Storyblocks Video f.k.a VideoBlocks Review 2024: Is It Worth The Subscription Price?

These days, videos are everywhere. It's not just bloggers and marketers who use them for their projects anymore. Local professionals, like your dentist and plumber, also use videos as a tool to get more clients. As you probably already know, most people prefer to watch a video rather than read a long and boring text (I hope you are not one of those people, though, and can get through this post). If you are a video creator yourself or just planning to hop on the video wagon that will take you to success, then keep reading. In this article I will share my honest review of  Storyblocks Video, one of the most popular video stock websites. Don’t worry, it's not a paid or sponsored ad. I decided to do it because I've been using this service for 2 years and I just want to share my opinion with you. And at the end of the article, I'm also going to share my tips on how to get unlimited royalty-free niche specific high-quality images for your blog posts or video thumbnails without breaking any licensing agreement.

As a content creator, I've heard people raving about Storyblocks Video, an online stock video service and a graphics website, for years. However, I was a bit skeptical about it until last year when I finally decided to give it a try. And today, I want to share my honest opinion about this service with you, so that you can decide for yourself whether it's the right fit for you in 2021. Spoiler alert: I will also tell you how to gain a free access to Storyblocks Video and try it out at absolutely no cost.

Storyblocks Video Review: What is Storyblocks Video (f.k.a VideoBlocks com)?

Storyblocks Video is a subscription-based service that provides royalty-free videos to their users. It contains over 325,000+ HD videos, motion backgrounds and After Effects templates. Storyblocks Video was founded in 2009 by Joel Holland and grew to 150,000 active members, and continue growing every day. With Storyblocks Video you don't have to pay for each video you want to download. Instead, you buy a monthly or annual subscription and get access to the whole library.  

Just recently, Storyblocks Video members requested the library to get bigger, and soon enough, the company added 85,000 new clips, including new motion backgrounds and aerial shots. The downside of that is the 25% increase in annual price. The good news is that the monthly price was lowered by 20%. 

How Much Does Storyblocks Video (f.k.a VideoBlocks com) Subscription Cost?

• In 2021, Storyblocks Video changed their pricing policy and removed free trial offer. More about that later.

• If you purchase annual plan, you save 50%.

• The Basic Video plan cost $19 per month ($8.25 per month or $99 per year if you purchase annual membership). This plan includes 5 video downloads per month. HD footage is also included, but 4K and After Effects templates are not. This plan is good for those people who don't need a lot of stock videos. You will get 60 video per year, which is still a lot.

• If you want to get a free trial, you need to sign up for the monthly Basic Video plan. The trial has a limit of 5 HD video (no 4k or AE templates) downloads per month. Before, you could get 140 downloads during the trial period, but recently StoryBlocks have changes their free trial policy. (You can read my review of the Storyblocks Video free trial here)

• The "Unlimited Video" plan monthly subscription starts at $39 per month ($16.58 per month or $199 per year if you purchase annual membership ). That's the plan that I'm using. It suits me for several reasons:

• I get unlimited number of downloads.

• HD and 4K footage and After Effects templates are included. Plus, if I need any stock photos I can get the images from videos.

• The third plan, "Video + Audio + Images" cost $65 per month ($29,08 per month $349 per year if you purchase annual membership). This way, you get everything that is included in "Unlimited Storyblocks Video" plan plus access to unlimited music (110,000 audio tracks), sound effects, loops, photos (400,000 images), vectors and illustrations. 

If you decide to join Storyblocks video platform, use this link to get Annual Subscription 

Can I download videos for free from Storyblocks Video f.k.a VideoBlocks?

No.

Yes. The only way to do that is by signing up for a 7-day free trial here. You will be required to create a member’s profile and provide a valid credit card number. Even though you won’t be charged for a trial, you need to keep in mind, that if you are not happy with the service and don’t want to use it anymore, you need to cancel your account before the end of the trial. so that you won’t be charged a monthly fee.

• Storyblocks video free trial is a great opportunity to get some stock videos for your projects for free.

• During the free trial you can download and use up to 5 HD videos (4k and after effect templates are not included) for your personal or commercial needs without any strings attached.

• If you don’t cancel your subscription within 7 days (before the end of a free trial), you will be charged a monthly fee of $19 without any notification. So if for some reason you don’t like the service, cancel the subscription in your membership area to avoid the hassle of asking for a refund. If you are worrying about missing the cancellation date, just set up a calendar in advance to make sure you get notified by e-mail. I personally love the service and hope that after you try it out you will enjoy it as much as I do and won't have to cancel your subscription.

• As I've mentioned before, the only way to get a free trial is by signing up for a $19 "Basic Video" monthly subscription (just to clarify - you won't have to actually pay $19 for a trial, it's free for the first 7 days). That means that if you like the service and decide to be a full-time Storyblocks Video member, you won't be able to switch to an annual "Unlimited Video" plan subscription (which cost $199 per year or $16,58 per month) without any help from customer support. So before you sign up for a free trial, think whether you will be okay with "Basic Video" plan in the future or you'll need more stock videos and "Unlimited Video" plan would work better for you. Make a decision based on your needs rather than free stuff - which, in this case, means free trial.

But if during free trial you decide to upgrade your plan or switch to a different one, just email support@storyblocks.com or call 866.788.9225 to talk to a real person! Live phone support is available during business hours from 9AM - 6PM EST Monday through Friday. 

Can you get Storyblocks Video f.k.aVideoBlocks for $99 or even $49 per year?

No, you can't anymore. Before, you could get a special discount during the holiday season, when you'd get an e-mail from Storyblocks Video in your inbox offering an annual subscription for just $99. Or for Cyber Monday and Black Friday you could've even gotten a $49 per year offer. However, that hasn't happened in a long time. There was no BF deals or CM deals last year either. Therefore, no need to wait for a better deal. 

Now let's answer some of the most common questions about Storyblocks Video.

Is Storyblocks f.k.a VideoBlocks legit?

Yes, it's legit. Storyblocks Video has been registered in 2009 and now it has over 90,000 members. The website has a good customer support and a good reputation. However, like any other business out there, it has some negative reviews on the Internet, mostly due to the fact that some people subscribe to the service and don’t realize that the “get unlimited downloads” part applies to all the content in the Members Library ( 841,000+ videos) as part of Unlimited  plan, but Basic plan that cost $19 per month only allows to download 5 hd clips.

Is Storyblocks Video f.k.a Videoblocks a scam?

No, you get exactly what is advertised. Also, even before you sign up, you can see which videos are available for download to all members for free . There are no extra charges and no upselling techniques. And they are constantly adding new content to the Unlimited Members Library (and if you subscribe you don’t have to pay extra for it).

Is Storyblocks Video f.n.a VideoBlocks safe?

Yes, it's a perfectly safe website secured with secure socket layer technology (SSL). You don’t have to worry about someone stealing your credit card info or selling your personal information to other companies. And since all the content on Storyblocks Video is royalty-free, you get to keep it forever and use it for personal or commercial projects without any restrictions as many times as you want.

Is Storyblocks Video f.k.a VideoBlocks worth its subscription fee?

In my opinion, yes. I use it all the time for my projects and have no complains whatsoever. Here are top things I like about it:

- I always have an unlimited number of videos for any new project to choose from. 

- I can always offer a video to my client as a bonus and that is often a deal breaker for them. 

- Videos created just by using the clips from Storyblocks Video can be sold to clients for $200–300.

And now let’s compare Storyblocks Video vs Pond5 vs Shutterstock vs Videohive

Storyblocks Video

Price: Unlimited plan $39/month; $199/year; 

Number of videos available for download: unlimited within Members Library for Unlimited Video and Video + Audio + Images plans

Licence for multiple projects: Yes

Library: Great

Pond5

Price: $99/month; $999/year; HD videos from $25

Number of videos available for download: 10 per month (membership content only)

Licence for multiple projects: Yes

Library: Great

Shutterstock

Price: 1 Web clip $49; 1 SD clip $69; 1 HD clip $79; 1 4K clip $199

10%-20% Discount for buying in bulk

Licence for multiple projects: Yes

Library: Great

Videohive

Price: From $8 to $10,000 per video

Licence for multiple projects: No, you have to pay 4 times more for multiple use

Library: Good

As you can see, Storyblocks Video f.k.a Videoblocks is perfect for those who don’t want to waste a lot of money and still have a plenty of high-quality videos to work with. And yes, you will be able to use all the royalty-free footage you download for your projects even after your subscription expires.

Do Storyblocks Video f.k.a VideoBlocks offer the same low-quality videos that I can download from free stock footage websites?

No, you will have access to 325,000+ high-quality clips from many various niches and collections including but not limited to:

Every day Storyblocks Viddeo members download approximately 33,220 videos from the platform (that's 66,107,103 downloads in total!). The majority of video clips in the library are 5-30 seconds long, although sometimes you can find the longer ones. It's very easy to find exactly what you are looking for by filtering out the categories (such as Nature, Animals, People, US Cities and Locations, Food, Timelapse, Ariel, International Locations, Slow Motion, Speciality, and Looping Backgrounds), or by typing the keywords in the search bar. Moreover, you can search for SD, HD and 4K footage.

What is StoryBlocks com?

In 2017, VideoBlocks launched a stock video, audion and image service, called StoryBlocks, that gives their subscribers an unlimited access to a vast and growing library of quality royalty-free video, audion and image content. 

Who can benefit from Storyblocks Video?

Here are a few simple questions to determine whether Storyblocks Video is the right fit for you or not:

• Are you a video marketer who always needs fresh ideas and content for your projects?

• Do you want to improve the quality of your videos and increase audience engagement and watch time?

• Do you want to drive more relevant traffic to your blog/website from the second largest search engine (YouTube)?

• Do you have clients who can benefit from video marketing? (Nowadays lots of successful businesses have YouTube channels).

• What would you choose: watch a 5-minute long video with a cup of warm tea or read a 700-800-word article?

If you answered "Yes" to any of those questions, then in my opinion, you could benefit from Storyblocks Video.

Do I recommend Storyblocks Video in 2021?

Absolutely! It's an excellent service that offers great value for money. So if you are looking for an affordable alternative to other royalty-free videos websites, then you are going to love Storyblocks Video as much as I do. However, if you are not entirely convinced yet, you can try it out for free for 7 days and then decide whether you like it or not. If for some reason you are not happy with the service, just cancel your account to avoid any charges. Right now Storyblocks Video are also offering 50% off their annual subscription.

Should I use Storyblocks Video f.ka Videoblocks in 2021?

Storyblocks Video is a rapidly growing platform, and the company is constantly adding new content and features to the website. Video marketing is a huge thing right now and there is so much you can do with Storyblocks Video. You can also take advantage of  low subscription cost and unlimited downloads to: 

• Create your own video production company on Fiverr or Konker.io and offer niche videos or intros and outros. 

•  Offer to make videos for local businesses in your area for around $200–300 each. 

• Spice up your own video projects.

• Make more high-quality videos.

Simple trick to get unlimited stock photos after you sign up with Storyblocks Video a.k.a Videoblocks:

1. Find a relative video.

2. Play it, pause it when it’s not blurry, take a screenshot, paste it into Paint or Photoshop and add text. This way you can have thousands of relevant photos for your blogs and thumbnails for your videos.

Conclusion

In my opinion, Storyblocks Video is a great platform. It's simple and relatively cheap, especially if you purchase an annual subscription which comes down to only $16 per month. You can’t get a better deal anywhere since most stock video websites charge $79 just for one clip! If you feel that this service can benefit your business and help you create better quality videos, use this link to explore Storyblocks Video library and see if it's a good match for you.

Finally, I wanted to thank you for taking your time and reading this review. If you still have doubts about Storyblocks Video, I suggest you sign up for a free trial first. This will also give you a chance to receive all the exclusive offers and discounts from the company in the future - who knows, maybe they'll bring the "$49 unlimited annual membership" offer back this year even I highly doubd that.