The phrase "free asset" only tells you that there is no charge. It does not mean any use is permitted. What is allowed differs from site to site, and two sites that both say "commercial use OK" can mean very different things. Before you use an asset in paid work, check at least these five points.
1. "Commercial use" means different things on different sites
Many sites say "commercial use OK", but the scope varies. A site may allow use on your own company's website while treating client deliverables, or products that include the asset, as a separate case.
These uses are the ones most often treated differently. Match your case against the "permitted uses" section of the terms.
- Building the asset into a deliverable you hand to a client, as a production agency
- Selling merchandise (T-shirts, stickers, and so on) that uses the asset
- Using it in paid content such as paid newsletters or paid seminar material
- Embedding it as an asset inside an app or a game
2. Whether attribution is required
Some sites require attribution and some do not. Skipping it where it is required is a breach of the terms. Even a site that says no attribution is needed may attach conditions, such as requiring it for commercial use or in print. For how to write a credit and where to put it, with samples for each medium, see “Do free illustrations need a credit line?”.
3. Redistributing or selling the asset itself is prohibited almost everywhere
Creating something with an asset and handing out or selling the asset itself are two different acts. The second is prohibited almost without exception. Avoid bundling assets into a collection you distribute, selling the files as downloads as they are, or sharing the asset files outside your organisation.
Editing does not necessarily change this. If the edit is small, the result may still count as "the asset itself". Redistributing something you have only recoloured or cropped is risky.
4. Trademarks and logos need care
Taking a free asset as-is, turning it into a logo and registering it as a trademark is explicitly prohibited by many sites. Beyond the terms, there is a practical reason: the same asset is available to everyone, so it works poorly as a mark that identifies your company, and it never builds value as a trademark.
For the core, long-lived parts of an identity — a company logo, a service symbol — we recommend using something made specifically for you.
5. What is actually depicted in the asset
With photographic assets, the portrait rights of the people shown, and trademarks, logos or buildings caught in the background, can all become issues. For photos of people, the key question is whether a model release was obtained.
With illustrations too, it is worth checking that nothing resembles an existing character or a company logo, and that nothing copies a particular artist's style wholesale. Assets made with image generation AI can also contain illegible text or scribbles that look like signatures. Even when the asset site checks for this, you are the one who publishes the result in the end, so a look with your own eyes is worth the time. How AI-made assets are handled is covered in “ Commercial Use of AI-Generated Illustrations (Our Position)”.
How Visual Hub handles this
Assets on this site are free for both personal and commercial use. No attribution is required, and editing is allowed. Permitted uses include websites, blogs, social media posts, presentations, internal documents, YouTube thumbnails, and printed materials.
What we prohibit is redistributing or selling the assets themselves, registering them as trademarks, using them for purposes that violate public order and morals, and bulk collection as AI training data. See the Terms of Use for details.
This article summarises general points to watch for. If you are unsure about a specific project, check the terms of the site you are using directly.