envato Elements Alternative of 2024 in Full
Why you can trust Mockey: We test each service thoroughly, ensuring you get the best free alternatives to Envato Elements.
Here are detailed reviews for each option on our list of the best Envato Elements alternatives. We’ve thoroughly tested them all, so you can trust our recommendations.
1. Motion Array: Best Envato Elements Alternative Overall
Reasons to Buy
- Simplified video sharing
- Efficient progress tracking with checkboxes
- Customizable interface
- Efficient progress tracking with checkboxes
- Multiple video versions for client options
- Seamless Motion Array integration for portfolio showcasing
- Unlimited downloads with a simple royalty-free license
- Professional content for broadcast and online use
- Includes 40+ free professional plugins
Reasons to Avoid
- Unfair customer issue resolutions for profit.
- Finding perfect assets is harder than competitors like Artlist.
- Downloaded assets are unusable after subscription cancellation.
- Frustration integrating assets into FCPX with no refunds.
Pricing
- Annual: $19.99/month
- Monthly: $29.99/month
- Team: $37.50/month
Motion Array is a flexible platform that caters to multimedia professionals, marketers, and video editors. It offers a wide range of premium stock media, including video footage, video templates, sound effects, and music all in one place.
What sets Motion Array apart from other Envato alternatives are its integrated video collaboration tools, review features and portfolio builder.
Motion Array has transition effects, title animations, and color grading presets that used to be only in other video editing tools. These upgrades provide a more full creative solution.
Motion Array stands out from different stock media software because it includes a website builder that helps users display their creations and offer services online.
2. Storyblocks: Alternative to Envato Elements for Unlimited Downloads
Reasons to Buy
- Unlimited downloads of stock templates, audio, videos, and templates with a subscription.
- Royalty-free license for commercial and personal projects worldwide.
- Affordable pricing compared to other stock sites.
- Large library: 1M+ HD and 4K videos, 430K+ photos, 100K+ audio tracks.
- Regularly updated content at no extra cost.
- Includes Adobe Creative Cloud plugins.
- Up to $1M indemnification against copyright claims.
Reasons to Avoid
- Customer service can be slow.
- Not as many images as audio and videos.
- Can’t share original stock assets with clients.
- Envato Elements has a bigger library with more content.
Pricing
- Strater: rs1000/month
- Unlimited Access: rs2000/month
- Pro: rs2416.67/month
Storyblocks provides a huge collection of professional videos and images, making it a great alternative to Envato Elements for creatives and businesses.
It offers millions of 4K and HD videos and templates for motion graphics and after-effects. Plus, there are more than 430,000 images, vector drawings, and graphics, along with more than 100,000 effects and audio tracks.
This software is more effortless to use than Envato Elements and similar to most different Storyblocks options. Plus, it lets you use downloaded content in many commercial tasks without paying extra fees, thanks to its royalty-free licensing.
Storyblocks offers a membership plan that lets you download unlimited assets while your subscription is active. You can use all downloaded photos and clips even after your subscription ends.
3. Divi: Similar to Envato Elements for WordPress Themes
Reasons to Buy
- Drag-and-Drop Builder for real-time page design.
- Full Site Editing with templates for headers, footers, and posts.
- 200+ design modules for versatile site creation.
- 2200+ professionally designed layouts to start from.
- Integrated with popular plugins for added functionality.
Reasons to Avoid
- Learning curve
Pricing
- Divi: $89/year
- Divi Pro: $277/year
Divi is renowned as the most customizable theme, standing out with features like its Visual Builder for easy front-end design edits. It offers over 200 elements, including blurbs, sliders, and carousels, making it highly flexible for designing your website.
Moreover, Divi’s responsive design ensures your site looks great on any device. It boosts productivity with features like bulk-editing modules, global style settings, and keyboard shortcuts making it perfect for creating a polished website effortlessly.
Divi offers over 2200 ready-made designs for easy website creation, with no developer needed. It also supports WooCommerce, with 20+ modules for shop layouts and beautiful products.
4. Pixabay: Envato Elements Free Alternative for Commercial Use
Reasons to Buy
- 100% free
- More than 2 million images
Reasons to Avoid
- Not many editorial-style images
- Ads from iStock
Pricing
- Free
All Pixabay pictures come with their own license. This license lets you download any image and use it in print or digital formats for free, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes. You can also modify the images. However, selling entire copies or sharing them on other Envato platforms is not allowed.
Pixabay has two million+ stock photos, music, and videos available. However, if you’re searching for innovative photography, you’ll have better luck than finding news-focused or editorial images, similar to Unsplash.
Remember, users searching for images of sports stars or politicians might notice they are subtly directed towards the iStock-sponsored images that also show up in the search results.
5. Unsplash: Free Envato Elements Alternative for Royalty-free Photos
Reasons to Buy
- Free service
- Huge selection of photos
- High-quality downloads
- A unique optional subscription is available
Reasons to Avoid
- Photographers might not earn much
- Photos can be used by anyone
Pricing
- Unsplash+: $10/month
Unsplash is a great Envato Elements alternative for free images you can use for personal or business projects.
Since launching in 2013, this free photo website has had more than two billion photo downloads. You can browse and save any of its high-resolution photos, all donated by photographers worldwide. It’s also a great place for professional photographers to showcase their work.
You can use images freely for commercial or non-commercial purposes without permission or attributions. However, it’s courteous to credit the photographer if possible.
A major drawback of the site is that creators and photographers often receive little compensation for their work. Unsplash+ aims to address this by providing complete assets and more suitable protections for all contributors.
The platform’s stock images are usually more creative and eye-catching rather than valuable. However, with more commercial contributors such as Mailchimp joining, there are now more business-related images available.
6. Shutterstock: Website Like Envato Elements for Versatile Content
Reasons to Buy
- Organized collections
- Includes music
- Good customer support
- Useful marketing tools
Reasons to Avoid
- Costs more than competitors
- Can be overwhelming at first
Pricing
- Image subscription: $29 to $249 per month
- Standard image packs: $29 to $229
- Video subscription: $79 to $669 per month
Shutterstock has been a popular choice for stock images and videos for a long time, and its huge collection makes it a great alternative to Envato Elements.
With over 360 million images, it can be overwhelming at first. However, the curated collections help you find images related to specific themes or events.
Additionally, there are numerous royalty-free music options, which are useful for making podcasts or creating video projects.
Apart from stock media, Shutterstock now offers extra features such as a graphic design tool and content planner called Creative Flow, which is equal to Adobe Express and Canva.
Stock photography provides various pricing options. Everyday users can buy individual images, while frequent users can subscribe to an all-in-one plan, similar to Adobe Creative Cloud, with monthly, annual, or annual billed payments. For businesses, the Enterprise and Teams plans offer vast downloads.
7. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite: Best Envato Elements Alternative Graphic Design Software
Reasons to Buy
- Comes with advanced graphic design tools
- Includes over 1,000 digital images
- Offers professionally designed templates
Reasons to Avoid
- Expensive annual subscription
- Some design tools may not be needed
Pricing
- Free trial
If you need more than just stock assets and want a powerful graphic design suite like Envato Elements, try CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. It offers a 15-day free trial, after which you need to buy an annual license.
This professional software includes CorelDRAW, Photo-Paint, and
Font Manager. It works on both Mac and Windows, with extra apps available for the iPad and web.
Whether you’re into photo editing, illustration, web design, or graphics, you can access a database of free images for your projects.
This includes 7,000 clipart files, car wrap layouts, digital images, plus more than 1,000 high-resolution photos. For inspiration, there are also 150+ professionally designed templates.
The Issues With Envato Elements
It is well known that Envato undercuts its competitors.
- The company has high commission rates. Exclusive sellers pay between 12.5% and 37.5% based on their total earnings over time, while non-exclusive sellers face a flat fee of 55%. Additionally, there’s an extra Buyer Fee ranging from $4 – $12 for themes and plugins.
- To make matters worse, sellers also have to pay a withholding tax, which can go up to 30% for governments without tax agreements with Australia.
- Envato’s policy of not offering subscription options for selling a product presents a major challenge for developers. It means they must continually provide support and updates to users who paid a one-time fee for their theme or plugin.
- Envato has a lot of customers, but they don’t advertise sellers’ products.
- Only top sellers who have sold more than $75,000 of products (as of sources from 2020) can use Google Analytics with the seller profile. This allows them to include UTM parameters in their marketing campaigns and what’s working.
- Envato Elements’ arrival has further disadvantaged marketplace sellers. Subscriptions from $16.50 per month enable users to save unlimited content, often cheaper than buying individual themes or plugins.
How to Choose the Right Envato Elements Alternatives
Choosing the right alternative can be confusing if you don’t know where to start.
- Think about what you need: What content do you want? What file formats and licenses do you require?
- Compare costs: Envato Elements offers subscriptions, but other services have one-time payments or pay-as-you-go options.
- Pick a library with lots of footage: Having more choices ensures you find the right footage for the project.
- Check that the library has good-quality videos: Videos should be clear, well-lit, and without any problems.
- Pick a library that’s easy to use: This makes it simple to find and get the videos you want.
- Look at reviews: See what others have said about the options before choosing.
- Understand the rules: Ensure you know your rights to the videos. Be sure to read the terms.
The Benefits of Using an Alternative to Envato Elements
If you’re a visionary professional, you probably know about Envato Elements. It’s a subscription service that lets you download unlimited creative assets like graphics, templates, fonts, and more.
Here are some justifications why you might want to think of using the free Envato Elements alternative:
A. You Don’t Have to Stick to One Platform
Envato Elements only allows downloads from its own marketplace. However, many other Envato Elements alternatives offer a wide range of assets. By choosing a free alternative to Envato Elements, you can access more options and aren’t restricted to just one platform.
B. Other Places Offer Better Deals
Envato is a useful resource, but it can be expensive. Other services offer more affordable monthly subscription plans or pay-as-you-go features that can save you money over time.
C. Money Might Be Better Spent
Besides offering a broader range of assets, some alternatives also include extras like stock photos and video templates. This means you might get more value for your money by choosing an alternative.
D. Supporting Independent Creators Is Possible
Envato Elements is a fantastic place to discover creative stuff, but it’s also crucial to back independent creators. When you opt for Envato Elements alternatives, you can buy single items or you can subscribe to a creator’s exclusive collection. This support empowers independent creatives to keep doing what they adore.
Conclusion
In short, Envato Elements is well-liked for design items, but other great competitors with high-quality and unique components. These alternatives propose many options for creators and designers to find the best resources for the projects.
If you’re looking for cheaper options, specialized content, or a different user experience, check out these Envato Elements alternatives. Remember to think about what you need and like before choosing, and explore the creativity and convenience these platforms offer for design projects.
FAQs
Is there a free version of Envato Elements?
Explore a variety of free fonts, videos, photos, and templates on Envato Elements to boost your creative projects. New files are added every month, so you’ll always find fresh resources to use.
What is similar to Envato?
Motion Array, Storyblocks, Divi, Pixabay, Unsplash, Shutterstock, and CorelDRAW graphics suite software are similar to Envato.
Is Artlist better than Envato?
Envato Elements is the best choice because it offers more assets, lower costs, and unique content like photos, video templates, plugins, and themes that you won’t find on Artlist.
Which is better Envato elements or motion array?
If you mostly work on video projects and need top-notch video assets like presets and transitions, Motion Array might be the better choice. But if you want a broader range of creative assets, not just for video, Envato Elements is versatile.
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