ShutterstockReviews 532

The website is very slow to load and is build so you with one click accidentally can buy a stock clip. All clips are only shown in very low quality as a preview. I have experienced to try previews and when I brought the clip it turned out it was in too bad quality to use. Or even worse once I brought some clips that turned out to be 3d generated (which I couldn't see in the very low quality preview).
On top of this they have a very expensive product (compare it to enavato elements or artgrid or similar) bad customer service (i couldn't get a refund for clips that I accidentally brought - clips are very easy to buy since theres no check out counter just a "download" button). All in all a company that once was one of the leadring in the market but now they have lot of competition and will probably be out of business if they continue with this service and model. They dont focus on customer experience and service

Whatever you do, do not sign up or download any image from this website.
I thought I was paying for 1 image, which was all I needed, and then the company started to charge me AUD31 every month for a service that I wasn't using.
I contacted the customer support help and they said they were going to be 'nice' and cancel my subscription without charging me the cancellation fee (attached email from them). One month later and they charged me again for the subscription. They have not cancelled my subscription as they promised.

The only way out of this cam was to cancel my credit card and report it to my bank.

Its extremely hard to cancel the plan, communication is poor, there is literally no button to cancel the plan, you have to contact their staff. Its too pricey and huge disappointment overall. Would not recommend to anyone, do not sign up for annual plan - its definitely not worth the money and the way they structured the subscription feels like I have been tricked into paying for something that I don't want anymore. In order to cancel I have to pay a lot more money. I am so angry.

What a joke! I was shocked to see that I had been charged $29 for the last several months and have not utilized this for months. They charge you $29 for 10 photos which is a joke as well... and then say you need to pay $60 for early cancelation! They should be ashamed of themselves! I will cancel every card they aren't getting another dime from me!

The free trial enrolls you into an annual membership which is $29 a month. In order to cancel, you have to reduce you annual membership to a monthly membership. The monthly is 49 dollars a month. In order to cancel, you have to pay an additional 20 to be monthly, in order to cancel the annual. Its a huge scam. They are ripping people off.

I've used a number of stock image websites and by far the worst one was Shutterstock. The one month trial plan states that you are allowed to cancel the $29 per month plan within the first month. What they don't tell you is that you are automatically set up to auto renew. This occurs even if you shut auto renew off, as I had done before the end of August. They then direct you to contact them... without easily giving you their contact information. Sad and pathetic that a site would need to dupe their members into memberships. I'll be returning to 123rf.com.

No easy way to cancel a subscription (you have to email or call them) and they try to charge you a fee if you want to cancel. The monthly payments are incredibly sneaky, you never receive any receipt emails and unless you're paying EXTREMELY close attention to your bank statements you will not notice. In my case they charged me $90 and then tried to take another $40 when i finally noticed and went to cancel. Horrible company, avoid them at all costs.

They want you to sign up for a free trial, then you can't, then a chat bot comes up and tells you it can help you to buy the image. Then you ask 'How much is the image' - No response. Then you ask - I would like to buy the image without signing up, it is to use for a family christmas card. No response. The only response is to tell me that I can purchase the images by downloading the mobile app and signing up to an account. I am on my desktop mac mid-designing and I want to be able to just BUY A STOCK IMAGE. This is not my first encounter with the site, but it extraordinarily frustrating when a site that markets itself as a shop for stock imagery has no prices and does not let you buy anything without signing up for a free trial. If I was a photographer I'd be jumping ship to a site that allows people to buy images.
Then when I went to say that I was not happy about it, the chat bot closed the chat. So my 'complaint' wasn't heard. Therefore Shutterstock, now I have to tell it publicly, which I do not like doing.
I am super annoyed as you may tell.

They will charge you $180 to cancel after trial period. I was being billed almost $40 a month and never used their service! I only signed up to look at a photo and forgot to cancel. I didnt even use the photo. ALL MARKETING! Support your local designers on ETSY or their personal websites.

They charged my credit card for over a year, I never saw any receipts even on my profile. When I asked them about my charges, the charges showed up on my profile. I got trapped into a one month free promo. They charged me $30 a month since. They would not charge back!
I think they are a Terrible company

Forced to purchase ten images (monthly fee giving you 10 downloads) when I was looking for just three images. I unticked the auto-renew button. I later found they were taking further payments from my card. I tried to cancel but was referred to their customer service. Apparently, I was contracted for a year at 12 payments of £24. I was forced to pay a further £20 penalty in addition to the £48 monthly fees to cancel the contract. No sympathy was offered I felt they just ripped me off. Similar images are available from other websites and I suggest you try these first.

I needed a picture to blow up and frame for retiring boss. Went to their site and found the picture I wanted. I could have used their free 30 day trial and got the picture for free, but I tried to purchase a 2 picture package instead so the people who took the picture got paid. I was unable to complete the transaction, contacted their customer support via chat. They said they would look into it, and contact me by email. I got the email said my transaction was ready to complete, but when I tried to log in, I was told my account was disabled. I contacted them again via chat and they said that my account was disabled, and if I attempted to create a new account it would be disabled. I asked why, and I was told they couldn't tell me why as second tiers were not given that information, and that the decisions was not appeasable. So Im going to find someone else that will sell me a picture. If you use these people, good luck making any money

I found the website Alamy, and they were more than helpful. I found a picture and they sold me a license for the picture.

I have the premium experience and I love it, The best option to download photos, vectors, video and PSD

This may be useless since they have a reading of 1.3 LOL but they offer a free month trial but if you don't cancel before the end of the month they charge you the difference between the annual fee which you automatically are signed up for and the monthly fee. So after nine months I canceled and was charged almost $200 to do so.

I wanted a monthly free trial and they subscribed me to a year plan and now they are charging me over and over, also they turned on automatic renewal so even next year they will charge me for a no ending story.
They don't answer my calls either!
Absolute thieves!

If you've ever heard stories of people being forced into contracts by not reading the TOS well enough - this is one good example why you should always read it. Be careful when you sign up for subscription trials that require you to give them your card information. Businesses like Shutterstock trap you in their annual contract 2 days even before the trial has expired, and their monthly download limits are not brought over to the next month. They also charge you a cancellation fee even if you haven't utilised their services beyond the trial period and technically haven't used any of the months they've billed you for, taking back their "discount" on your 0 images downloaded. There are much, much better sites out there, try checking reddit for some and seeking out the threads that explain this kind of shadow UX and direct you to better stock image sites.

If you value your hard-earned money, I'd advise you to keep clear of Shutterstock. They offer a free trial, but if you read the fine print you're actually signing up for a 12-month commitment once you go into month 2. When you cancel your subscription, they come back with the full $49/month e.g. You sign up in May, rollover to June and cancel in July - they will come back and ask you for the $20+ Tax difference.

I don't seem to find an hour that the chat support works, tried to call the number to speak with a representative, it doesn't work. Don't answer in messenger and I m still waiting for a mail reply. Not very happy with Shutterstock support, especially when I m trying to pay a plan that already has two new credit cards and they don t seem to have a system that collects after a first expired card error... It just blocks the plan indefinitly... What a great thing

This company lures you in with a free trial and a few images and relies on you forgetting to cancel to lock you into a year long contract for $30 per month. They will give you no follow up communication to tell you that you are being charged and when you call to cancel early, they back charge you $20 more for every month because apparently the $30 is their "discount rate". DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SERVICE. IT IS THEFT AND A HUSSLE AT ITS CORE!