Shutterstock Reviews 32

I’ve been a contributor with Shutterstock for over five years, and unfortunately the platform has seen a noticeable decline, especially over the past year to year and a half, and even more so in the last few months.
When I first started, the approval process was efficient and reliable. Images were typically reviewed within 24 to 48 hours, which made the platform viable for timely and even semi time sensitive content. Recently, however, review times have stretched well beyond a week, and that is often after following up directly via email.
What is equally frustrating is the lack of meaningful communication. Responses from support feel entirely templated and impersonal. It is clear that canned replies are being reused with slight edits, with little effort to address specific concerns. In some cases, even the formatting within the email responses changes mid message, which reinforces the sense that replies are being pieced together rather than handled thoughtfully.
As someone who frequently covers breaking news and political events in New York City, timing is critical. Delayed approvals make it nearly impossible to rely on Shutterstock as a legitimate distribution channel for this type of work. The platform no longer aligns with the pace required for editorial photography, and as a result, it has become difficult to consider it a meaningful source of revenue.
Because of this, I have started shifting my focus back to platforms like Alamy and Getty Images, which are better equipped to handle time sensitive content and maintain a more consistent review process.
I hope Shutterstock addresses these issues, because it was once a dependable platform, but in its current state, it is falling short for contributors who rely on speed, communication, and professionalism.

Spent many many hours uploading 4-500 images as a contributor. The process was very time consuming and the rejection rate for inexplicable metadata issues was completely baffling and no solutions were offered. I looked on Trust Pilot and saw how bad they were for others so deleted my account = feel relieved I didn't invest any more time and energy

Extremely untrustworthy. They tried multiple times to withdraw money from my debit card, even without my consent. I never asked for new pictures, I never asked for subscription and they tried to take money from me. Please choose another option, except if you want to get stolen.

I purchased a $59 monthly unlimited picture plan and tried downloading 10 pictures tired I had saved. I was unable to download a single picture because the plan didn’t allow me to download any of my saved pictures. I called customer service and they cancelled that $59 plan and I got a $49 plan which allowed me to download my saved pictures. The problem is it’s terribly difficult to cancel a plan and when you are told it’s cancelled and you will recieve a credit, that’s lies. They just sent me an email telling me the $59 can not be refunded!!! Straight theft, I only had the account for five minutes before cancelling it and they refuse to credit what they said they would credit.

Total Fraud. They advertise all of their stock, yet do not have anything worth using, THEN they charge a ridiculous cancellation fee. Total RipOff. In 5 Months, give or take, I could only find about a dozen images worth downloading. Waste of time and money. Need to go out of business quick.

Extremely Disappointed – Account Closed Without Just Cause

After working with Shutterstock for nearly two years, our team is deeply disappointed. Without warning or a valid explanation, our account was closed, and our hard-earned earnings were withheld. Despite providing 100% proof of our legitimacy and compliance, Shutterstock has failed to present any evidence of wrongdoing on our part.

This action has not only wasted two years of dedicated work but also resulted in the loss of valuable designs created by our team. It feels like our content and revenue were simply taken without accountability.

We strongly advise others—especially designers and content creators—to stay away from this platform. Our experience reflects a serious lack of transparency and fairness. Protect your work and your time. There are better and more ethical marketplaces out there.

I hate this website.
Pull of bullshit
ℹ downloaded only 4 pictures because there is no more option for my job. I haven’t use it since I purchased. But they charged 29$ again now. I payed 58$ for 4 pics
It’s crazy don’t purchase any plan
Do you wanna know how much is cancelation fee for a plan? 145$
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Full of bullshit

Recommended

Awful company. They didn't reply e-mails.

Shutterstock are a bunch of thieves, they let you make lots of money for them. I had like 100$ of earnings in my account and than they closed my account, saying im suspicious. I contacted them but got no help. Now they don't even reply anymore. I spend lots of time uploading pictures and metadata. and now I get nothing. very poor customer service.

They are stealing sales/money from contributors. If you can see the stock price, it's decreasing throughout the years. So, they are stealing sales from contributors to cover losses. How can the sales and earnings for all contributors decrease all of sudden?

Signed up for a one time 2 image pack for a specific purpose. They automatically Opt you In to an ongoing charge when you use your credits. So they charge you again. In Australia this auto Opt In caper is illegal.

Do not use Shutterstock, they are heading to ending there stock photography in 2030 and being a fully AI focused company (yes I hope you shuddered in disgust like I did, disgusting AI) they are rejecting most images even ones that are in focus and that is because they want to steal your images to train there in my words "Degenerative AI" they include a pretend opt out button for AI use, however once marked for AI use only, if you opt out, they still use your photo, you don't get paid and there is no way to delete them from the AI catalogue, if you close your account, they will still have your photo marked for AI.

I'm a long time Shutterstock contributor. I've been submitting work for years. Most of my work consists of vector graphics. I'm very disappointed as of recent because many of my pieces have been rejected citing AI generated artwork. I have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours creating my artwork and they claim some of my work is AI generated so they rejected it. I emailed support and they told me to resubmit the files with a case number but yet they still rejected my art. This makes no sense because they accepted hundreds of my files from the same design base / collection. I'm not sure if they actually have real people reviewing the submissions. As a graphic designer of 25 years it's extremely disappointing and offensive. If this continues I will be deleting my account with them and using a new stock company to sell my work with. They obviously do not take the time to do their research and find the truth. My work is my own. I have created all of it myself 100%. It gets very frustrating to spend countless hours creating then downloading and keywording on their contributor site only to be denied without true reason and proof.

Its fake site

Really unclear that i signed up for a 12-month plan...
I realised money was being withdrawn from my bank account and cancelled my subscription. Had to pay a cancellation fee of 150€..

I have been paying them $30 / mo for the past 5 months thinking I was accumulating credits, come to find out in the fine print they do not roll the credits over essentially robbing you and giving you nothing in return. Horribly unethical business model. On top of that they make it impossible to cancel your account online, you are forced to call and wait on hold and then pay $100 fee to cancel. I hope this company goes bankrupt with these disgusting business practices. It costs 10 credits ($30) to download a single video. I will make sure to let as many people as possible know to avoid Shutterstock and go with one of their many competitors.

Agree with all the terrible reviews. Submitted 10 different photos and all of them rejected with explanations I could not understand. Complete waste of time.

I am a shutterstock contributor, I feel the reviewers can do better by further explaining reasons why an image was rejected rather than outrightly rejecting an image. For example, "Invalid Model Release: One or more of the attached model releases does not meet our requirements." I checked the model release and found out that the only issues was the model's signature was not there. They can do more to make things easy for us as contributors.

I was unaware that the subscription was autorenewal so after seeing a bank deduction I logged in to check. The option to view/cancel subscriptions is long winded and far from intuitive. This smacks of subscription trap to me. Coupled with the other Trustpilot reviews from artwork contributors the only recommendation I can give is AVOID.