Whether you\u2019re an individual creator or make videos as part of a team or a business, you know there\u2019s a huge variety of platforms offering stock content out there. When choosing between them, it\u2019s important to have a solid understanding of what each one offers. You\u2019ll want to know not only what each library contains, but how you\u2019re allowed to use that content and what protections are offered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahead we\u2019ll take a look at Storyblocks vs Pond5, two popular platforms for creatives seeking royalty-free stock content for a variety of projects, including audio, images, and video. We\u2019ll be covering a lot of key differences between them, including their respective libraries, as well as licenses, tools, and the plug-ins they make available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Storyblocks is a leading stock media platform with a library of more than 10 million high-quality, stock media assets. It\u2019s known for its user-friendly website, 100% human-made stock library<\/a>, and flexible subscription options. It offers unlimited download plans, which give subscribers access to a massive library of 8K, 4K and HD footage, video templates, music and sound effects, as well as photos, vectors and illustrations. Their plans also include features and tools to help support every stage of production, so creators can streamline their workflows easily under one subscription.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pond5 is one of the world\u2019 largest stock marketplaces, with more than 175 million media assets available from artists around the world. It was first launched in 2006 as a platform for video creators to sell their content. It offers several different pricing tiers for its subscription plans, and content ranging from HD video, music tracks, sound effects, motion graphics, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that you have somewhat of a sense of what each platform is all about, let\u2019s take a closer look at the subscription plans they offer for individual creators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Storyblocks\u2019 subscription plans<\/a> include Essentials, Unlimited All Access, and Small Business, which all offer unlimited downloads. Pond5\u2019s options for individual subscriptions include Music, Music & SFX, and Footage Plus. The model Pond5 utilizes is primarily a pay-per-asset plan, with credit packs available for purchasing individual assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their Music subscription includes 50 downloads per month of all of their music tracks, while Music & SX offers 50 downloads per month of their music tracks and sound effects. Footage Plus offers 10 downloads a month of 4K and HD videos, music, sound effects, and some of their images and After Effects templates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Licensing is an important consideration when choosing a stock media provider. You always want to make sure that the types of projects and distribution channels you have are covered by your stock\u2019s license to avoid running into copyright or legal issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Storyblocks\u2019 individual <\/a>and small business licenses cover worldwide, unlimited distribution for print, digital, and production, both for commercial and personal projects. Anything that you download and publish while your Storyblocks subscription is active will be covered forever and the license will never expire. While both licenses cover one user, with a small business license assets are licensed to the organization to protect your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Storyblocks\u2019 entire library is royalty-free<\/a>, so you\u2019ll never have to track different licenses per asset or per project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of Pond5\u2019s assets are also royalty-free, however some of the editorial content is limited to single-project use with limited distribution rights. Pond5\u2019s individual license on royalty-free content includes worldwide use in perpetuity, with unlimited productions and distribution across all media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indemnification is basically insurance that any stock content you download can be safely used in your commercial or personal projects. This coverage shields you from any third-party attempting to claim the stock content you download infringes on their intellectual property rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Storyblocks\u2019 individual plans offer up to $20,000 in indemnification for individual creators, while Pond5 offers up to $15,000 in indemnification with its Individual License.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Content downloaded from Storyblocks can be used for client projects under an individual license. However, it must be incorporated into an original project, or the content must be modified in some way rendering it distinct from the original. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Using Storyblocks content to create an original piece of work which is then shared is permitted by its license. But sharing or selling the unedited, original stock assets is not <\/em>permitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pond5\u2019s individual license is not approved for business or client work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s talk content. Storyblocks\u2019 and Pond5\u2019s libraries contain a wide variety of both audio and visual media, offering a big selection for creative projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you\u2019re looking for music to give your video the mood and emotional heft it needs, both platforms have a lot to offer. Storyblocks\u2019 library includes almost 60,000 music tracks, covering a diverse range of genres, moods, and themes. It also offers exclusive music through Storyblocks Label<\/a> tracks, which are only available on their platform, making copyright strikes far less likely. Storyblocks also has more than 43,000 professionally recorded sound effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pond5 has over 2 million royalty-free stock music tracks, including songs from PremiumBeat. Its Music subscription gives users up to 10 downloads a month, while its Music & SFX plan includes 10 downloads a month from both its music and sound effect libraries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Storyblocks\u2019 Essentials plan doesn\u2019t include access to their audio offerings, but its ULAA and Small Business plans include both music and SFX. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll find over 50 million stock footage options on Pond5, including 5K+, 4K, and HD. Storyblocks offers over 3 million high-quality stock video options<\/a>, including 8K, 4K and HD footage and motion backgrounds. All of Storyblocks\u2019 plans include access to 8K, 4K, and HD video. Both offer stock video in vertical and horizontal orientations, making it easy to create content for any platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Storyblocks\u2019 Re: Stock initiative is another differentiator for the platform, striving to offer stock content that resembles the diverse world we live in<\/a>. Through Re: Stock, Storyblocks engages with artists to produce authentic content that reflects and celebrates the human experience. Representation matters, and that is reflected in the variety of content available in Storyblocks\u2019 library as well as the subjects appearing in it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Templates are a great time-saver when creating videos, simplifying production by being easy to drop in wherever they\u2019re needed. Storyblocks provides over 115,000 pre-made and fully customizable templates for Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, and Apple Motion. Templates are available across all of Storyblocks\u2019 subscription plans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pond5 has more than 40,000 After Effects templates for video editing, as well as over 10,000 Photoshop PSD templates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The library on Pond5 is one of the biggest out there, with over 100 million royalty-free stock images and photographs, as well as over 30 million stock illustrations and vector art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Storyblocks\u2019 library contains 2,000,000+ royalty-free photos, vectors, illustrations, and snapshots<\/a>. Access to their image library is included across all Storyblocks plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All plans from Storyblocks offer unlimited downloads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With Pond5, there are three options for downloading assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. The first is on a pay-per-item basis, where users purchase downloaded assets individually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. The second option is through credit packs which can be purchased in various amounts and used on any of the assets in its library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Pond5 also offers three subscriptions. Its Music subscription includes 10 downloads per month from their music library. Its more inclusive Music & SFX subscription gives 10 downloads a month from either its music or sound effects libraries. Finally, the Footage Plus subscription comes with 10 downloads per month from a selection <\/em>of its HD and 4K library (not the full video library), as well as music, sound effects, images, and After Effects template libraries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, let\u2019s dive into what Storyblocks and Pond5 offer beyond stock content, including plugins and other workflow tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Storyblocks\u2019 Pro plan includes the Adobe Creative Cloud plugin<\/a> for Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro. The plugin brings its entire library of content directly into your editor, including access to your on-site folders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Pond5 offers a free plugin for Premiere Pro CC that lets users browse their library in the app, along with access to folders in your account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Storyblocks\u2019 individual subscription plans include access to Maker, its popular and easy-to-use video editor<\/a> which includes a selection of pre-made templates and directly connects to its entire library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also get access to Storyblocks\u2019 AI Toolkit<\/a> through their individual and small business plans. Essentials gives you access to their AI Video Editing tool, which lets you customize any stock footage clip in their library with text prompts powered by Runway\u2019s Aleph model, along with their AI Video Generator and AI Image Generator. Meanwhile, the Unlimited All Access and Small Business plans give you access to everything in the toolkit plus AI Voiceover, which lets you generate customized voiceovers via ElevenLabs technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Storyblocks also has conversational search<\/a>, which lets you describe what you\u2019re looking for in their library in your own words, then uses AI to search for the best matches and refine your results in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pond5 has their VideoAI tool, which is an AI video generator, but it\u2019s not currently included with any of their plans and is only available through a credit system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trying to find the right stock media subscription? Check out our comparison posts on <\/em>Motion Array vs Storyblocks<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Envato Elements vs Storyblocks<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Adobe Stock vs Storyblocks<\/em><\/a>, Storyblocks vs Shutterstock<\/a>, Epidemic Sound vs Storyblocks<\/a>, and <\/em>Storyblocks vs Artlist<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s take a final look at some of the major points to consider when choosing a stock media platform to ensure it meets your specific needs as an individual creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The difference in downloads between Pond5 vs Storyblocks is a significant differentiator worth considering depending on your usage needs. Storyblocks only offers subscriptions with unlimited downloads from its entire library, while Pond5 has a limit of 10 monthly downloads for each of its subscription plans, with varying levels of access to its library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite Storyblocks\u2019 smaller library relative to Pond5, Storyblocks\u2019 subscription options include unlimited downloads, giving users the flexibility to play around with different content to see what really works. Pond5 implements a hard monthly download cap, which you\u2019ll want to take into consideration if you need a steady stream of content options versus only a few assets per month. If you need a significant amount of stock footage or any other kind of asset, paying for every download can add up fast compared to a flat fee for an unlimited subscription<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nStoryblocks vs Pond5 individual plans<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Licensing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Permitted usage<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Indemnification<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Restrictions<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Comparing Pond5 and Storyblocks\u2019 content libraries<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Music and sound effects<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Video<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Templates<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Images<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Download limits<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Included tools<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Plugins<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Apps and tools<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Final thoughts on Pond5 vs Storyblocks<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Licensing<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n
Content<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n
Tools<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n
Downloads<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n