Choose an open source license
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An open source license protects contributors and users. Businesses and savvy developers won’t touch a project without this protection.
{ Which of the following best describes your situation? }
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* [
### I need to work in a community.
](community/)
Use the [license preferred by the community](community/) you’re contributing to or depending on. Your project will fit right in.
If you have a dependency that doesn’t have a license, ask its maintainers to [add a license](no-permission/#for-users).
* [
### I want it simple and permissive.
](licenses/mit/)
The [MIT License](licenses/mit/) is short and to the point. It lets people do almost anything they want with your project, like making and distributing closed source versions.
[Babel](https://github.com/babel/babel/blob/master/LICENSE), [.NET](https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/blob/main/LICENSE.TXT), and [Rails](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/MIT-LICENSE) use the MIT License.
* [
### I care about sharing improvements.
](licenses/gpl-3.0/)
The [GNU GPLv3](licenses/gpl-3.0/) also lets people do almost anything they want with your project, _except_ distributing closed source versions.
[Ansible](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/COPYING), [Bash](https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/bash.git/tree/COPYING), and [GIMP](https://git.gnome.org/browse/gimp/tree/COPYING) use the GNU GPLv3.
{ What if none of these work for me? }
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* ### My project isn’t software.
[There are licenses for that](non-software/).
* ### I want more choices.
[More licenses are available](licenses/).
* ### I don’t want to choose a license.
[Here’s what happens if you don’t](no-permission/).