Microstock Niche Finder

Find open microstock niches before you shoot, draw or generate. Paste a list of keywords, and each one is checked on iStock, Depositphotos and Vecteezy at once. You get one row per keyword with:

• supply: how many assets already exist;
• freshness: what share of the top results was uploaded in the last 12 months, i.e. whether new uploads still get seen;
• competition: how many different contributors hold the top results, and how much the biggest one owns;
• an opportunity score from 0 to 100;
• related searches from all three agencies, a ready list of follow-up keywords.

You pay per keyword, $0.01. 100 keywords cost $1.

Who it is for

• Stock photographers and videographers deciding what to shoot next.
• Illustrators and AI creators looking for topics that aren't flooded yet.
• Microstock coaches and tool makers who need niche data in bulk via the API.

Input example

{
  "keywords": ["heat pump", "pickleball", "ai agent", "remote work", "sunset"],
  "mediaType": "photo",
  "platforms": ["istock", "depositphotos", "vecteezy"]
}

Output example

{
  "keyword": "heat pump",
  "mediaType": "photo",
  "totalSupply": 4107,
  "averageNewPercent": 12.3,
  "opportunityScore": 48,
  "istock": {
    "totalResults": 3784,
    "sampled": 60,
    "newLast12MonthsPercent": 5,
    "uniqueContributors": 34,
    "topContributorSharePercent": 8.3,
    "signaturePercent": 30,
    "url": "https://www.istockphoto.com/en/search/2/image?phrase=heat+pump&mediatype=photography"
  },
  "vecteezy": {
    "totalResults": 323,
    "sampled": 100,
    "newLast12MonthsPercent": 22,
    "uniqueContributors": 93,
    "topContributorSharePercent": 2,
    "url": "https://www.vecteezy.com/free-photos/heat-pump"
  },
  "depositphotos": {
    "totalResultsBroad": 26833941,
    "sampled": 100,
    "newLast12MonthsPercent": 10,
    "uniqueContributors": 49,
    "topContributorSharePercent": 15,
    "url": "https://depositphotos.com/photos/heat%20pump.html"
  },
  "relatedSearches": ["hvac", "heat pump unit", "heat pump house", "furnace", "…"]
}

A sample run ranked "heat pump" (48), "pickleball" (44) and "ai agent" (43) at the top, and "sunset" (2) at the bottom.

The Overview table in the dataset shows the keywords side by side.

How the score works

opportunityScore = 50 × freshness + 50 × scarcity

• freshness is the average share of top results uploaded in the last 12 months, where 50% or more counts as full marks.
• scarcity is based on total supply on iStock and Vecteezy: about 3,000 assets or fewer counts as full marks, 3 million or more as none.

Depositphotos counts every asset matching any word of the query, so its count (totalResultsBroad) is shown but not used as supply.

The score is a starting point, not a verdict. Always open the url links and look at what is already there.

Tips

• Check 20–100 keywords per run and sort by score.
• Take the relatedSearches of your best keywords and run them in a second pass to go deeper.
• Run the same list monthly to see which niches fill up.
• For full asset lists with keywords, use iStock Scraper and Depositphotos Scraper from the same author.

FAQ

Do I need accounts on these sites? No. Only public search pages are read.

Does it show download counts? No, these agencies don't publish them. Freshness and competition are the demand signals.

What if one agency fails for a keyword? The row still comes back, with an error field for that agency, and it's charged as usual. A keyword where every agency failed is not charged.