Pikwizard Review
The search for free stock photography is not a one-and-done kind of thing where you can just grab the image you are looking for and be done with it. Sourcing high quality stock content is an essential and ongoing part of any designer, blogger, or influencer’s job. Artistic professionals such as these need to have more than just a couple tricks up their sleeve, and more than just one free stock image site on the bookmarks bar.
Pikwizard is a refreshing source for free stock photos, not because of any crazy features or fancy programming, but rather because they’ve focused on the only two things that truly matter when it comes to building a free stock photo library: quantity and quality.
In this review, we’re putting Pikwizard under the analytical microscope to find out fast, easy, and expansive it really is, and whether or not it should be your newest go-to source for free stock photos and videos.
Bullet Point Overview
- A well-organized free stock photo library with over 1 million images
- One of the largest collections of free stock video clips
- Large collection of free HD motion backgrounds
- Good source of editorial video content (news, reports, etc.)
- A significant amount of new HD content
- Full integration with DezignWizard online editing tool
- Photos and videos are organized by both categories and tags
- The Pikwizard blog offers valuable lessons in online marketing
- Simplistic page layout makes browsing easy
- Download process is simple and fast
- Free membership allows users to save and share favorite images
- Track download rates of individual images
In Depth Overview of the Site
There is nothing about the free stock photo site Pikwizard that jumps out at the user as particularly unique or innovative, but if we’re being honest, we think that is a good thing. In a digital world where so many design websites and stock stores are trying to wow their users with flashy features and overly-engineered web design, Pikwizard takes a more subtle route. This is a simplistic, unassuming free stock photo site that has it where it really counts:in functionality and content.
Pikwizard makes it blazingly easy to find and download images from their massive stock photo library or their growing stock video collection. All in all, there are over 1 million pieces of free stock content available at Pikwizard, all for nothing more than a few clicks of the mouse.
The lack of premium subscription plans is not a big deal here; the average Pikwizard user isn’t going to have any need for that kind of thing when there is so much HD stock content to choose from.
While the main thrust of the site seems to be to get users over to DesignWizard, there is certainly nothing wrong with that. DesignWizard offers a number of free photo editing tools that can be used online, but their real strength is in premium design content. This is a place that can take the stock photo you’ve chosen and integrate it with a number of fonts and templates for only a few bucks a pop. It’s en easy way to save even more time on your creative project.
To summarize, Pikwizard is an expansive, no-nonsense free stock photo site that should be in the bookmarks folder of any designer.
How Pikwizard Compares to the Competition
It is no secret that free stock photos and videos are easier to obtain than they used to be, but just because they are multiplying does not mean that the quality is increasing as well. In fact, many pop-up stock content stores boast of massive stock photo libraries in order to draw users in, but then you find out that they’ve only got about 30 viable pictures, and (surprise, surprise) they’re the ones featured on the front page.
Pikwizard has both a photo and video collection that is expansive as it is effective. These photos are bright and dynamic … nothing like the kind of images that pop into our heads when we hear the term “stock photos.”
There are a few things that Pikwizard lacks that we do like about other stock photo websites. For example, there is no big, sociable contributor network like there is with Stockvault, or the simplistic licensing options at Picjumbo. However, the Pikwizard free stock library is larger than either of those other sites, so it always comes down to a matter of preference and need.
DesignWizard is a fun app that works as well as it is intended to, but most designers and creative professionals would probably rather stick with their own editing software. The template options are really affordable though, allowing professionals with zero design experience to create something that looks truly top-notch in terms if aesthetic design.
Free Stock Photos AND Videos at Pikwizard
Pikwizard’s offering of free stock videos is one of the most expansive of its kind. Generally speaking, it isn’t as easy to find free stock video clips as it is still pictures and images, so even the fact that Pikwizard offers videos at all is a big win for them.
The stock video clips at Pikwizard are organized by the same system as the images, with direct, popularity-based categories working alongside individual image tags.
Premium Stock Photos & Videos
At the top of every category page art Pikwizard is a row of “premium” tagged images that match the category. These are royalty-free premium images hosted by Adobe and available for purchase at the Adobe website.
Any image that is downloaded from Pikwizard is totally free, so if you find yourself being charged for something then you’ve likely left the site entirely. While there is a registration option at the top of the Pikwizard home page, there are no premium or subscription options available for purchase.
The Licensing Options at Pikwizard
All of the free stock pictures and photos at Pikwizard are available under one of two licenses: Free or CC0. However, they are all also subject to the Pikwizard user agreement, which is kind of dense when you look at it and can be difficult to fully understand.
- A Creative Commons License(CC0) is available when the original photographer or videographer has waived their copyright to the work in questions.
- A Free License is when the creator has kept copyright of the image or video, but as given permission for it to be used without anyone having to pay for it.
The User Agreement lays out a few more terms, but most of it is fairly similar to what you might find at any other stock photo sharing site. Basically, people can use the stock images for both commercial and non-commercial purposes, including marketing materials and merchandising. However, the image cannot be redistributed via another sharing site or stock photo database. This is also true if the image has been edited or altered in any capacity.
As usual with stock photos and videos, there are more licensing details that you need to pay attention to when you are using an image that has real people in it. If you want to read the fine print, you can check out the Pikwizard user agreement.
What Comes with a Pikwizard Membership?
Pikwizard is a 100% free stock photo sharing database, so there is no need to pay for anything or even sign up for anything if you don’t want to. However, the signup is pretty much instantaneous if you have Google or Facebook, and it will grant you immediate access to a couple of extra features that are nice to have if you’re spending a lot of time on stock photo sites.
The first is access to the email newsletter, which sends new free stock content right to your inbox so you won’t miss out on anything new. Then there is the photo sharing and favorites folder … two very basic social media functions that nonetheless make it worth the few clicks it takes to activate a membership. Beyond that, there are no premium accounts available at Pikwizard; everything on the site is totally free. This is not the case with DesignWizard, a sister website that does charge for temples and graphic design services (some stuff there is free).
Quick Guide: Using Pikwizard to Download Free Stock Photos
Pikwizard is not one of those noisy, cluttered, or overcomplicated stock content stores that make it feel as if you’re being barraged by offers, deals, and flashing add banners. Instead, the Pikwizard browsing design is sleek and effective, letting users jump right into the search process without being pressured to buy anything.
Search by Category or by Tags
The site’s stock photo and video content is organized by a long list of specific categories, each on with many thousands of images in it. While this is not unique to Pikwizard it is nice to have a familiar feature like this that is well-executed; you can tell that some thought was put into the category selection based on what users are most likely to be searching for.
A highly functional tag system also gives users the ability to just type whatever they’re looking for into the search bar, all images with that tag will appear. Unfortunately, the users themselves to not have the ability to add tags to the existing photos. But most of them having upwards of 20 associated tags, the whole search system tends to work quite well.
How to Download Images
Downloading images at Pikwizard only involves a few clicks, but the site’s design is going to try and direct you towards DesignWizard, which is the sister-site to Pikwizard and offers online photo editing tools.
Clicking on an image will bring you to the image’s page. The download button is just beneath the DesignWizard button, and it will open the image in a new browser window. From there, the user can decide where to download the image to.
The images are not provided with names, so it is a good idea to replace those nonsensical strings of letters and numbers with something a little more recognizable for your photo library.
DesignWizard: Pikwizard’s Helpful Companion
With every Pikwizard photo download, the user is given the option of editing the photo for free before downloading it. This edit function is built into DesignWizard, a specialized app that integrates the Pikwizard stock content collection into an impressive array of instant and online photo editing tools.
While the basic design functions are helpful for things like cropping and adding text, the real value of DesignWizard is for use as a full-service design center. From marketing tools and social media posts to blog headers and twitter templates, there is no aspect of digital marketing that DesignWizard can’t help you with immediately.
With professional-grade templates that are readily available for only a few bucks each, it’s possible to design your marketing material from scratch and have a completed file in a matter of minutes. The integration with the Pikwizard stock photo collection makes this a true heavyweight in free online design.
Q: Does Pikwizard Accept Contributor Submissions?
Pikwizard does not accept any contributor submissions, not can we find any evidence that it is something they might do in the future. The whole Pikwizard apparatus was structured to support the premium services and content offered by DesignWizard, so it is unlikely that they would put any resources into curating member-submitted content.
Conclusion
Finding the perfect stock content for your project is not always as easy as typing your need into a search bar. In can take real time and attention, and only the designers and creators with a diverse collection of content sources are going to be able to keep up. Pikwizard is one of the few tools that should be added to every creative professional’s bookmark list.
