Choosing an Open Source License
It’s easy to get caught up in code. Sharing your code isn’t everything, though: it’s also important to tell people how they can use that code. Choosing an open source…
It’s easy to get caught up in code. Sharing your code isn’t everything, though: it’s also important to tell people how they can use that code.
Choosing an open source license can be confusing. We’ve created ChooseALicense.com to help you make that decision.
You can see a breakdown of what’s required, what’s permitted, and what’s forbidden for each license:
When you’ve made your choice, copy it to your clipboard with one click:
Have any suggestions? ChooseALicense.com itself is open source. Send us a Pull Request with your changes.
Licenses on GitHub.com
Now that we have all these licenses in one happy home, we want to help people choose their licenses on GitHub, too. When you create a new repository you’ll see a new license picker:
To get started, simply point your browser at choosealicense.com, or for more information, you can dive into the full documentation. Happy licensing!
Written by
Related posts
Inside the breach that broke the internet: The untold story of Log4Shell
Log4Shell proved that open source security isn’t guaranteed and isn’t just a code problem. It’s about supporting, enabling, and empowering the people behind the projects that build our digital infrastructure.
Accelerate developer productivity with these 9 open source AI and MCP projects
GitHub Copilot and VS Code teams, along with the Microsoft Open Source Program Office (OSPO), sponsored these nine open source MCP projects that provide new frameworks, tools, and assistants to unlock AI-native workflows, agentic tooling, and innovation.
20 Years of Git, 2 days at GitHub HQ: Git Merge 2025 highlights 🎉
Git Merge 2025 celebrated 20 years of Git with talks, collaboration, and community. Catch the highlights and recordings.