devvkit / dev
Open Source License Picker
Pick the right license for your project with a goals-based decision wizard.
Step 1: What are you building?
Step 2: What matters to you?
Check all that apply: each goal shifts the recommendation.
Recommendation
MIT
PERMISSIVE
Do anything: just keep the license notice.
Key terms:
When to pick: Maximum adoption, libraries, teaching projects, personal tools: the default safe choice.
No patent grant. No protection against closed-source derivatives.
Also consider: BSD-3-Clause
MIT + no-endorsement clause (protects your project name).
When trademark/brand protection matters. Similar adoption to MIT.
No patent grant. The no-endorsement clause is narrow.
Full comparison
| License | Family | Copyleft | Patent grant | Trademark | Commercial | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIT | permissive | None | No | No | Yes | 12 |
| Apache-2.0 | permissive | None | Yes | Indirect | Yes | 8 |
| BSD-3-Clause | permissive | None | No | Yes (clause 3) | Yes | 10 |
| GPL-3.0 | copyleft | Strong (viral) | Yes | No | Yes | 1 |
| AGPL-3.0 | copyleft | Strong (viral) | Yes | No | Yes | 0 |
| MPL-2.0 | weak-copyleft | File-level | Yes | No | Yes | 7 |
| The Unlicense | permissive | None | No | No | Yes | 9 |
Copy license text
MIT License Copyright (c) [year] [fullname] Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.Full text
BSD 3-Clause License Copyright (c) [year] [fullname] Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 3. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.Full text
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Pick the right open source license for your project. Tell the wizard what you are building (library, app, or SaaS) and what matters to you: adoption, patents, corporate contributors, or keeping derivatives open: and get a scored recommendation across 7 popular licenses with a full comparison table.
- -Goals-based scoring across 7 popular licenses
- -Context-aware recommendations: library, app, or service
- -Full comparison: copyleft strength, patent grants, trademark
- -Copy-ready license text for the top two picks
- -Plain-English guidance on when each license wins
- >Choosing a license when creating a new repository
- >Evaluating a license change for an existing project
- >Explaining copyleft vs permissive to a team
- >Understanding what a license allows before contributing