• Shutterstock

Shutterstock

Overview

Shutterstock has a rating of 1.15 stars from 527 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Shutterstock most frequently mention customer service, free trial, and credit card problems. Shutterstock ranks 556th among Graphic Design sites.

  • Service
    159
  • Value
    160
  • Shipping
    81
  • Returns
    115
  • Quality
    141

This company does not typically respond to reviews

Positive reviews (last 12 months): 2.3%
Positive
1
Neutral
0
Negative
42
65
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What reviewers want you to know

Positive highlights

No positive highlights yet

Critical highlights

  • No help and no customer service, just scripted responses.
  • I try to cancel my credit card but they no allow us to simply cancel and must need to contact.
How would you rate Shutterstock?
Top Positive Review

“Shutterstock is Sensational”

Richard P.
5/18/23

I'm a writer and there are many times I need book covers for my ebooks. The artists are very good and often have a wide range of selection including animation. Shutterstock customer care are excellent and when I had a problem they helped me work through my own error, they were on top of things The variety of images are outstanding to say the least. I'm retired now, too bad I didn't work for Shutterstock. Keep up the great work Shutterstock Sincerely Author Rich Patriaco

Top Critical Review

“Billed my credit card when plan was cancelled”

trashton p.
2/2/24

These people are thieves... Shutterstock billed my credit card when my monthly plan was cancelled. Forget their BS chatbot. It is just a way to make you feel as though you have to be satisfied with being robbed. Call their phone number. And DEMAND a refund! They will "Open a case" in your name. Within a few hours they emailed me back stating I would receive a refund in 3-5 business days. Don't be a victim! Call the 866 customer service number NOW!

Reviews (527)

Rating

Timeframe

Other

Reviews that mention popular keywords

customer service (84) credit card (72) cancellation fee (55) auto renewal (83)
Thumbnail of user richardpatriaco84
2 reviews
0 helpful votes
May 18th, 2023

I'm a writer and there are many times I need book covers for my ebooks. The artists are very good and often have a wide range of selection including animation.

Shutterstock customer care are excellent and when I had a problem they helped me work through my own error, they were on top of things

The variety of images are outstanding to say the least. I'm retired now, too bad I didn't work for Shutterstock.

Keep up the great work Shutterstock
Sincerely Author Rich Patriaco

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user albertm437
1 review
0 helpful votes
May 18th, 2021

I asked for a refund of my annual subscription, and it all worked out seamlessly after texting with a kind woman. Keep it up, shutterstock!

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Thumbnail of user fabiot20
1 review
17 helpful votes
April 25th, 2020

... but i was not! I didn't understand the terms of free trial and discovered too late to be bounded by the annual plan. So i contacted support, i really was in angry, but the operator immediatly explained me the misunderstandig, cancelled the autorenew and refunded the last charge on my credit card. Nothing to say about customer service, i'll subscribe again for sure when i will need some high quality images

Thumbnail of user adriat11
3 reviews
0 helpful votes
April 27th, 2022

Excellent photos, illustrations and they offer an amazing selection. Quality prints, good prices with multiple sizes and licenses available. I am in the U.S. and am truly "shocked" they have any bad reviews on this site. I personally have had nothing but a great experience and highly recommend this company! Their website is good too. I use them for personal as well as business use. The service is only $29.00 a month. I have tried other services including Adobe, Deposit and otherwise and always come back to an stick with Shutterstock! Again, highly recommend! :)

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Thumbnail of user victord217
1 review
0 helpful votes
June 4th, 2021

I bought a 4K video that i already owned in HD in order to better my website. Upon downloading i realised there was no difference what's so ever between the two versions or barely... I called them up in order to get a credit so I could buy an other video instead and they were quite understanding of the situation.

I got my credit and the other video I bought is amazing

Really pleased

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Shipping
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Thumbnail of user robh415
1 review
3 helpful votes
May 2nd, 2020

As with many other reviewers on here I signed up for their 10 free images trial and thought I was getting ripped off when they charged me 29 USD a few days before the first month was over (I just wanted the 10 free images and didn't read the fine print). However, when I called Shutterstock and spoke with a representative she politely cancelled my plan and refunded the money to my credit card. So overall I had a good experience with them.

Thumbnail of user johnnyo21
1 review
1 helpful vote
August 3rd, 2018

I've used Shutterstock for years and have made great use of it.
I recently canceled because I've left the website I was using the service for. I called customer service into the fifth month of my yearly 350 plan (auto-renew) to cancel and they did so with no hassles and no future payments.
Heard a lot of horror stories here, but maybe they've changed their service re canceling.
Would recommend.

Thumbnail of user edl401
1 review
27 helpful votes
February 8th, 2020

The reviews are quite unfair. These are mostly written by people who do not follow through the correct procedure of unsubscribing. My experience is, I asked the support team to terminate my subscription one week before they start charging, and they did it WITHOUT CHARGING ANY FEE. It's the matter of how you be human and understand that they also are, so you can't expect things to happen right away. If you've followed through the correct process yet still experience failure, my sympathy. But if you rant here without proper reasoning, you're a bad, bad human being.

Thumbnail of user diegot45
1 review
0 helpful votes
July 20th, 2022

I started a free trial on June 22nd (currently writing this on July 20th) and downloaded only a couple of images I ended up not using. Since I wasn't using the service, I completely forgot about it. Comes July 20th, I get a charge on my CC for $29 and the only description was "FREE TRIAL ENDED" so, since I had forgotten about this subscription, I didn't know what the charge was for. I even called up my bank, they didn't help at all. I ended up going back to my browser history to see what the subscription could have been for. I found shutterstock.
First I was very upset because they charged me on the 20th instead of the 22nd. I was having none of it. I singed in, looked for the plans tab and there it was. So I clicked on cancel plan, which took me to their support page and I found that in order to cancel the plan I had to talk to a rep (which might not be a big deal for some, but some people would rather just pay every month instead of being "confronted" by a rep while trying to cancel a membership, so, not so 5-star on this part, but just keep reading).
I opened up the chat and was greeted by Caleb and I told him I wanted to cancell my plan. I prepared all my best arguments of how my trial month wasn't actually over and how I souldn't be charged a fee for cancelling my plan early, since the actual plan hadn't technically started yet. But instead of trying to pull a fast one on me the rep just informed me that he issued me a refund for the first month (which I hadn't asked for yet) and that he cancelled my plan for me. He then explained that the system makes the charge 2 days prior to ensure the card is good. So, I'm actually quite happy with my overall experience.

Tip for consumers:
Make sure to set up an alarm about your free trial if you're not going to continue using the plan, there is a cancellation fee!

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Thumbnail of user minaayoussef0
1 review
0 helpful votes
March 31st, 2023

تاتتاتمتانامتمحححخانخات تلنتامحخححححححخخاخغخافعختتننخخرخخبحبحبححبحبحلحلححلحلحةحةحةححلححلحل ممب...ظبمممحي

Thumbnail of user ashmineeh
1 review
32 helpful votes
May 1st, 2018

They offer better rates with high quality images and the licensed rights to use the images forever. Once you have full knowledge about the plans you would love this site. And it also provides a support center to answer almost all of your questions online along with a live chat support.

Thumbnail of user rinjins1
2 reviews
2 helpful votes
May 26th, 2019

This is very nice for video maker. Free video, free image etc. i like this website. I usually used this website for videos and audio. You can check it out.

Thumbnail of user rinjins
Rinjin s.
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
May 23rd, 2019

It was very helpful site for me.i used this website for free photo.you can downloads free video clips and photo from this website.try it out

Thumbnail of user amberh757
1 review
0 helpful votes
October 2nd, 2022
Verified purchase

I searched on a competitor site for 45 minutes for a person of color and/or female electrician. I did not find any. I switched to Shutterstock and found one in the first 4 images. I love how I can filter by race, gender, and age. It's so important to make sure everyone is represented!

Tip for consumers:
Images can be filtered in the top right menu bar

Products used:
Downloaded one high resolution image

Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user larryh636
1 review
0 helpful votes
May 15th, 2020

I have been a longtime Shutterstock customer - and their platform is integral to our marketing and our branding. I am an accomplished photographer and appreciate the quality of the imagery. We are now extremely happy with their video footage - and the way their team handles any customer service issues.

Products used:
Both video and images subscriptions.

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Value
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Thumbnail of user joanm521
1 review
13 helpful votes
October 24th, 2020

I was billed of 29$ 5 days before the free trial ends, i immediately tried to cancel my annual subscription and emailed and chat customer support, i thought i was also one of the victims but to my suprised the agent immediately processed the cancellation and even requested the refund of 29$ which was billed to me.

Thumbnail of user ottod14
2 reviews
12 helpful votes
March 30th, 2017

A great sit to share your creations and in addition get some money for what you`ve created. The small problem is that the service has rather strict rules concerning the content that can be uploaded.

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Company Representative

Thumbnail of user sarar802
Sara R.
Typically does not respond to reviews

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