Is pixabay.com legit?
Pixabay.com appears to be Mostly Safe, showing a strong technical foundation and widespread usage, but significant concerns around user experience, transparency, and legal compliance. Its low Trustpilot score and missing legal pages are particularly worrying.
Software & Downloads average: 78/100 · based on 75 sites
Checked: April 13, 2026 at 7:10 AM UTC · Refresh
Is pixabay.com a scam? Here's what we found.
The site boasts a robust security setup with a valid SSL certificate (TLS 1.3) and no detected threats by Google Web Risk, indicating a secure connection and a clean bill of health from a major security intelligence source.
With a domain age of over 15 years through a reputable registrar and clear WHOIS information, the site's identity is well-established and transparent. This longevity is a strong indicator of stability.
While globally popular with a high Tranco rank and clean DNS blacklists, the very low Trustpilot score suggests a notable segment of its user base is unhappy. The HTTP 403 status at the time of checks also raises questions about accessibility.
The lack of visible contact information and social media links hinders user support and engagement, making it difficult to address issues or learn more about the organization behind the platform.
The complete absence of essential legal pages like a privacy policy or terms of service is a serious compliance risk, especially for a platform dealing with user-generated content and data.
Excellent infrastructure with DNSSEC, Cloudflare for CDN, multiple IP resolutions, and proper email authentication (SPF, DMARC) ensures stability, deliverability, and protection against email spoofing.
Signals Detected
This is one of the most visited websites globally
No structured data markup found
No favicon found — unusual for an established business
Domain created 2010-10-07T16:43:03Z (15 years, 8 months ago)
Registered through Gandi SAS
Expires in 177 days
DNSSEC status from WHOIS
Valid certificate, expires in 63 days
Certificate issued by Google Trust Services
Connection uses TLS 1.3
No robots.txt file — common for small sites
No sitemap found — common for smaller sites
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Web server: cloudflare
No threats detected by Google Web Risk
Resolves to: 2a06:98c1:3107::6812:2860, 2606:4700:4400::ac40:93a0, 104.18.40.96, 172.64.147.160
Mail servers: aspmx.l.google.com., alt2.aspmx.l.google.com., alt1.aspmx.l.google.com., aspmx3.googlemail.com., aspmx2.googlemail.com.
Domain has SPF email authentication configured
Domain has DMARC email authentication configured
DNS providers: seth.ns.cloudflare.com., adrian.ns.cloudflare.com.
Website returned status 403
No obvious contact information found on homepage
No privacy policy or terms of service found
No social media links found on homepage
Not found on any DNS blacklists
Trustpilot rating: 1.7/5 based on 79 reviews
201 certificates found across 34 subdomains — large or long-established domain
Could not query Wayback Machine
Fast page load
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