27 Awesome Royalty-Free Sound Effects Sites
Whether you're a filmmaker, ad designer, YouTuber, or simply want to add little magic to your social media content, sound effects are a must-have to bring your videos alive! We collected a list of 27 best royalty-free sound effects websites, where you can download and use the sounds for free. Happy reading!
Eagle App - Easily Organize & Browse your audio assets
One step before you start collecting more free sounds, check out Eagle App! Eagle App is an on-premise software for anyone who works with any kind of digital materials, it lets you create a media and inspiration library, then organize and browse it easily using filters, categories and even with BPM!
It supports over 90+ formats including videos, 3d objects, images, fonts, RAW files and more! Eagle has many great UI especially helpful for creative professionals and sound artists to store and grab assets and bring them into Audacity or other audio editors with a quick drag and drop. It also serves designers as a bank for inspiration in and out of audio clips.
- Download Eagle: https://en.eagle.cool/
27 Best Royalty-Free Sound Effects Websites
1. Envato Elements
Envato Elements sees "Design without limits" as its core value. They provide more than 500 thousand sound effects and you can browse them with a simple user interface and filters. The license is simple too, allowing you broad commercial rights, so you can use items with confidence on work or personal projects. If you want to use the sound effect assets without considering the copyrights once and for all, Envato Elements offers a plan for unlimited download for $29 per month as well. Highly recommended!
Licensing: Envato Elements's own license (More information here)
Website: https://elements.envato.com/sound-effects
2.Videvo
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Videvo offers free stock videos and motion graphics for use in any project, which means you are able to find everything you need for a video through one site. You may use them free of charge, in both personal and commercial productions.
The thunder icon represents premium download, and the pricing starts with a minimum of $20 per month.
Licensing: Royalty-free
Website: https://www.videvo.net/royalty-free-sound-effects/
3. Mixkit
Image from Mixkit
Mixkit offers more than 54 million royalty-free music, all of which can be downloaded and used free without attribution. You may also be amazed by their diversity of categories! You'll sure to find what you need for the next video projects.
Licensing: Free commercial and non-commercial use, no attribution required
Website: https://mixkit.co/free-sound-effects/
4. Pixabay
Image from Pixabay
Pixabay is known for its stock images, videos, and illustrations libraries. What's better, they provide sound effects as well! Now you can collect everything with just one site! Pixabay also allows audio artists to share their works with the globe, make sure to upload or join the community if you have created some masterpieces!
Licensing: Royalty-free
Website: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/
5. ZapSplat
Image from ZapSplat
For those who like to discover new resources, Zapsplat is definitely the right place for you. It uploads more than 100 sounds weekly and all of them can be downloaded in WAV or MP3 instantly. Zapsplat also offers customized services for you to request a specific sound. And most important, it's free for both commercial and personal use!
Licensing: Attribution is required for commercial use or a minimum of £20 yearly donation
Website: https://www.zapsplat.com/
6. Epidemic Sound
Image from Epidemic Sound
Epidemic Sound has an extreme catalog of royalty-free sound effects, including cartoons, weather, ghost sounds, or even UI effects. Help you to bring your animation or YouTube content to the next level!
The subscription plan and pricing differ with the purpose of use, with a minimum of $144 per year. You can enjoy unlimited sounds after a free trial.
Licensing: Royalty-free
Website: https://www.epidemicsound.com/sound-effects/
7. Freesound
Image from Freesound
Freesound is one of the largest archives of sound effects including audio snippets, recordings, bleeps, and etc., all released under Creative Commons licenses, which means you're allowed to reuse under personal purposes. While Freesound opens the database and forum to everyone, you also get a chance to interact with other sound artists and be inspired.
Licensing:
- Zero: free commercial and non-commercial use
- Attribution: free commercial use, but attribution is required
- Attribution Non-Commercial: free for non-commercial use, but attribution is required
Website: https://freesound.org/
8. PacDV
Image from PacDV
PacDV is a long-standing website since 2001. It may not be the fanciest one but you still can find anything you want. The sound effects on PacDV are all royalty-free and have been used in a variety of films, tv programs, games, and media projects. The downside of it may be the absence of a search tool, making it a bit difficult to find a specific resource.
Licensing: Royalty-free
Website: https://www.pacdv.com/sounds/
9. AudioMicro
Image from AudioMicro
AudioMicro collects royalty-free music and sound effects and it enables a strong searching system, letting you find what you want with ease. Although AudioMicro does offer some free stock music, most of those are charged $4.95 per sound effect. If you have a spare budget, make sure to check out their membership plans.
Licensing: Allowed for commercial use. Do not resell.
Website: https://www.audiomicro.com/free-sound-effects
10. Free SFX
Image from Free SFX
Free SFX is a website providing free sound effects for both commercial and non-commercial use. You can easily browse all 4500+ resources with their navigation, making your films, television programs, advertisements alive!
Licensing: Free for commercial use. Attribution is required.
Website: https://www.freesfx.co.uk/
11. Sounds Crate
Image from Sounds Crate
The works on Sound Crate are masterpieces and they are best suitable for filmmakers. Even if you're not, you are sure to be amazed by how high-quality they are. All free for use. And you can also find some footage or graphics that can be used to highlight your video!
However, the download amount is limited to 5 unless you upgrade to a paid plan.
Licensing: Royalty-free for non- and commercial use. No redistribution.
Website: https://soundscrate.com/
12. Partners In Rhyme
Image from Partners In Rhyme
If you're looking for sound effects that are suitable in games or apps, Partners in Rhyme is the right place for you! There are thousands of royalty-free and high-quality sounds await you! All of them can be downloaded in WAV or MP3 formats and there's no need to sign up.
Licensing: Royalty-free
Website: https://www.partnersinrhyme.com/pir/PIRsfx.shtml
13. 99sounds
Image from 99sounds
99sounds collects lots of works produced by many sound designers, including cinematic, outer space, drone sound effects. All of them are high-quality and 100% royalty-free. The user interface is clean and each collection looks like music albums!
Licensing: All royalty-free for commercial use
Website: http://99sounds.org/
14. Orange Free Sounds
Image from Orange Free Sounds
Orange Free Sounds provides a bunch of sound effects includes scary sounds, street sound, and nature ambient effects. Besides that, you can also find background music and loops there, helping you create projects of videos or apps.
Licensing: Royalty-free for non- and commercial use
Website: http://www.orangefreesounds.com/
15. Adobe Audition
Image from Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition is a comprehensive toolset for creating, mixing, editing, and restoring audio content. They provide a huge library that will sure to help most filmmakers. And you can also integrate them while you're using Premiere. Super convenient!
Licensing: Royalty-free
Website: https://www.adobe.com/products/audition/free-sound-effects.html
16. StoryBlocks
Image from StoryBlocks
StoryBlocks offers pre-recorded sound effects to keep your story moving! Its collection includes looping ambient sound, short bursts, and so on, perfectly highlighting your video. Make sure to check out their subscription plan if you are already attracted by their works!
Licensing: Royalty-free for non- and commercial sue
Website: https://www.storyblocks.com/audio/sound-effects
17. Free Sound Effects
Image from Free Sound Effects
There are two separate sections in Free Sound Effects including a free one and a paid one. If you need better quality sound effects, you should consider buying a one-time fee for a license.
Licensing: Free for personal and educational, paid for commercial projects
Website: https://www.freesoundeffects.com/
18. BBC Sound Effects
Image from BBC Sound Effects
There are more than 10 thousand sound effects available on BBC Sound Effects now. They are all in WAV format and are free for educational and personal use. But for commercial use, you must buy a license through ProSoundEffects.
Licensing: Royalty-free for non-commercial use, and a paid option for commercial use.
Website: http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/
19. Sonniss GDC 2019 Audio Bundle
Image from GDC 2019 Special by Sonniss
This collection is released by Sonniss in celebration of the 2019 game developer challenge. It contains 50 different sound design labels including Impact Soundworks, Certified Audio, borg Sound, etc. Everything is royalty-free and enable for commercial use, no attribution is required.
Licensing: Royalty-free
Website: https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2019/03/27/sonniss-gdc-2019-audio-bundle/
20. RØDE Ambisonic Library
Image from RØDE Ambisonic Library
RØDE Ambisonic Library is best suited for people who are working in the 360º surround sound format. It includes a variety of sound effects from sports, urban to nature. All royalty-free.
If you're also interested in how they record those sounds, make sure to check out their product "Ambisonics".
Licensing: Royalty-free
Website: https://library.soundfield.com/
21. SoundBible
Image from SoundBible
You can download sound effects on SoundBible in either WAV or MP3 format. The user interface is clean, easy to find anything, and their work is high-quality and free as well. No attribution, no sign-up needed, who wouldn't love it!
Licensing: Each one differs, including public domain, non-commercial and attribution.
Website: http://soundbible.com/
22. SoundEffects+
Image from SoundEffects+
SoundEffects+ is a sound effect library produced by a team of audio professionals. There are more than 5,000 free resources to be downloaded and used without attribution. And their works are trusted by some leading companies like LG and Sony.
Licensing: Royalty-free, for both non-commercial and commercial use.
Website: https://www.soundeffectsplus.com/
23. Sound Jay
Image from Sound Jay
It may be a little difficult to use at first since it doesn't have a search bar, but the categories are niche, so there will be no problem using it. Sound Jay offers royalty-free sound effects, they are high-quality and are free for commercial use.
Licensing: Free for non-commercial and commercial use.
Website: https://www.soundjay.com/
24. GameSounds
Image from GameSounds
GameSounds creates a curated list of royalty-free sound effects all around the web. If you're tired of switching sites to find a specific sound or you're a game designer, you mustn't miss this site!
Licensing: Royalty-free
Website: https://gamesounds.xyz/
25. FindSounds
Image from FindSounds
FindSounds is like the audio version searching engine of Google, helping you to find every sound effect you want. And you're sure to find the royalty-free ones that can be used worry-free!
Licensing: Royalty-free
Website: http://www.findsounds.com/
26. Musopen
Image from Musopen
Musopen is a website offering high-quality classical music and musical instrument sound effects. You can browse or find music by composers, instruments or audio snippets on the website, including many combinations of sound files, such as songs of classical musicians of different periods, violin, cello, viola and other instruments. What's better, if you hear a piece of music you like, they also provide sheet music for you to download for free!
Licensing: Royalty-free for both personal and commercial use
Website: https://musopen.org
27. IBeat
Image from IBeat
IBeat is a resource library of rhythm and sound effects, providing a rich variety of soundtracks, rhythms, such as rock rhythms, hip-hop, and even vocal music or digital metronome, making your videos are no longer monotonous and boring!
If you're a DJ or looking for some free rhythm beats, loops. IBeat is the best choice for you.
Licensing: Most are free for personal and commercial use, attribution is required.
Website: https://ibeat.org
Download too many Sound Effects? Eagle is here to help you organize!
After viewing all these stunning sound effects websites, here’s a practical step to improve your design by using an organizing tool! Eagle is a desktop productivity tool that enables a powerful organizing system for all types of design files.
It can add tags, ratings, filter audio files by BPM, and hover preview to help you quickly find a sound asset among thousands without getting lost, Try Eagle!
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If you are still lacking inspiration and incentives to create something new, feel free to dive into Eagle Community to explore stunning assets shared by thousands of designers worldwide. Let Eagle be your best design assistant!