Shutterstock

The appearance and general look is good (although heavy). The problem is not there.

The problems comes when you send these people any of your details, information and data.
If you want to have control on your data, access or remove it from their systems, the problem starts.
Even though they pretend their privacy policy, that you just need to write to them for access and removal, it is a fake, there is nobody behind the email address provided. You will get no answer and if you write directly to any member of this company, you will experiment a nightmare of cheap excuses, lies, incompetence and absolute arrogance.

Honestly just avoid this site if at all possible. The lock-in triggers immediately after your 'free trial' ends. Cancellation is made as tedious as possible and you have to then pay to cancel because of the 'value' you have received on their 'discount' plan. Basically they are thieves with graphics.

I purchased one image form Shutterstock so I was amazed to see a recurring $36 per month charge to my credit card. When I tried to cancel this plan, it got worse. I was then presented with a message that said "Cancellation of an annual plan early may incur a plan price adjustment". In other words, not only did they lock me into an annual plan without me knowing about it, but also it looks like they are going to try and charge me an exit penalty. This outrageous price-gouging by Shutterstock. Stay away from Shutterstock, unless you want to get a nasty surprise!

I am forced to put 1 rating there because the review will not be accepted. But it should be 0 rating for this one. Why?

I was very surprised to see on my billing that they have been collecting 11 months that long without me noticing any. I am not sure if they would even return the money. As far as i remember i have deleted my subscription with them a long time ago and I never thought they would keep on charging me like that. What a scam! Now i tried to delete my payment info, it would require their approval. This is so stupid!

Signed up for a free trial. Later found out that I automatically had been signed up for an annual plan without any notification. To cancel they attempt to change me 60$. Do not even think about entering their website. You have been warned

I downloaded a set of vectors from shutter stock of the 50 states for use in my digital wood carving machine. Was really excited about making these customized for people. When i opened the file the vectors were garbage. No way to get credit even though the file they were selling is garbage. I told them this was my first and last purchase to many others that do what you do and my business does not have time for rip offs. A $100.00 lesson for me.

I signed up for the free trial to test out the service and was then automatically enrolled in an annual plan. There is no way to cancel either, you just have to call during a work day and beg them to stop stealing your money. This is called theft by deception, plain and simple.

The cancel message is not even grammatically correct:
"Cancellation of an annual plan early may incur an plan price adjustment."

Do not use this company.

I signed up for free trial and the next thing I knew I was receiving monthly charges. I did not worry about it, thinking I'd cancel after a month or so. When cancelling, they charge a fee equal to $49 each month. Outrageous fees for 10 photos. My cost for 3 months was $150!

Dont touch! Free trial ended up costing me $45 every month for a year. That is $540 because i didn't cancel my 14 day free trial in time.

Of course this is a devious strategy to fool their customers. Close to scam.

Cannot recommend Shutterstock, they use the highly iffy and potentially fraudulent method of guessing the date of an expired credit card's new expiry in order to continue taking subscription payments.
Use someone else, theres plenty of competition.

If you let your free trial lapse you have to pay for 12 months and there are no cancellations allowed, unless you pay a fee which is just as much as the remaining payments. Then even if you cancel they can still take out money. I approached them multiple times about cancelling and they still took money out of my account after they had confirmed my subscription had ended. They also then refused to refund as they don't have a refund policy. It cost me over $400 because I accidentally let my trial lapse and had to pay for 12 months. Unless you're using it all the time it's absolute daylight robbery and I would not recommend.

I've used a number of stock image websites and by far the worst one was Shutterstock. The one month trial plan states that you are allowed to cancel the $29 per month plan within the first month. What they don't tell you is that you are automatically set up to auto renew. This occurs even if you shut auto renew off, as I had done before the end of August. They then direct you to contact them... without easily giving you their contact information. Sad and pathetic that a site would need to dupe their members into memberships. I'll be returning to 123rf.com.

I got lock into auto renewal and a yearly plan after just a trial. I didn't notice until my card was charged. These people are evil crooks. I didn't signed up for an annual plan they did it automatically with my trial. Stay Away from them!

It is that time of year when I usually renew my yearly subscription with Shutterstock. However, today was the last time after 20 years of having an account with them. Shutterstock decided to raise their rate for the 350 images per month plan I typically purchase. I found a coupon online, entered it during check-out, and paid for my subscription with my card. The next minute, I received a "refund request" as if I had requested one, followed by an email from a "Client Partner" stating that I'm not allowed to use coupons on my profile, with no further explanation. Upon enquiring that I should not have been allowed to enter a discount coupon during checkout if it was not an option for my profile, the representative acknowledged it was an error on Shutterstock's part but still refused to honour the rate I paid. Instead, they insisted on refunding me and requiring a bank transfer if I wanted to reactivate my subscription. Shutterstock seems oblivious that AI will severely impact them, as their basic plan, excluding any innovation, is even more expensive than previous years. They employ incompetent individuals who lack foresight and dismiss loyal customers as if they mean nothing. I hope forward-thinking competitors who appreciate their clients and offer fair rates hit them hard.