Folks in need of photos might have to turn to another service, as Australia’s Envato ends one of its stock photo services, only two years after Canva killed its own.
Writers, editors, and even small businesses in need of photos for their content can turn to a variety of free services — Pexels, Unsplash, and the like — but if you’re after more photos for use with your material, there’s a good chance you’re going to have to pay.
Some of these platforms can be a little on the exy side and charge per photo, while others may offer more of a Netflix-style cost, charging a monthly or yearly fee to get you those photos. It’s an idea we’ve seen more than once before, but one that doesn’t appear to stick around, as another looks set to close up.
Once part of Australia’s online marketplace Envato, Twenty20 has offered photos not just as part of Envato’s subscription “Elements” service, but also to folks using its own. It even gave photographers a way to make a little money on the side, selling their photos using the platform, as well.
However, that appears to be no more, with Envato set to shut down Twenty20 at the beginning of August.
It’s a move that comes after another Australian online service, Canva, closed its own stock photo subscription service, with Envato set to do the same thing. Kinda sorta.
Announced on its blog this week, if you’re a subscriber to Envato Elements or even Twenty20 directly, the service will end as the company turns to a different model for sourcing photos. Envato told Pickr that it will still offer photos as part of its Elements service, but there’s a difference in library size, with the more than 50 million photos on Twenty20 being reduced to closer to just over five million on Elements.
“More than one million (1.2m) of Twenty20’s best commercial photos are currently available on Envato Elements,” said a representative for Envato, noting that it plans to keep as many as possible by inviting the top 20 contributors from Twenty20 to use and submit to Elements.
It does mean there’s potentially one less place to grab photos from, though there are other services available, and Envato does still fill part of that need with its Elements service.
