Splice vs Storyblocks Comparison 2026
Both cover music licensing and stock footage & assets. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
A sample library rented by the month
Unlimited stock downloads on one subscription
At a glance
- Splice starts cheaper, at $12.99.
- Neither has a free tier.
- Storyblocks bills annually only, so there is no month to try it for.
Side by side
Splice | Storyblocks | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $12.99 | From $21 |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing (they differ) | Monthly or annual | Annual only |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated |
Splice
A sample library rented by the month
Splice licenses samples, loops and presets by the credit, and anything downloaded stays licensed after the subscription stops, which is the arrangement that made it standard in music production. Credits refresh monthly and roll into the next month unused. It previews sounds inside the digital audio workstation rather than in a browser tab. This is raw material for making music rather than finished tracks to drop under a video, so a creator who wants a background bed should buy a licensing library instead.
Our note
Buy on credits rather than on features, since the tiers differ almost entirely in that number and the sound library is the same at every level. The permanent licence is the reason to subscribe for a few months rather than to subscribe forever: download hard, then stop.
Storyblocks
Unlimited stock downloads on one subscription
Storyblocks charges a flat subscription and lets you download as much as you want, which is the opposite of the credit model everywhere else and much easier to budget against. Footage, music, images and templates all sit under the same plan. The library is smaller than Shutterstock's and you notice it on anything specific.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.