When it comes to having a good presence on the Internet, it is necessary to have a good communication network, whether it is a website, a YouTube channel or a profile on social networks such as Instagram or Facebook.
Now, if you want to have the possibility of capturing up to 80% of the users who go to the Internet every day, you can’t miss in your content strategy an element as essential as 4K video.
You may already know this by now, but although written content continues to play an important role in marketing strategies, 4K video is the type of content that has seen the greatest growth in recent years.
Despite what it may seem, the preference for video content is not limited to entertainment, but also extends to the professional world.
In fact, according to a study published by the HubSpot portal in 2018, 54% of consumers want to watch videos of their favorite brands and companies, ahead of reading content about them.
Therefore, you should keep in mind that in order to have a good brand presence and make yourself known to your potential customers, the best way to reach them is through video content, for several reasons. You will be able to:
- Increase your organic positioning, boosting the user’s time spent on your site and making them find you ahead of your competitors.
- Improve the user experience of your potential customers with explanatory and informative content.
- Connect emotionally with them, something that will enhance their feeling towards you and your brand.
- Rise the engagement of your content, which will be more likely to be shared, or even viralized.
- Grow exponentially using influencer marketing to your advantage.
Despite all these advantages, creating videos from scratch can be a real headache.
Especially if you plan to create them on your own.
That requires a lot of expensive resources, for example:
- Purchase several professional cameras and drones.
- Hire actors.
- Travel to different locations.
- Buy other materials, such as tripods, lights, cabling, etc.
However, we must warn you of something important:
You don’t need any of this to get videos in 4K quality.
There are platforms on the Internet that have so-called stock videos: quality audiovisual pieces recorded by professionals that you can use in your commercial projects in exchange for an inexpensive subscription.
At LegisVideo we have tested almost all the platforms on the Internet that have stock videos in 4K quality.
From all of them, we have filtered for you the ones that, in our opinion, are the best 3, and you will be able to know each of them shortly.
But first, we must give answers to some of the most recurring questions regarding 4K.
What are 4K stock videos?
4K -also known as Ultra HD, UHD or UHDV- is a video resolution standard used in both digital cinema and computer graphics, whose main characteristics are:
- Excellent visual definition
- Highly detailed images and videos
- Greater range of visibility on large screens
Its actual resolution is 3840×2160 -which in total is 8,294,400 pixels-.
With this in mind, it is somewhat misleading to call this standard 4K, since this nomenclature refers to its almost 4,000 pixels of horizontal resolution (3840 real).
That’s why, in some situations, you may find 4K stock videos also as 2160p stock videos.
What is the difference between 4K resolution videos and 1080p or 720p?
720p resolution videos – also known as HD – have a resolution of 1280×720.
In other words, 1280 columns and 720 rows of pixels, for a total of 921,600 pixels.
Videos with 1080p resolution -commonly called Full HD- have a resolution of 1920x1080p, about 2,073,600 pixels.
If we compare both with 4K quality videos, we can appreciate a 4 times greater increase in quality compared to 1080p videos and 9 times greater than 720p videos, something that you can better appreciate in the following image.
Why do I need 4K stock video for my professional projects?
If the video is going to be your presentation letter on the Internet, you will agree with us that the quality of the video, not only matters a lot, but it will determine the success or failure of it.
To help you understand this better, we challenge you to watch the following Tesla Model 3 commercial video.
The idea is that, first watch the video in the highest quality (4K – 2160p) and then watch it again in 720p quality or lower.
Have you noticed the difference?
Watching the video in 720p or less you feel like watching a normal video
But when you watch it in 4K it gives you the feeling that you are living that same story.
The quality is so high that it really makes you feel beyond.
Now, imagine for a moment the video you would like to show to your potential customers or followers.
Imagine it again, but this time, a bit more pixelated – with lower quality.
Wouldn’t you also have a worse perception of your own product, service or brand?
This is the same negative perception that your users would have if you don’t choose to add 4k stock video to your commercial projects.
Something that would drive them away from your brand and closer to your competitors’.
However, you don’t want that, and we don’t want that for you either.
That’s why we’re going to share with you the best selection of 4K video platforms on the Internet.
The best 3 4K Stock Video Platforms
As we told you at the beginning of the article, we have tested the vast majority of services on the Internet dedicated to providing stock video in UDH and 4K.
And from our experience, we have been able to choose what we consider to be the best services.
To do so, we will start with one of the top exponents in the industry
Envato Elements
Envato Elements is the number one provider of digital goods on the Internet.
It is owned by the marketplace Envato Markets, created in Australia in 2006, whose fame among creative professionals continues to rise steadily.
Among its libraries, you can find everything, not just 4K stock videos.
You will have at your disposal from WordPress templates to background music, sound effects, or stock photos.
As for stock videos, you can easily find the one you are looking for thanks to its effective search engine, as well as its filters.
- Categories
- Minimum resolution (this is where you can choose 4K UHD)
- Frames per second (FPS)
- Duration
- Properties
You can take a look at the platform at no cost, and even download watermarked material to see if it’s really the type of video you’re looking for.
However, if you want to have all the advantages of this platform and its more than 54 million creative resources, for only 14.50€ per month they will be yours.
In addition, during the subscription period in Envato Elements, you will be able to make unlimited downloads of any file on the platform, including 4K and UHD stock videos.
All of this without permanence periods and with the possibility of canceling your subscription at any time.
Artgrid
Artgrid 
is one of the most revolutionary platforms in the stock video industry.
However, despite its youth -it was created in 2019-, it has managed to carve a niche for itself among the best services for content creators, just like Artlist, its music version did.
They have an intuitive and minimalist design that will make things much easier for you when it comes to finding your videos in 4K format.
In fact, among its menus, you will find the “Shot Type” option.
This feature will enable a large number of filters such as:
- Framing.
- Camera Movement.
- Time.
- Location.
- Format.
- Speed.
In addition to its clean design and multitude of filters, with Artgrid you can use all downloaded videos forever.
No restrictions of any kind and no future copyright issues.
And this is possible in any of its three subscription plans:
- Artgrid Junior HD ($299 billed annually), the platform’s most basic plan.
- Artgrid Creator 4K ($479 billed annually), Artgrid’s intermediate plan.
- Artgrid Pro RAW/LOG ($599 billed annually), the best and most complete plan of all.
As with Envato Elements, Artgrid also lets you use its platform for free, but to get the licenses you need to subscribe to any of its plans.
Now, if after taking a look at the platform you think it is the service you were looking for, you can get 2 additional months totally free by clicking on the following button.
VideoHive
VideoHive 
is another platform that belongs to Envato Market, just like Envato Elements.
However, it is one of the most extensive stock video libraries on the Internet.
It offers its users almost 2 million video effects and stock footage (1,901,300 to be exact), which you can find through its many categories, such as:
- People
- Nature
- Sports
- City
- Lifestyle
- Food
- and many more!
As soon as you enter the platform you will see that there is something different from the ones you have seen before: the prices per video.
The truth is that VideoHive does not bet on a monthly or annual subscription.
Instead, it offers individual stock videos that you can purchase by paying for each video.
Of course, you can use them for the rest of your life in any of your projects, whether personal or professional.
We encourage you to take a look at the largest library of 4K stock footage and find out if the ones you need are on this platform.
Free 4K stock videos, are they worth it?
It should be said that, just as there are paid platforms with 4K videos, there are also websites that offer free 4K stock videos.
However, you need to know the pros and cons of using free videos in your professional projects.
The main advantage is precisely the price. Since it costs you nothing, you will save 100%.
However, the vast majority of sites with free stock videos offer them under Creative Commons licenses.
That is, we should not confuse free stock videos with royalty-free stock videos.
They are free, but you must mention the author
The downside of using this type of free 4K videos is that, in most cases, you will have to mention the author of the video in your project.
A practice that can compromise your reputation, worsening your users’ perception of your brand.
You will not always be able to use them in commercial projects
Another drawback is that even if you mention the author of the free 4K video you want to use, in many cases you will still not be able to use these videos in projects for commercial purposes.
This will depend on the type of Creative Commons license under which the stock video is licensed.
However, if you’re looking for peace of mind regarding copyright and don’t want to have any unpleasant surprises in the future with your videos, our advice is to opt for using platforms with royalty-free videos.
In the long run, you will appreciate having paid a little money in exchange for having the best 4K videos, but above all, you will appreciate having 100% certainty of not receiving any copyright claims.
Conclusion
It is clear that the creation of video content is booming..
Just look at the success of platforms like YouTube, Instagram or TikTok, where companies are establishing a refined digital marketing strategy.
In fact, there is a lot of search trends that are based on videos, something you can check by going to Google and seeing how its algorithm offers a lot of YouTube content among its options.
To take advantage of this trend is to access 80% of the traffic of the entire Internet, which is the percentage of people who consume videos every day.
A percentage that, meanwhile, is not only constantly increasing, but has managed to completely overtake written content.
However, for your videos to achieve the results you want, they should be created in a professional manner.
And for that, stock videos in 4K are a must.
When it comes to video as a promotional medium, quality is everything.
As you saw at the beginning of the article, a video does not cause the same impact or the same perception in your potential customers if it is a low-resolution video as if it is a very high-quality video.
The response of your users will be exponentially better if you use 4K quality videos.
Fortunately, you now know the 3 best platforms on the Internet that offer you this type of video:
Having one (or several) of these services means having thousands of videos in 4K and UHD format that you can use in your commercial projects, and that will make the difference between a good video and an excellent one.
You will be able to see the content of all these platforms for free and without any obligation before choosing one of them.
Just click on the link of the one you want to try and enjoy the quality of their 4K videos.
FAQ
Are there questions that have been left unanswered? No worries.
Below you will find the most frequently asked questions about 4K video, as well as their answers.
There are several advantages on why to use UHD and 4K video in your commercial projects.
Below we have compiled some of them:
- More than 80% of users watch videos online.
- More and more brands and companies are using YouTube as part of their content strategy.
- Enriches the user experience
- Increases the permanence on a website.
- Improve the positioning of the video, channel or website.
- Helps increase the conversion rate.
- Improves engagement.
- It is much more entertaining, simple and visual content than written content.
- Increases viralization and sharing.
- Opens the way to marketing with Influencers that brings so good results.
A video with a 1080p resolution of two million pixels (1920 x 1080), while a 4K has more than eight million pixels (3840 x 2160).
Therefore, 4K has about four times more resolution than 1080p and produces a clearer picture.
Until the advent of 4K, resolutions have normally been named by vertical pixel lines (720p or 1080p).
However, it was decided to change the standard and take into account the pixel lines according to their horizontal resolution.
The first cases in which this resolution was used in cinema, called DCI 4K, was 4096 x 2160 pixels in a 17:9 aspect ratio. It was therefore called 4K – because of the more than 4,000 horizontal pixels.
However, on TVs and monitors that support this format, the “real” resolution is 3840 x 2160 pixels, i.e. less than 4,000 horizontal pixels.
Although the format is usually referred to as 4K, its correct full name is 4K UHDV, or 4K Ultra High Definition Video.
However, if we go to the more technical aspect, 4K is not the same as UHD.
The 4K technology is a standard for digital cinema and requires a resolution of 4096 (horizontal pixels) x 2160 (vertical pixels). This standard works with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
On the other hand, TV sets that claim to support 4K practically do not reach an aspect ratio of 16: 9 or 1.78: 1 and a resolution of 3840 x 2160, which although still very good, is not equal to cinema quality.
To avoid this confusion, it was decided to use Ultra HD as the official name for this standard in televisions.
Copyright is the exclusive right that every creator has over their production, be it a video, a song or a literary work, among others.
Royalty-free 4K stock videos would be those that you can freely use in your personal and commercial productions, without having to worry about future claims.
These types of videos can be found on platforms such as Envato Elements, Artgrid, VideoHive, Videvo or StoryBlocks, to name a few.
Yes, there are some websites with free 4K videos.
However, you should be careful with the types of licenses that these videos have. This way you will know at all times in which projects you can use them, in which you can’t, and avoid unnecessary problems.