If your first instinct when you see a beautiful image is to save it for later, you already think like a curator. Pinterest turned that instinct into a global habit, but the platform itself is only part of the story. Around it has grown a quiet ecosystem of tools, archives, and niche websites that make pinning more fun, more organized, and far more inspiring. This list gathers 20 of the best, starting with the essentials every pin lover should know and moving into lesser-known gems most people have never opened. Save this one — you will want to come back to it.
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Why Pinterest Lovers Need a Second Toolkit
Pinterest is brilliant at surfacing ideas, but it is not built to do everything. The platform shows you what is popular and visually sticky, which means the same few pins can dominate a search for months. The websites and tools that surround it fill the gaps: they help you find fresh imagery, build color palettes that actually match, study what is trending before it peaks, and keep your own inspiration organized when a board grows past a few hundred pins.
There is a practical benefit too. Anyone who creates pins — for a shop, a blog, a mood board, or just for fun — quickly learns that sourcing images, sizing graphics, and scheduling posts are separate jobs. Each of the tools below solves one of those jobs well. None of them require a paid subscription to be useful, and several are completely free. Think of this as the toolkit behind the boards.
20 Pinterest Tools and Websites Worth Saving
1. Pinterest : The home base for every pin you will ever collect
What it is: The visual discovery platform itself, where boards, pins, and ideas live.
Category: Discovery and bookmarking
Why it stands out:
- Its “more like this” engine is still one of the best visual recommendation systems online.
- Secret boards let you plan surprises, gifts, and projects privately.
- The search filters by color are a genuinely underused feature for palette hunting.
Best for: Anyone starting a collection of ideas and wanting a single place to keep them.
2. Pinterest Trends : See what is about to blow up before it does
What it is: A free analytics dashboard from Pinterest showing search volume for keywords over time.
Category: Trend research
Why it stands out:
- You can compare multiple keywords side by side and filter by region and season.
- Seasonal curves reveal exactly when a topic starts climbing each year.
- It is free and requires only a standard Pinterest login.
Best for: Creators and small shops deciding what to pin next.
3. Canva : Design vertical pins without opening a design program
What it is: A browser-based design tool with templates sized for Pinterest’s 2:3 ratio.
Category: Design
Why it stands out:
- Search “Pinterest pin” and you get hundreds of editable layouts instantly.
- The background remover and brand kit are included on the free tier for basic use.
- Exports land at exactly 1000 x 1500 pixels, the recommended pin size.
Best for: Beginners who want clean pins in minutes rather than hours.
4. Tailwind : Schedule pins so your boards stay active while you sleep
What it is: A scheduling tool built specifically for Pinterest, with a visual calendar.
Category: Scheduling
Why it stands out:
- SmartSchedule suggests posting times based on when your audience is active.
- It supports bulk uploading, which saves hours when you have dozens of pins ready.
- It is a paid tool, so it makes most sense once pinning becomes a regular routine.
Best for: Bloggers and shops posting several pins a week.
5. Unsplash : Free, high-resolution photos that look expensive
What it is: A library of free-to-use photography contributed by a global community.
Category: Stock photography
Why it stands out:
- Its editorial collections are curated by mood, so you can find a whole cohesive set at once.
- Every image is free for commercial use without attribution, though credit is appreciated.
- Vertical crops of interiors and landscapes work especially well as pin backgrounds.
Best for: Mood boards and quote pins that need a strong photo base.
6. Pexels : Stock photos plus short videos in one search
What it is: A free stock library covering both stills and short video clips.
Category: Stock photography
Why it stands out:
- The video library is a rare bonus for anyone experimenting with animated pins.
- Search filters let you sort by orientation, which speeds up finding vertical shots.
- Its collections feature groups images by theme, useful for building a board fast.
Best for: Creators who want variety beyond the usual photo sites.
7. Coolors : Generate color palettes in seconds with the spacebar
What it is: A palette generator that produces harmonious color schemes on demand.
Category: Color tools
Why it stands out:
- Press the spacebar and a fresh five-color palette appears instantly.
- You can lock colors you like and regenerate only the rest.
- It exports hex codes and even shows contrast checks for accessibility.
Best for: Anyone building a consistent look across a whole board.
8. Color Hunt : A hand-picked gallery of trending palettes
What it is: A community-curated collection of four-color palettes, updated daily.
Category: Color tools
Why it stands out:
- Palettes are voted on, so the front page reflects what designers currently love.
- You can browse by mood tags such as pastel, retro, or dark.
- Each palette copies to your clipboard with a single click.
Best for: Quick inspiration when a pin needs a fresh color direction.
9. Design Seeds : Palettes pulled straight from real photographs
What it is: A long-running blog pairing a photo with the color swatches drawn from it.
Category: Color inspiration
Why it stands out:
- Every palette has a natural source image, so the colors always feel grounded.
- The archive goes back years, making it a deep well for seasonal themes.
- It is a quiet, ad-light site that loads fast on mobile.
Best for: Nature-inspired boards and earthy, muted aesthetics.
10. Behance : Deep-dive portfolios from working designers
What it is: Adobe’s portfolio network where creatives publish full project case studies.
Category: Design inspiration
Why it stands out:
- Projects show the whole process, not just a final image, which is rare online.
- You can follow specific disciplines like packaging or typography.
- Many creators post mood boards and palettes you can borrow ideas from.
Best for: Going beyond pretty pictures into how things are actually made.
11. Dribbble : A fast feed of polished visual snapshots
What it is: A showcase site where designers post small, high-quality shots of their work.
Category: Design inspiration
Why it stands out:
- The grid format mirrors Pinterest, so browsing feels immediately familiar.
- Filtering by color is supported, which is perfect for palette-led searches.
- It is a strong source for typography and layout ideas for pin text.
Best for: Pin designers hunting for clean type and layout references.
12. Are.na : Pinterest for people who think in ideas
What it is: A research and mood-boarding platform built around text, links, and images.
Category: Visual bookmarking
Why it stands out:
- Channels can mix images, articles, and notes in a single stream.
- It is deliberately ad-free and calm, with no algorithmic feed pushing content.
- Public channels from artists and researchers are a goldmine of obscure references.
Best for: Collectors who want context alongside the picture.
13. Cosmos : A quieter, more curated visual feed
What it is: A newer visual discovery site built around mood-driven collections.
Category: Visual discovery
Why it stands out:
- Its recommendations lean artistic rather than commercial, so results feel fresh.
- Clusters group images by aesthetic, which is ideal for building a board theme.
- It requires an account, but browsing is free and quick.
Best for: Escaping the repetition of mainstream image feeds.
14. Savee : Save images from anywhere with one click
What it is: A bookmarking tool and community focused on saving images from across the web.
Category: Visual bookmarking
Why it stands out:
- A browser extension captures any image to your personal library instantly.
- Its public feed is popular with photographers and art directors.
- Boards stay private by default, which suits personal projects.
Best for: People who save images from many sites, not just one.
15. Raindrop.io : The bookmark manager for everything that is not an image
What it is: A cross-platform bookmark manager with collections and tags.
Category: Bookmarking
Why it stands out:
- It saves articles and links with previews, filling the gap Pinterest leaves.
- Nested collections let you organize by project without clutter.
- Full-text search finds a saved page even months later.
Best for: Turning pin inspiration into actual project research.
16. Pin Down : Download pins and boards for offline reference
What it is: A small utility site for saving Pinterest images to your device.
Category: Utility
Why it stands out:
- Paste a pin link and get the full-resolution image file.
- Useful for building offline mood boards when traveling.
- It is a simple, no-signup tool, though it only handles public pins.
Best for: Keeping a personal reference folder outside the platform.
17. Later : Plan a whole visual calendar in one grid
What it is: A social media planner with a drag-and-drop visual scheduler.
Category: Scheduling
Why it stands out:
- The grid preview shows how your feed looks before anything goes live.
- It handles multiple platforms, so one plan covers several channels.
- A free tier exists, though Pinterest features are limited on it.
Best for: Creators cross-posting the same visuals everywhere.
18. Buffer : A simple queue for steady posting
What it is: A publishing tool that queues posts across social accounts.
Category: Scheduling
Why it stands out:
- Its queue model is refreshingly simple: add posts, let it space them out.
- The free plan covers a few channels, enough for a small project.
- Analytics are basic but clear, showing which posts get traction.
Best for: Low-volume pinners who want consistency without complexity.
19. Google Arts & Culture : Museum-grade imagery you can zoom into
What it is: A free archive of artworks and artifacts from thousands of institutions.
Category: Art and culture
Why it stands out:
- Gigapixel images let you inspect brushwork in extraordinary detail.
- Curated exhibits and color-based browsing make it easy to explore by theme.
- Most images are available for personal and educational use.
Best for: Art-history boards and unusually rich visual references.
20. Internet Archive : Recover old links and find vintage visuals
What it is: A nonprofit digital library preserving websites, books, and media.
Category: Archive
Why it stands out:
- The Wayback Machine rescues dead links from pins that no longer resolve.
- Its vintage print and poster collections are a source of retro pin imagery.
- Everything is free to browse, with no account required.
Best for: Fixing broken sources and finding one-of-a-kind historical images.
Bonus Mentions
Remove.bg : Cut backgrounds out of product photos in one upload
A quick utility for isolating an object before placing it on a clean pin background. The free tier handles standard-resolution images, which is usually enough for a vertical graphic.
TinyPNG : Shrink pin images without visible quality loss
Compresses PNG and JPEG files dramatically, which matters when a board holds dozens of large graphics. It is a simple drag-and-drop page with no signup.
Fontpair : Find font combinations that actually work together
A small reference site pairing Google Fonts into tested combinations. Useful when the text on a pin needs to feel designed rather than default.
Cool Backgrounds : Generate gradient backdrops for text-heavy pins
Creates mesh gradients and geometric backgrounds you can download and layer text over. A fast fix when a quote pin needs a backdrop but no photo fits.
The Save-Worthy Shortlist
The best part of being a pin lover is that the collecting never really stops. What changes is the quality of what you find. Once you move past the front page and start using trend dashboards, color generators, and quieter archives, your boards stop looking like everyone else’s and start looking like yours.
Start small. Pick two tools from this list — perhaps Pinterest Trends for direction and Coolors for palette — and use them for a week. Then add one more. The habit compounds, and before long you will have a personal library of references that is genuinely useful rather than just large.
Which of these did you already know, and what is the one hidden-gem site you would add to this list? Share it in the comments — the best finds usually come from other collectors.
