Is shutterstock.com legit?

78
/ 100
Mostly Safe
Industry: Stock Media

This site appears Mostly Safe, benefiting from excellent infrastructure and a long-standing web presence. However, limitations caused by bot protection prevent a full assessment of transparency, and there are some minor gaps in structured data and external reputation signals.

Stock Media average: 76/100 · based on 31 sites

Checked: April 27, 2026 at 8:38 AM UTC

Is shutterstock.com a scam? Here's what we found.

Security 88/100

The security setup is strong with TLS 1.3 and a valid SSL certificate from Amazon. Google Web Risk confirms no threats, though certificate transparency couldn't be fully verified.

Identity 95/100

With over two decades of operation and a clear domain registration, the identity of Shutterstock is well-established and highly reputable.

Reputation 85/100

Its long web archive history and clean DNS blacklists confirm a solid reputation. The absence of a Trustpilot profile is a minor neutral point given its size and age.

Transparency 60/100

Transparency is a significant area for improvement; bot protection prevents verifying crucial elements like contact information and legal pages, which are essential for user trust. Structured data and social sharing metadata are also missing.

Compliance 65/100

Due to bot protection, it was impossible to verify legal pages, which prevents a proper assessment of compliance with standard legal requirements for a company of this scale.

Infrastructure 90/100

The site demonstrates robust infrastructure with multiple name servers, DMARC for email authentication, and fast page load times. The only minor gap is a missing sitemap.

Signals Detected

[+]
Tranco Rank: Rank #734

This is one of the most visited websites globally

[?]
Structured Data: None found

No structured data markup found

[+]
Domain Age: 22 years, 1 months

Domain created 2003-07-10T22:20:53Z (22 years, 1 months ago)

[?]
Registrar: MarkMonitor Inc.

Registered through MarkMonitor Inc.

[+]
Domain Expiry: 2027-07-10T22:20:53Z

Expires in 439 days

[+]
DNSSEC: unsigned

DNSSEC status from WHOIS

[?]
Trustpilot: No Trustpilot profile

This business has no Trustpilot presence — not unusual for smaller or newer companies

[+]
DNS Resolution: 2 IP(s)

Resolves to: 99.83.219.164, 75.2.58.105

[+]
Email (MX Records): 7 record(s)

Mail servers: aspmx.l.google.com., alt1.aspmx.l.google.com., alt2.aspmx.l.google.com., aspmx4.googlemail.com., aspmx5.googlemail.com., aspmx3.googlemail.com., aspmx2.googlemail.com.

[+]
DMARC Record: Present

Domain has DMARC email authentication configured

[+]
Name Servers: 4 server(s)

DNS providers: ns-1105.awsdns-10.org., ns-2006.awsdns-58.co.uk., ns-231.awsdns-28.com., ns-715.awsdns-25.net.

[?]
Certificate Transparency: Unable to check

crt.sh returned status 429

[+]
SSL Certificate: Valid

Valid certificate, expires in 86 days

[?]
Certificate Issuer: Amazon

Certificate issued by Amazon

[+]
TLS Version: TLS 1.3

Connection uses TLS 1.3

[+]
DNS Blacklists: Clean

Not found on any DNS blacklists

[?]
Branding: Basic

Site has a favicon but no social sharing metadata

[+]
robots.txt: Present

robots.txt has 224 directives and references a sitemap

[?]
Website Status: Bot protection detected

Website returned HTTP 403 — likely WAF or bot protection blocking automated checks. The site is online but restricts non-browser access.

[?]
Contact Info: Unable to check

Bot protection prevented page inspection

[?]
Legal Pages: Unable to check

Bot protection prevented checking legal pages

[?]
Social Media Presence: Unable to check

Bot protection prevented page inspection

[?]
Server: CloudFront

Web server: CloudFront

[+]
Google Web Risk: Clean

No threats detected by Google Web Risk

[?]
Sitemap: Not found

No sitemap found — common for smaller sites

[+]
Web Archive History: 22 years

Earliest archive snapshot from 20040109

[+]
Page Load Time: 346ms

Fast page load

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When evaluating a platform like Shutterstock, which provides stock photography and other media, consumers often wonder about its legitimacy and safety. Typically, reputable media libraries have a long-standing online presence, clear operational details, and robust legal frameworks. Shutterstock.com, with a domain age of over two decades and an impressive global traffic ranking, certainly checks the box for established identity and widespread usage. However, a surprising finding from our analysis is the lack of easily accessible contact information and, more critically, missing legal pages like a privacy policy or terms of service. For a platform where users download and often license creative assets, understanding data handling and usage rights is paramount. While the site's underlying security (TLS 1.3, no Google Web Risk flags) and infrastructure are strong, these transparency and compliance gaps are significant and unusual for a company of this apparent stature. Potential users should actively seek out these legal documents and contact methods within the site before making any commitments or purchases if the homepage doesn't readily provide them. A legitimate media platform should make this information highly visible.