The 6 Best Sound Effects Libraries

Sound Effect Categories on FiftySounds:

      •   Video Games: here you’ll find exclusive sound effects for all kinds of cartoons, anime, video games, and apps. This includes magic sounds, goblin voices, “boing” effects, hits and punches, “pop” sounds, and dedicated win/lose audio cues.
      •   Musical Instruments: you can download piano, strings, and guitar sounds, including codas, transitions, arpeggios, scales (ascending and descending), fantasy-style elements, progressions, musical accents, and more.
      •   Transitions: a collection of risers, whooshes, accents, movement effects, and swooshes.
      •   Impact Sounds
      •   Human: human-related sounds, such as breathing, chewing and munching, coughing and throat clearing, whistling, finger snapping and clapping, kisses, spoken words, and laughter.
      •   Materials: set of effects sorted by material type, including paper, metal, plastic, fabric or clothing, and glass.
      •   Nature: some animal sounds and a good selection of water-related effects—streams, drops, flows, and more.
      •   Office: a wide variety of office sound effects, including keyboards, pencils, mice, pens, paper, markers, sticky notes, scissors, staplers, pencil sharpeners, and tape or adhesive sounds.
      •   Textures: a small but interesting selection of background textures and loops, including metallic tones, percussive layers, and natural ambiances.
      •   Horror Sounds: screams, shrieks, screeching strings, and dark ambient environments.

Download & Licensing

All effects are free for personal and commercial use. No attribution or registration is needed. Files are available in 320kbps MP3.

Download FiftySounds Sounds

FreeSFX Sound Library

A massive free sound bank that requires attribution. This library offers over 4,000 individually downloadable sound effects in 320kbps MP3 format. However, some files may have an “aged” or lower-quality sound compared to other platforms.
It features a wide variety of effects in many different styles, and new sounds are added monthly.
From the homepage, you can access a well-organized navigation menu where all the site's files are clearly listed. Registration is required to download MP3 files.

Main Sound Categories

      •   Animals & Insects: a wide range of land animals, including birds, camels, monkeys, foxes, pigs, reptiles, sheep, and wolves.
      •   Musical Instruments: large selection of acoustic instruments and some synths, including percussion, guitars, pianos, bells, and brass.
      •   Public Spaces: classic ambient sounds from airports, markets, restaurants, bus and train stations, and swimming pools.
      •   Household Sounds: a rich collection of effects featuring bottles, cigarettes, dishes, bathrooms, clocks, doors, furniture, kitchens, and much more.
      •   Cartoons: hits, pops, impacts, sequences, weapons, jumps, mechanical effects, rising and falling sounds, and more.
      •   Multimedia: alerts, buttons, clicks, notifications, tones, and branding stingers.
      •   Sports: some of the best sounds for badminton, soccer, golf, martial arts, basketball, tennis, volleyball, swimming, hockey, and track & field.
      •   Human Sounds: babies, burps, crying, coughing, laughter, screams, voices, and whistles.
      •   Vehicles & Transport: bicycles, cars, helicopters, buses, motorcycles, and boats.
      •   Weapons & Impacts: tanks, explosions, missiles, knives, firearms, bombs, grenades, axes, cannons, and more.
      •   Industrial : tools, machinery, accessories, industrial vehicles, and related equipment.
      •   Office: calculators, computers, fax machines, papers, copiers, scissors, and more.

Download & Licensing

Files are available in 320kbps MP3 format, but you’ll need to register to download them. All tracks in this library are free for both personal and commercial use, but attribution is required—meaning you must include a link to the FreeSFX website in your project.

FreeSFX Sound Library

BigSoundBank Sound Library

A fantastic free sound bank for commercial use with no attribution required. It offers a wide variety of high-quality sound effects.
This site includes over 2,000 sounds organized into 82 categories and hundreds of subcategories. You don’t need to register to download, and the sounds are available individually (not bundled in packs), which helps streamline your workflow.

Each sound page includes a detailed description, including recording sample rate, bit depth, and the type of equipment used.
One great feature of this site is that you can download each sound in eight different formats, depending on your needs: WAV, MP3, BWF, AIFF, OGG, FLAC, AAC, or M4A. Not bad at all!
If you'd like, you can also leave a small donation to support the site. The website design is pretty old-school, but it's functional. Here are some of the library’s key highlights:

Sound Categories

      •   Electronic alarms and bells
      •   City ambience, urban sounds, restaurants, and forests
      •   Domestic and wild animals
      •   Communications: audiovisual sounds, telephones, microphones
      •   Food and drink: from cooking to eating and drinking
      •   Footsteps: both human and horse
      •   Breaking glass and impact sounds
      •   Machines, gadgets, elevators
      •   Metal sounds
      •   Musical instruments, including toys and short song phrases
      •   All kinds of vehicles and transportation
      •   Water: splashes, bubbles, fountains, and other water-based impacts
      •   Tools
      •   Mechanical and electronic toys
      •   Everyday and workplace objects
      •   Human sounds
      •   Materials
      •   A few male and female voice clips

Download & Licensing

You can download sound effects from this library without registering, and in a variety of formats. The usage license allows you to use these audio files in both personal and commercial projects without attribution.

BigSoundBank Sound Library

Zapsplat Sound Library

A large free sound library with thousands of downloadable MP3 files. Most of the sounds require attribution, but some are released under the CC0 1.0 Universal License—meaning they’re in the public domain and can be used without any restrictions. The only downside is that the site does not allow filtering by license type.
In terms of audio quality, the sounds are generally quite good. If you want WAV versions, you'll need to become a Gold Member.
The library includes 26 different categories, some of which are very unique. The navigation menu is intuitive and easy to use.
As with many other libraries, you can preview and download individual sounds without being forced to download large packs that contain unwanted files.

Sound Categories in Detail

      •   Animals: over 1,800 clips, including bats, dinosaurs (yes, really), deer, donkeys, fish, foxes, horses, insects, wolves, and even worms.
      •   Cartoons: more than 2,000 files with jumps, pops, weapons, whistles, voices, bubbles.
      •   Fantasy: 500 effects featuring fairies, elves, magic spells, and heroes.
      •   Food & Drink: over 3,000 sounds of people eating, drinking, and generally indulging.
      •   Foley Sounds: 20,000+ sounds including bottles, baskets, footsteps, glass, sand, umbrellas, and wood.
      •   Impacts: effects involving wood, vehicles, rocks, glass, and metal.
      •   Industrial: 3,000+ sounds of machinery, devices, tools, elevators, and chains.
      •   Multimedia: buttons, clicks, alerts, branding sounds.
      •   Musical: a variety of musical instrument sounds.
      •   Office: staplers, paper, scissors, folders, calculators, and more.
      •   Nature: earthquakes, caves, fire, oceans, volcanoes, and wind.
      •   Sci-Fi: 4,000 sounds including lasers, consoles, robots, space environments, and atmospheres.
      •   Sound Design: a creative collection of processed sounds—electricity, drones, electromagnetic noises, weird textures.
      •   Sports: includes unique sounds like cricket, paintball, gymnastics, and more.

Download & Licensing

You’ll need to register to download MP3 files. Most of the sounds require attribution (a link back to Zapsplat), although some are in the public domain. Unfortunately, there's currently no way to filter results by license type.

Zapsplat Sounds

Videvo Free Sound Library

This site offers up to 450 free sound effects across various categories. No registration is required to download them, and the files are available in low-quality MP3 format (160 kbps).
From the homepage, you can access a navigation menu that lets you filter clips by type: free, premium, or editorial license. To download royalty-free sounds, make sure to select “Free Clips.” These are the files you can use freely.
The audio quality is decent, although the free selection is limited—mostly focused on nature, animals, and ambient sounds.

In Detail

      •   Animal sounds: lions, gorillas, horses, donkeys, crickets, insects, and zebras
      •   Applause: laughter and crowd noise
      •   Bells
      •   Birds
      •   Gunshots
      •   Impact sounds
      •   Rain
      •   Sirens: police and emergency services
      •   Space: lasers and spaceships
      •   Water
      •   Whooshes
      •   Wind

Download & Licensing

As mentioned above, you don’t need to create an account to download these audio clips. The sounds are provided in 160kbps MP3 format.
To access royalty-free clips, go to the "Free Clips" section. These files can be used in commercial and personal projects without attribution. Keep in mind that most categories contain very few free sounds.

Videvo Sounds

SoundsCrate Sound Library

This is a graphics, VFX, and 3D resource site that also offers some free sound effects. As with most platforms of this type, you’ll need to create an account to access the free downloads. Free users are limited to 5 downloads per day.
Once registered, you can download files in both MP3 and WAV format. Many of the sounds are exclusive to SoundsCrate and not available elsewhere. All assets are royalty-free and attribution is not required.
The site includes 23 categories, although there’s no dedicated navigation menu.

Featured Categories

      •   21 Ambience sounds: forest leaves, city environments, ocean waves, tornadoes, thunder, rain, woodland atmospheres.
      •   54 Animal sounds: including dogs, insects, crocodiles, monsters, seagulls, and even dinosaurs like raptors and T-Rex (clearly intended for music or game production).
      •   38 Sword & Metal sounds: swords clashing, knives in combat, sharpening effects.
      •   Electric & Electronic FX: includes buttons, clocks, cameras, alarms, computers, walkie-talkies, and AC units.
      •   Impacts & Explosions: includes fireworks, warzone ambience, and cartoon-style impact effects.
      •   38 Combat sounds: punches, stabs, bone cracks, hits, and aerial movements.
      •   Weapons: silenced and unsilenced guns, rifles, reloads, bullet impacts on various surfaces.
      •   Movement: clothing, zippers, wind.
      •   Sci-Fi FX: futuristic machines, tonal ambiences, weapons, lasers, energy bursts, robots, vehicles, and sound design accents.
      •   Liquids: water, dripping, flowing, and other liquid-related sounds.
      •   Magic: fantasy SFX, lightning, spells, wizardry effects.
      •   77 Household sounds: coins, opening/closing doors, curtains, scissors, fridge sounds.
      •   Organic FX: cracking, blood, squishy textures.

Download & Licensing

You can download up to 5 free sound effects per day, but you’ll need to register for a free account. Files are available in WAV and MP3 formats. The license is royalty-free, and no attribution is required to use the tracks.

SoundsCrate Library

USAGE RESTRICTIONS

All sound libraries have one thing in common (except those offering public domain files): you cannot redistribute the audio clips—not online, not by any other means.
You can’t upload the files to your website for others to download, nor can you claim copyright ownership.
You are licensed to use these sounds in your commercial or personal projects (according to each site’s terms), with or without attribution, but the sounds remain copyrighted.
We strongly recommend reading each platform’s license terms carefully before using the sounds.

If you're working on an important or large-scale project, it’s best to purchase the sounds you need. They’re usually inexpensive, come with a proper license and invoice, and legally prove you’ve acquired the assets—protecting you from potential copyright issues later on.

Be especially cautious with platforms that allow user-uploaded sounds, as it’s impossible to guarantee their source or copyright status.

We hope you found this guide helpful and that you discover the perfect sound for your project!