Shutterstock: most-reported complaints
Automated analysis of 101 public Trustpilot reviews published 2025-10-09 to 2026-09-22. TrustScore 1.2 from 2,769 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is Shutterstock legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.
Reviewers most often report difficulties with cancelling subscriptions, which accounted for 38% of the 96 complaints identified in the last year. Other frequent issues include subscription traps (32%), overcharging (22%), and billing errors (21%). The trend for cancellation complaints is falling, while overcharging reports are rising, and subscription trap and billing error trends remain flat.
How to reach Shutterstock
These are the contact details Shutterstock publishes on its Trustpilot profile, as of our last check on 2026-09-26 — it publishes no phone number there, email [email protected], address 350 5th Ave 21st Floor, New York, 10118, US.
Trustpilot lists this business as no longer collecting reviews. New reviews are not currently being gathered for its profile. See the Trustpilot page for the current status.
The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2019-04-17. We last checked this profile on 2026-09-26 and found 0 new reviews. These are facts Trustpilot publishes about the profile, as of our last harvest.
Companies House: SHUTTERSTOCK (UK) LTD (no. 08443009), active, incorporated 2013 (13.5 years); next accounts due 2027-09-30, last accounts filed 2026-09-17. 3 current officers (8 on record historically); 3 filings in the last 12 months (56 filings on record). official record — public register facts, not an indicator of wrongdoing; officer changes are routine in many company structures. Live Companies House status as of 2026-09-23.
Forum footprint: 6 MoneySavingExpert forum discussions mention this company (browse). Roughly 0 of the top, relevance-sorted search results were posted in the last 90 days — an approximate figure by construction, not a true recency count. Recent thread titles: “anyone want to share a shutterstock account”, “Royalty free stock photos, illustrations, and vectors”, “Foreign income or not?”.
Elsewhere: 2.6★ on Google (15 reviews)
TrustScore over time
1.2 → 1.2 across 3 census measurements since 2026-09-16. Our own record, independent of Trustpilot’s display.
Reply behaviour over time
Solid: % of negative reviews replied to. Dashed: typical days to reply. Both as reported on this company’s Trustpilot profile, recorded whenever our census re-checked it and a figure had changed — the gaps between points are not equal: 2026-09-16 (0%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-20 (0%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-23 (0%, 0.0d).
Severity: 53% of this company’s 96 graded complaints were classified as severe (money lost, an essential service cut off, or a problem unresolved for months). See the harm index.
Reviewers here waited a median of 0.8 days between the experience and publishing their negative review (98 reviews record both dates).
Sector benchmark: hard to cancel makes up 38% of this company’s complaints vs a 18% median across 26 ranked companies in its sector.
Review velocity: 133 of this company’s 2,769 Trustpilot reviews (5%) were written in the last 12 months.
What are the most common complaints about Shutterstock?
Hard to cancel
37 reports · 38% of complaintsfalling“I signed up for what I believed was a monthly plan to get a few pictures, but it turned out to be an annual subscription”
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Misleading purchase terms, 3 figure cancelation for a subscription that I did not even want or agree too.”
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I cant just delete my credit card details or delete my account.”
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Subscription trap
31 reports · 32% of complaintssteady“I cant just delete my credit card details or delete my account.”
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“The subscription model is deliberately tricky.”
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“to make it practically impossible to cancel the autorenowal is abusive”
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Overcharging
21 reports · 22% of complaintsrising since 2026-06“Downloaded this second image today and have been charged another £19”
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Trying to cancel was ridiculous and then they charged me another month cancellation fee.”
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Undeiclosed monthly charges and obscene contract cancellation charges.”
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Billing errors
20 reports · 21% of complaintssteady“I was charged for a Shutterstock subscription even though I never used their services.”
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Downloaded this second image today and have been charged another £19”
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I cant just delete my credit card details or delete my account.”
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Misleading pricing
20 reports · 21% of complaintsrising since 2026-06“Shutterstock doesn’t allow unused downloads to roll over and never made that clear before purchase.”
4 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I signed up for what I believed was a monthly plan to get a few pictures, but it turned out to be an annual subscription”
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Misleading purchase terms, 3 figure cancelation for a subscription that I did not even want or agree too.”
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Support unhelpful
14 reports · 15% of complaintsrising since 2026-06“Shutterstock doesn’t allow unused downloads to roll over and never made that clear before purchase.”
4 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“non-transparent terms on cancellation. Bad support as well.”
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Support responses are repetitive and do not address the actual problem.”
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Method: reviews are classified into a fixed complaint taxonomy by an automated reader; every category shown is backed by at least two verbatim quotes from distinct reviews. Trends are computed from dated review counts only. Negative reviews are deliberately over-sampled for evidence depth; headline percentages use an unbiased recent sample only. Report updated 2026-09-23.