Reviews of Best 9 Apps To Sell Your Photos Online in 2020
In this post I am going to review the best 9 apps to sell your photos online. I will walk through exactly how you make money on the app, how much money you can expect to make and what I like or don’t like about the app.
Now I have ranked the apps based on how much you can potentially make from the app, not based on how fun it is, easy to use or anything else but I will talk about that as I go through the reviews. Also, all the apps on the list are available for both iOS and Android.
Each app I reviewed does have a slightly different target audience so you may find that #3 or #4 is best for you and I will try to explain who might like the app as I go through so you don’t need to install all 9 to see which one you like best.
Also, I didn’t just install and try these 9 apps, I tried around 20 of them, but the rest I tried were a waste of time in my opinion so I am not even going to discuss them. However, if you use another app and actually make money with it I would love to hear about it in the comments below.
In general, the apps I reviewed all allowed you to make money in two different ways: selling your photos as stock, or paid competitions.
Selling as stock is the same way to make money as the other posts on the blog, you upload your photo to a Microstock site and if a buyer purchases it then you get a portion of the sale.
The competitions work a bit differently, literally each app has different name for it like, Missions, Challenges, Quests, Briefs, Contests but they are all basically the same, a competition is setup for a specific type of photo, you can submit your photos to the competition and you can win a cash prize.
Now based on my experience, competitions can be more fun so if you are looking for entertainment then apps with competitions should be on your list, but selling your photos as stock will typically make you more money with much less effort in the long run.
Luckily, some of the apps offer both so you don’t have to choose also, you can upload the same photo to multiple apps so you don’t have to choose just one, you could try out a couple to see how they work out for you.
#9 App for Selling Photos Online - Foap
Now Foap just barely squeaked in under the waste of time criteria, but I felt that I had to include it because on the surface it looks really good.
When I was doing research for the video Foap was listed on multiple other sites as the best app so it really surprised me when I installed it and found that it didn’t seem like you could really actually make any money from the app.
They do have a stock photo marketplace and competitions that are called missions so in theory you could make money, but I found that Foap doesn’t really market to buyers and from what I can tell, very few buyers purchase photos from Foap compared to other apps I am going to talk about later on the list.
When it comes to the competitions, most of them are “premium missions” which means you need to pay to enter them. So they charge you a buck to enter a photo at the chance to win $300 but you are competing against 1000 other photographers, you would be much better odds of taking that dollar and playing almost any game in a casino.
Also, this is the only app on the list that is littered with ads, which I think is proof that their marketplace doesn’t make many sales because every other app on this list can make money taking a cut of photo sales and don’t need to put ads on their app. So, Foap might be #1 in the search results but it is at the bottom of my list.
#8 Agora - Best App Photo Competitions
Now it is low on the list because I think it would be difficult to make consistent money with it but if I was ranking for how well it was designed or for entertainment then it would be much higher on the list.
Agora wouldn’t be great to earn money because it doesn’t have the ability to sell the photos as stock but its competitions are really good. Right now the prizes range from $1000 to $25000, and you can upload one photo to each competition for free then you can then watch ads or pay to upload multiple photos.
Of course, your photo might be competing with 20 000 other photos for a $1000 and there are some great photographers on the app so even if you have a great photo it is still very unlikely that you will win but the way the competition and voting works makes it really fun so if that is what you are looking for then you may want to check this one out.
#7 App For Selling Stock Photography - Getty Images Contributor app
You can use this app to upload your photos to iStock and other Getty images sites. Getty is a huge player in the stock industry so they have a lot of regular buyers so your photos are more likely to be seen by buyers. They also had a couple of missions on the app but there weren’t very many missions and they didn’t seem to update regularly.
Also, this app was the hardest to get setup, first you need to apply to be a contributor then wait a week to see if you are accepted, then you need to go to another website to get fully signed up.
Then once you get into the app it is dated and difficult to use compared to the other apps on the list. Also, there are two apps higher on the list that can also be used to upload photos to Getty so it isn’t the only way to get your photos in front of their buyers.
So, maybe an okay app if you are already a Getty or iStock contributor but there are better apps later on the list if you are just getting started.
#6 App to Sell Photos as Stock - Dreamstime
Now Dreamstime is a Microstock site that has been around for a while but most stock photographers have found that sales are declining year over year so it seems to be on a downward trend but there are still buyers frequenting the site so I do still see some sales on it.
It is pretty easy to get signed up and although the app looks a little dated and took a while to get used to the upload wizard, you get used to it. The one feature I really liked is you can see your sales by photo and it will also show what the buyer searched for to find your photo, this can be useful information to help when you keyword future photos.
The main reason it is #6 is that the sites later on the list have more popular sites among stock buyers.
#5 App to Sell your photos Online - 500px
Now you may be familiar with the 500px website and the app is really just an extension of the website.
Now 500px isn’t as popular as it used to be because it has fallen out of favour with a lot of photographers, including myself because of certain decisions they made that benefited the investors but not the members but it is still a popular site with a large social component to the site and app.
When you upload photos to the site you can have them sold as stock on their partner sites which includes Getty images so they can get in front of a lot of buyers. There are also competitions called Quests and the prizes can be products or cash in the couple hundred dollars range.
Also, just like the website 500px is really good at discovering good photos so browsing through the popular section of the app shows some great photos that could be used for inspiration. Overall a pretty good all round app and service.
#4 App to Sell Photos Online - Snapwire
Overall the features of Snapwire are very similar to 500px, they both have marketplaces and competitions. However, it seems that the Snapwire competitions are more frequent and more winnable if you have a really good photo.
Snapwire also has a cool points system that is used to decide how many photos you can upload to competitions, the more sales your photos get and the more your photos get nominated by buyers then the more uploads you are allowed, this is a great way to manage it because it motivates you to upload the best photos but then also the buyers don’t need to wade through a lot of spam photos.
Overall it is a great app and marketplace. Also, if you already have a lot of stock photos you want to get up on their site they do support FTP but you need to send them a link to your portfolio to get approved to upload your photos via FTP.
Snapwire is one of two apps I tried for this video that I didn’t already have installed but plan to keep on uploading to after this video. The other app I am going to add to my regular uploads is higher in this list.
#3 Stock Photo App - Shutterstock Contributor App
Now we are getting into the top three, really you can’t go wrong with any of the next 3 apps, starting with #3 which is the Shutterstock contributor app.
Now Shutterstock doesn’t have a competition feature like many of the others but Shutterstock is one of the top Microstock sites with a lot of buyers so most people, including me, who upload their photos to multiple sites find that Shutterstock delivers the most sales.
So, of course the app is more likely to make you money than any of the apps I have discussed so far. Also, there is no waiting period to become a contributor so you can install the app and start uploading Now, the photos are reviewed so not every photo will make it to the shutterstock site but is still a great place to start selling your photos online.
Overall the app is simple and does everything you want it to, including suggesting keywords and showing your sales in a lot of detail. And of course, if you are already a Shutterstock contributor then you can just login with your regular Shutterstock ID and start uploading.
#2 App to Sell Photos Online - EyeEm
Onto #2, this app has been around for a while, I tried it years ago but decided not to keep it in my regular upload rotation of sites, but installed it again to create this video and love it, I have been uploading everyday since I installed it and plan to keep it in my regular rotation going forward, the app is EyeEm.
Similar to 500px and Snapwire, Eyem has both a stock marketplace and competitions. Also, similar to 500px, Eyem has a partnership with Getty so your photos will get onto the Eyeem marketplace but may get added Getty if they are accepted.
Also, they have a very nice social feed and a lot of great photographers on the site. The app is beautiful, easy to use and very quick to upload photos.
Now, I am just starting to get all my best photos onto the site so I haven’t seen many sales yet but based on research and I have found that others seem to be making decent returns from their portfolio on EyeEm, maybe not as high as Shutterstock but still up there.
I am looking forward to seeing what kind of results I get. If you are interested then make sure you subscribe to the channel because I do monthly photography sales reports where I share how much I made on each site so you can see where Eyeem ranks on the list next month..
#1 Best App To Sell Photos Online - Photerloo
When it comes to making money from your photos none of the other apps on this list can really compete with Photerloo because it can uploads your photos to many different stock marketplaces including Shutterstock, Adobe stock, Bigstockphoto, depositphotos, Alamy, in addition you can set it up to upload your photos to all the social sites like your facebook page, twitter, instagram, flickr, and smugmug.
Also, the app has stock keyword suggestions. Now all the other apps on the list could only upload to one or maybe two stock marketplaces so of course you can’t expect them to make as much from the photos as an app that uploads to many sites.
However, Photerloo probably won’t be the only app you have installed because it doesn’t have the social features or the competitions of the other apps, however it is great if you just want to get your photos into a lot of stock marketplaces and social sites to make money from your photography. You can click the buttons below to install the app.
Anyways, hope you found this blog post useful, let me know in the comments which are your favorite apps. Best of luck selling your photos online.
I also have a Youtube video where I show the apps while I review, here it is.