Published on 17 November 2018 | Updated on 16 January 2020
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Adobe is closing Fotolia on November 5, 2019. If you are an existing Fotolia customer/contributor, read our detailed guide on how to transfer your Fotolia account to Adobe Stock. If you are new to Adobe Stock and want to learn more on selling and/or buying stock assets read our Adobe Stock Review. To find out how you can download 10 free images from Adobe Stock read our step-by-step guide.
Our first Fotolia Review posted in September 2012 wasn’t favouring Fotolia at all. It was due to the fact that our sales were very slow. Since then it went back to normal within a couple of months. We think this is due to the fact that we have started submitting different type of images – food! While all business related stock images were selling well elsewhere, here only some office equipment and few landscapes were downloaded. Good quality food photos have changed everything significantly. It only proves the rule that different types of images sell well on different stock photography agencies.
Adobe Stock & Creative Cloud
In 2015, Fotolia was acquired by Adobe and this step also significantly influenced the increase in sales. It is mainly due to the fact that all Fotolia content was integrated into Adobe Creative Cloud and its Adobe Stock service. From now on contributors can submit content on both platforms. This way they can reach millions of users and sell directly through Creative Cloud apps (Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC), as well as other desktop apps.
If you are a Stock Photo Buyer you can get 1 Month Free + 10 Free Images on Adobe Stock with our Special Offer!
Contributor Royalties
Fotolia is a great opportunity for stock photo contributors. They have huge and what important high quality image collection tempting all professional designers and photo buyers. Joining Fotolia is easy – you just need to create a free account. There is no upload limit and no initial review, so you can submit as many photos as you wish. Due to their impressive stock photo library, they are very strict in terms of quality of content uploaded so get ready for some rejections.
Fotolia customers can buy stock photos via credits, Adobe Stock Plan or subscription plans. Pricing is quite simple and your royalties will be based on your portfolio ranking:
- Credit sales – from 20% to 63% for single image download (from 35% to 63% for Exclusive contributors);
- Subscription sales – from 0.25 to 0.40 credits for subscription download;
- Adobe Stock sales – from $0.99 to $3.30 (payout can vary by country depending on actual price in local currency).
Fotolia Free Images
There is a free images section and you can decide if you want your photos show up there when they are rejected from their regular stock photo collection. If you are happy to donate some of your images to increase your portfolio exposure just tick the box while submitting your images for review.
For more information on giving your images for free read the article about Free Stock Photos.
Update on Fotolia Mobile Apps
Do you like taking photos with your smartphone? Fotolia Instant Photo Application can be something for you – you can upload and sell images in Fotolia’s Instant Collection on Fotolia Website. Instant Collection is an online library of creative stock photos taken with mobile devices. It is simple yet professional camera application with manual control of exposure and aperture. With this app photographers can keyword and upload stock photos to Fotolia’s image library. It also offers easy creation and uploading of model releases.
At the moment, the only mobile app from Fotolia is their iPad Appdesigned for photo buyers. Customers can search Fotolia‘s image collection, download file directly to their iPad or send to Dropbox or Google Drive. Users can also create and manage their own photo collections.
More information on this one and other Mobile Apps can be found here.
Fotolia Review: Our Verdict
Fotolia’s acceptance rules are very strict, which in our opinion is very good. We are tired of seeing thousands of poor quality stock images accepted by some agencies. Despite this fact, Fotolia is one of the best stock photo agency to work with.
Acquisition by Adobe was one of the best steps for contributors whose content is available to wider audience, thus increase their income. Fotolia provided excellent opportunity for every photographer trying to market their top quality work and make some money from selling photos online.
Unfortunately, Adobe is closing Fotolia on 5 November 2019. To learn on how to move your Fotolia Contributor Account to Adobe Stock read our step-by-step guide.
Fotolia Details
| Website | fotolia.com |
| Location | New York, USA |
| How to apply | Join and start uploading – no initial review |
| Image size | Minimum 2400 x 1600 pixels (4 MP) – max. 30 MB |
| Media accepted | Photo, Vector, Video |
| Licenses | Standard License and Extended License |
| Minimum payout | $50 |
| Payment methods | PayPal and Skrill |
| Upload methods | Web Upload, FTP |
| IPTC Data support | Yes |
| More details | Details of Contributor Royalties, Image/ Credit/ Subscription Prices, Referral Programs and Exclusivity Rates can be found in our Comparisons |
| Download Releases | Model Release Property Release |
