Head-to-head · October 2026
Adobe Stock vs Shutterstock
Adobe Stock takes Library, Templates & extras, Editor workflow; Shutterstock takes Pricing, Music & SFX — and the honest answer still depends on the work: Adobe Stock is creative Cloud teams and enterprises who live inside Adobe apps and need DAM-level, org-wide licensing, while Shutterstock is agencies and enterprises that need everything — including editorial and 3D — from one vendor, with indemnification to match the risk.
Published by Brollvia — a third platform with its own horse in this race, declared up front. Everything below is scored from the same public dataset as our own comparison pages, and the section at the end says where we fit.
Meet the contenders
Adobe Stock — Stock library inside Creative Cloud
A giant credit-based library woven into Photoshop, Premiere and the whole Creative Cloud — plus Firefly AI and a real DAM story.
Adobe Stock is less a website than a layer of the creative industry's default toolkit. Its plans page claims more than 900 million assets — photos, vectors, illustrations, videos, templates and 3D — searchable without leaving Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro or Express, with licensing that flows into Creative Cloud Libraries and, at enterprise level, into Experience Manager Assets as a proper DAM. Contributors sell through it, enterprises pool licences across the whole organisation, and licences are perpetual once granted. If your company already pays Adobe, Stock is the path of least resistance, and Adobe knows it.
The AI story is twofold. Firefly generates images (and increasingly video) trained on licensed Stock and public-domain content — the legally cautious generator, with enterprise IP indemnification positioning. AI Studio, bundled into the mid and top plans, edits: unlimited image edits plus thousands of generative credits a month for motion edits. It is a broader AI offer than Brollvia's generate-on-credits, and it is priced accordingly — AI Studio is a reason to climb from the $29.99 tier to $39.99 or $129.99.
The friction is the meter. Adobe Stock runs on credits: a standard photo might cost one, a video six to eight, Premium and templates draw on separate credit packs that expire in a year. Only the $129.99/mo tier is unlimited. There is no MCP server for agent licensing, no script-to-shots matching, no public licence verification, and nothing at all for DaVinci Resolve — the ecosystem ends at Adobe's property line. For a Creative Cloud shop that is fine. For everyone else, it is a very large, very metered library.
Shutterstock — Full-service stock marketplace
The everything marketplace: a claimed 600M+ assets, editorial, 3D models, a built-in design editor and enterprise licensing with serious indemnification.
Shutterstock is the incumbent's incumbent: two decades of marketplace gravity, a claimed 600M+ assets — photos, vectors, illustrations, footage, music, sound effects and 3D models — and an editorial arm with 50M+ news, sport and entertainment images that pure creative libraries cannot replicate. It has spent that gravity widely: a design editor (Create, formerly Creative Flow) with AI background removal and smart resizing, native mobile and desktop apps, a custom-production arm, and an enterprise tier, Premier, that sells unlimited indemnification, SSO, dedicated account management and human curation. Judged as a standalone marketplace, our research found it the most feature-rich of all.
Its AI has arrived as a bundle rather than a product: Unlimited Plus, the $69/mo annual plan, folds unlimited media together with 100 AI generation credits a month spanning Runway, Google and OpenAI models, and a standalone GenAI tier sells generation on its own. That is convenient, though reviewers note the unlimited plan still carries a 100-downloads-a-day ceiling, and generation is a credits sidecar rather than a labelled, integrated part of the library the way Brollvia treats it.
The cost of everything is fragmentation. Images, video, music and AI each have their own plan ladders, prices differ between monthly and annual in jumps ($69 vs $199 for the same Unlimited Plus), and team pricing starts around $489/mo in trackers. There is an API — Shutterstock's is well established — but no MCP agent licensing, no script matching, and no public licence verification. Shutterstock is a department store with an excellent legal department; Brollvia is a specialist shop with better machinery at the counter.
At a glance
| Adobe Stock | Shutterstock | Brollvia | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Stock library inside Creative Cloud | Full-service stock marketplace | Filmmaker-first stock library |
| Full-access price | Unlimited Stock + AI Studio — $129.99/mo (the only unlimited tier) | Unlimited Plus — $69/mo (annual billing) | $15/mo or $99/yr, unlimited |
| Starting price | 10 credits/mo — $29.99 | Image plan — ~$29/mo for 10 downloads | Free to start |
| Library | claims ~900M assets | claims ~600M assets | New library — growing |
| Best for | Creative Cloud teams and enterprises who live inside Adobe apps and need DAM-level, org-wide licensing. | Agencies and enterprises that need everything — including editorial and 3D — from one vendor, with indemnification to match the risk. | Filmmakers and small teams who want unlimited licensed media with verifiable paperwork, editor panels and an agent that can license for them. |
| Feature coverage | 9 / 16 in full | 9 / 16 in full | 16 / 16 in full |
The scorecard: nine categories, scored from the record
Each row is derived from the shared dataset — the feature matrix, published pricing and each platform's own record. The Edge column names the winner or calls the tie; nobody wins a row on adjectives.
| Category | Adobe Stock | Shutterstock | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Unlimited Stock + AI Studio — $129.99/mo (the only unlimited tier) | Unlimited Plus — $69/mo (annual billing) | Shutterstock |
| Library | claims ~900M assets | claims ~600M assets | Adobe Stock |
| Footage formats & quality | Fully supported | Fully supported | Tie |
| Music & SFX | Music: fully supported; Sound effects: audio is music-led; sound-effect depth is thinner than dedicated SFX libraries | Music: fully supported; Sound effects: fully supported | Shutterstock |
| Photos | Fully supported | Fully supported | Tie |
| Templates & extras | Carries templates, 3D | Carries 3D | Adobe Stock |
| AI features | AI generation in-platform: firefly generation + AI Studio editing on generative credits; MCP server for AI agents: not offered; Script-to-B-roll: not offered | AI generation in-platform: genAI tier plus 100 monthly AI credits on Unlimited Plus (Runway, Google, OpenAI models); MCP server for AI agents: not offered; Script-to-B-roll: not offered | Tie |
| Editor workflow | Editor panels/plugins (Premiere): native panel inside Premiere and the other CC apps; Editor panels/plugins (Resolve): no Resolve panel — integrations are Creative Cloud apps only | Editor panels/plugins (Premiere): integrations focus on design tools and its own apps; no licence-recording NLE panel in sources checked; Editor panels/plugins (Resolve): not offered | Adobe Stock |
| Teams & enterprise | Teams: pooled team and enterprise licences; Extended licences: extended licences available; standard indemnification capped at $10,000 in Adobe's own compare table | Teams: team and Premier tiers; Extended licences: enhanced licences raise indemnification to $250,000; Premier is unlimited | Tie |
The price of full access
Compared on the tier a working filmmaker would actually buy — full media access, not a teaser plan. Brollvia Pro is drawn as the reference line: it is the third option scored at the end of this page.
Library size, as claimed
Both figures are the platforms' own published claims (log scale), not audits — counts mix photos, vectors, templates and footage differently per platform.
Where Adobe Stock wins
- Catalogue scale: a claimed 900M+ assets — no contest for a new platform
- Asset-type breadth: templates, 3D and Premium collections Brollvia does not carry
- AI Studio: unlimited image editing plus generative motion edits, beyond plain generation
- Ecosystem depth: Creative Cloud Libraries and Experience Manager DAM integration
- Enterprise licensing machinery: pooled, perpetual, org-wide
Where Shutterstock wins
- Scale and editorial: news, sport and archive content Brollvia does not carry
- 3D models and vector/illustration depth beyond the four media types
- A built-in design editor — Brollvia deliberately has none
- Native mobile and desktop apps; Brollvia is a PWA
- Enterprise depth: unlimited indemnification and SSO on Premier
Pricing, in each platform's own terms
Adobe Stock
Model Adobe Stock by what you actually download. Ten credits a month at $29.99 sounds comparable to Brollvia Pro until a single 4K video costs six to eight credits — two videos can exhaust a month. The 40-credit tier at $89.99 is the realistic video-user plan, and the only honest unlimited comparison is Unlimited + AI Studio at $129.99/mo, roughly $1,560 a year against Brollvia Pro's $99 launch year. Trackers have shown the 10-credit + AI Studio tier at both $34.99 and $39.99 recently, so treat Adobe's pricing as moving and verify on the plans page before budgeting.
Two softeners deserve honesty. First, Adobe credits roll into a system many teams already expense — if Creative Cloud seats are sunk cost, Stock's marginal friction is low. Second, enterprise pooling is genuinely valuable: one licence, org-wide, perpetual, DAM-served. Brollvia's counter is simplicity — one unlimited price, Teams at $12/seat, extended licences per asset when a production needs them, and no credit arithmetic in the edit bay. If your downloads are mostly images, Adobe's meter may never bite; if they are video, do the 6–8 credits-per-clip maths first.
Shutterstock
Price Shutterstock by assembling your actual basket. Ten image downloads run ~$25–29/mo annual; add serious video and music and you are quickly guided to Unlimited Plus at $69/mo annual — $828 a year — or $199/mo if you refuse the annual term, a spread that tells you how the pricing is engineered. Team sits near $489/mo, and Premier is a negotiation. Against that, Brollvia Pro is $99/yr with everything in, and Teams is $12 a seat. For a solo filmmaker the difference is roughly eightfold; for an agency, Shutterstock's consolidation and indemnification may still be the cheaper risk decision.
Indemnification is the line item to read carefully. Standard Shutterstock coverage is $10,000; Enhanced raises it to $250,000; Premier is unlimited. Brollvia's extended licence covers broader uses per asset, but it does not publish a Shutterstock-scale indemnification ladder, and pretending otherwise would be exactly the kind of claim these pages refuse to make. If your clients contractually demand six-figure coverage, that requirement alone can decide this comparison — for most independent and commercial work, it never comes up.
The third option
Brollvia
Neither of these two is the library publishing this page. Brollvia is — and rather than pretend otherwise, here is its case and its weakness, scored on the same dataset.
Brollvia is built around a simple observation: the hard part of stock is no longer storing millions of clips — it is finding the right twelve seconds, proving you may use them, and getting them into the timeline. So Brollvia puts its engineering into the search and the paperwork. You can search by describing the scene in plain words, by uploading a single frame and asking for matches, or by pasting a script and letting the platform break it into scenes and propose shots for each one. Every download — by you, by a teammate, or by your AI agent — writes a licence record with a certificate, and anyone can verify that record publicly. No other platform in this comparison publishes a verification page.
The agent layer is the deepest difference. Brollvia runs an MCP server and a REST API with OAuth sign-in, so Claude, ChatGPT and your own tools can search the library and license footage inside the conversation where the brief already lives. When a shot genuinely does not exist, integrated AI generation creates it on a credit system — clearly labelled as AI-generated on the asset, in search filters and on its licence certificate, so nothing synthetic ever passes itself off as photographed footage. Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve panels bring the same search-and-license flow into the editor, licence records included.
And the price is deliberately boring: Pro is $15 a month or $99 a year, unlimited, with packs of curated footage included. There are no credits that make a single video cost six downloads, no per-media plan fragmentation, and no sales call between you and the library. If a rival on this page beats Brollvia for your kind of work, its page here says so plainly — that is the deal these comparisons make with you.
On the shared matrix, Brollvia fully offers what neither Adobe Stock nor Shutterstock does:
- Unlimited downloads
- MCP server for AI agents
- Script-to-B-roll
- Editor panels/plugins (Resolve)
- Public licence verification
- Curated packs
The honest weakness: catalogue scale. Brollvia is a new contributor library — if the brief needs the deepest shelf on earth, one of the two platforms above is the safer pair of hands, and their pages here say so.
Start free See pricing Brollvia vs Adobe Stock Brollvia vs Shutterstock
Choose Adobe Stock if…
Choose Adobe Stock if your organisation already runs on Creative Cloud: the library is inside Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Premiere, licences pool across the enterprise through Experience Manager, and Firefly generation is trained on licensed content with enterprise IP positioning. At a claimed 900M+ assets, the catalogue depth argument is not close, and templates and 3D are first-class citizens.
Choose Shutterstock if…
Choose Shutterstock if your brief regularly leaves the creative library: news, sport and celebrity editorial; 3D models; a client who demands $250,000 of indemnification in writing, or unlimited on Premier. Its Create editor and native apps round out a platform that tries to be the only vendor on the invoice, and for large organisations that consolidation is worth real money.
In the edit: workflow
Adobe Stock
Inside Adobe apps, nothing here competes: search, comp, license and replace without leaving the timeline or the layout, with Libraries keeping a whole team in sync. Outside Adobe apps, the platform thins quickly — Resolve editors get a browser round-trip, agents get an enterprise API rather than a licensing MCP server, and clients get licence PDFs rather than a verification link. Brollvia's workflow is the mirror image: browser, both major NLEs via panels, API and agent — with the licence proof designed to travel.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock's workflow is breadth-first: whatever the brief, something in 600M assets approximates it, the Create editor polishes stills without another app, and the mobile apps keep approvals moving. Video editors work through the browser or its integrations rather than a licence-recording NLE panel, and agents get an API aimed at integrations, not a conversation-native licensing flow. Licence proof is enterprise-grade inside your account — Premier even adds humans to curate — but it is not a public link a client can check at midnight.
Switching away
From Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock licences are perpetual for the uses you licensed, so past work is safe; keep your licence history exported from your Adobe account as evidence. The real lock-in is workflow, not law: teams whose Libraries, templates and DAM are Adobe-shaped will feel the move in their habits, not their contracts. A sane path is to stop the Stock subscription at renewal, keep Creative Cloud for the tools, and run new projects through Brollvia for a quarter before deciding — the panels make that trial painless inside Premiere itself.
From Shutterstock
Shutterstock licences for published work persist after cancellation, and Enhanced/Premier paperwork should be archived with the project files it covers — that indemnification trail is part of what you paid for. Practically, most switchers keep a minimal Shutterstock plan for editorial and oddities while moving day-to-day creative work to a flat-rate library; a full exit makes sense only when editorial truly never appears in your briefs. Either way, download and file your licence history before the term ends.
Adobe Stock vs Shutterstock: questions
Which is cheaper, Adobe Stock or Shutterstock?
On the full-access tier this comparison charts, Adobe Stock runs Unlimited Stock + AI Studio — $129.99/mo (the only unlimited tier) and Shutterstock runs Unlimited Plus — $69/mo (annual billing). Shutterstock is the cheaper of the two on that basis — but the models differ: Adobe Stock — Credit subscriptions, not flat unlimited: 10 credits/mo $29.99; 10 credits + AI Studio $39.99; 40 credits $89.99; Unlimited + AI Studio $129.99/mo. A video costs multiple credits, and Premium, templates and 3D draw on credit packs. Shutterstock — Fragmented by media type: image plans from ~$25–29/mo for 10 downloads (annual); Unlimited Plus at $69/mo annual ($199 monthly) bundles unlimited media with 100 AI credits; standalone GenAI $15/mo; Team around $489/mo; Premier enterprise is custom.
Which has the bigger library, Adobe Stock or Shutterstock?
Adobe Stock claims the larger catalogue. Adobe Stock: Adobe's own plans page claims 900M+ stock assets (fetched October 2026) — the largest claim in this comparison. Third-party counts by media type differ and are not directly comparable. Shutterstock: Reviews put Shutterstock at 600M+ assets including 50M+ editorial images (CreativeVault review, October 2026); other trackers report 450M–700M, so treat the total as a marketing range, not an audited count. Both figures are the platforms' own claims, not audits — depth in your specific niche matters more than the headline total.
Do Adobe Stock or Shutterstock offer unlimited downloads?
Adobe Stock is unlimited only in part (only the $129.99/mo tier is unlimited; most plans spend credits per download); Shutterstock is unlimited only in part (Unlimited Plus tier only, and reviews note a 100 downloads/day cap). If unlimited is the deciding factor, check the tier fine print on both — caps and catalogue exclusions are where "unlimited" goes to hide.
Adobe Stock or Shutterstock — which should a filmmaker pick?
It follows the work. Adobe Stock is creative Cloud teams and enterprises who live inside Adobe apps and need DAM-level, org-wide licensing. Shutterstock is agencies and enterprises that need everything — including editorial and 3D — from one vendor, with indemnification to match the risk. The scorecard above scores the nine categories where they actually differ; the where-they-win lists are written from each platform's own record.
Is there a third option besides Adobe Stock and Shutterstock?
Brollvia, the platform publishing this comparison — declared interest, stated plainly. Pro is $15/mo or $99/yr, unlimited across video, photos, music and SFX. On this dataset it fully offers what neither of these two does: Unlimited downloads, MCP server for AI agents, Script-to-B-roll, Editor panels/plugins (Resolve), Public licence verification, Curated packs. Its honest weakness is catalogue scale: it is a new contributor library and publishes no comparable total. The full Brollvia-vs-each head-to-heads are linked at the foot of this page, and each lists that rival's wins too.
Data & sources
Data as of October 2026. Library sizes and prices are each company's own published claims or reputable reviewer reports, attributed in the text — not audited figures. Prices change; verify on the provider's site before budgeting. Found an error? Tell us and we will fix the record and this page with it.
Adobe Stock sources
Shutterstock sources
Or skip the shortlist entirely
Start free, upgrade when the work does. Every download writes a licence record you can verify in public.