Microstock is the more popular of the two, but certainly the more controversial one as well. Many photographers don’t appreciate microstock sites because they sell images for just a few dollars, and only pay photographers cents on the dollar. In this regard, microstock sites such as iStockPhoto and Shutterstock are viewed by some as pricing professional photographers out of the market.
However, microstock sites are extremely popular amongst bloggers, business owners, web designers, and the like, because of the wealth of images available for such a low price. Users often purchase a subscription that allows them to download a specific number of images, most of which are royalty free - meaning the end-user can do whatever they want with the image once they purchase it.
The Bottom Line on Microstock Sites: Anyone can submit photos, and once a photo is accepted, your work is done. Any future downloads are easy income, and you can sell as many copies of the same photos as you want.
Macrostock sites like Getty Images are the more traditional of the two stock photography types. Macrostock is far more expensive - anywhere from $30/image upwards of $3,000/image or more, depending on how the images are licensed and sold. Macrostock agencies used to have a niche on the very best photos, but that has changed in recent years. Images that used to only be available by companies like Getty are now available to a degree on microstock sites.
Where macrostock agencies differ is that they offer exclusive rights to some of the images they sell, thus, the primary reason why some people prefer macrostock. Publishing houses, advertising agencies, and businesses that need custom photos are all prime customers for macrostock sites. These types of end-users need exclusivity - an advertising agency, for example, wouldn’t want to use images in a campaign that anyone else could use.
Benefit of Macrostock Sites: You can earn much more money per image, but because of the exclusivity of some of the images, you might only get one sale out of an image. There is much lower volume of sales on macrostock sites as well.
For you as a photographer, likely the greatest influence on which type of stock site you submit your work to will be how much money you make. On the one hand, you earn less per image on microstock sites, but because of the sheer number of people that purchase images from microstock sites you have an opportunity to make a decent amount of money over time. On the other hand, you make more money per image on a macrostock site, but you might not sell many images given the price and the fact that it’s more of a niche audience that uses macrostock sites these days.
