Subscription on Shutterstock Stock Photo Bank

As I mentioned in previous posts, if you constantly need a large number of high-quality licensed photos or vector images, the best choice for you is to purchase a subscription. In this case, you will pay upfront (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually) the required amount and will have the opportunity to download a certain number of photos, illustrations, and footage from the stock bank daily.

As I mentioned earlier, the main advantage of purchasing images from stock banks on a subscription basis is the very low cost of such purchases. On average, the price of an image will be between $0.1 and $0.5.

However, the biggest downside of purchasing images on a subscription basis is that all well-known stock banks divide the total download limit equally over each day, including weekends. Accordingly, if you do not download your daily quota today, it will simply expire. This is the main negative aspect of the subscription sales model.

Since many organizations do not operate on weekends and holidays, and mostly large clients of stock banks (agencies, publishers, firms, media) purchase photos and illustrations on subscription, their employees have to either work on these days or download images from home to avoid losing the daily download limit.

The best stock bank providing image sales services by subscription and possessing a huge database of photos and illustrations is the stock bank Shutterstock.

Purchasing images on a subscription basis from Shutterstock looks like this: you pay the stock bank $249 per month (monthly subscription) and can download 25 photos or vector illustrations daily under the standard Royalty Free license. In total, during the paid month, you can download a maximum of 750 images, meaning the final price per image will be about $0.33. Tempting, right?

Of course, it is obvious that if you pay for a subscription at Shutterstock for a longer period, the monthly fee will be lower and, accordingly, the price per image will also decrease:

1-month subscription – $249 USD
3-month subscription – $709 USD (Your total savings will be $38)
6-month subscription – $1349 USD (Your total savings will be $145)
1-year subscription – $2559 USD (Your total savings will be $429)

If you decide to buy photos and illustrations from the stock bank Shutterstock, you will first need to register and pay for a subscription for the selected period. How do you register as a buyer at Shutterstock?

Buyer Registration at Shutterstock

Go to the registration page by clicking on the banner above or this link www.shutterstock.com. Then find the button that says “Create an account” and click on it.
First, you will need to choose a subscription plan:

• Register Only – register at Shutterstock only as a buyer of the stock bank (buyer), and you can pay and choose a suitable rate later.
• Standard License – standard license that is suitable for using images purchased from stock banks in 90% of cases. Here, you will need to choose the subscription period – for 1, 3, 6 months or 1 year.
• Enhanced License – extended license, which allows for wider usage of the image. For example, this type of license is needed if photos or vector illustrations are used for a project with a million print run or if a purchased image is used as part of a product.

If you haven’t decided yet how long you want to purchase a subscription during registration, the best option is to simply register on Shutterstock as a buyer (Register Only). If you’ve already made your decision and selected the right subscription plan, just choose the number of months in the Standard License and click Continue.

After this, you’ll need to enter the required billing information using Latin letters:
Email Address – your email address.
Confirm Email – repeat your email address.
First Name – your first name.
Last Name – your last name.
Company – the name of your organization (if you are acting on behalf of a legal entity).
Phone – your contact phone number.
Fax – fax (optional).
Language – language (select from the list).
Company Type – type of company. If you’re not sure what to choose, select Other.
Job Description – your profession (select from the list). If you don’t know what to indicate, select Other.
Address – your address.
City – your city.
State/Province – your state (province).
Postal Code – your postal code.
Country – country (select from the dropdown list).
Username – your username, login (the name for logging into the site).
Password – password.
Confirm Password – repeat password.
How did you hear about Shutterstock? – how did you find out about Shutterstock? You can write my blog address.
I agree to Shutterstock’s Website Terms and Licensing Terms – I agree to the site rules and licensing terms (be sure to check this box).

Check that all the information is filled in correctly and click Continue.

Example of filling out the Shutterstock registration form:

On the next page, you will need to provide your payment details (enter your credit card information):

Do you have a coupon code? – discount code (skip this).
Card Type – card type, select from the list.
Credit Card Number – 16-digit card number (enter without spaces).
Expiration Date – card expiration date (select from the list).
Credit Card Verification Code (CCV) – enter the last three digits on the back of your card.

Example of filling out the payment form on Shutterstock:

If the payment transaction for the Shutterstock subscription is successful, you will immediately have the ability to download images from the photo bank’s database. If you only registered but did not provide a payment amount, you can pay for the subscription plan at any time.

To do this, just click on a large image of a photo, and you will immediately be taken to the page to select a tariff plan and proceed with payment.

By the way! Do not download photos marked with the word approx. – this term indicates an interpolated size.

Happy shopping on Shutterstock!