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Licence Chooser

Compares common open-source licences by obligation and compatibility and emits the LICENSE file.

Compares the common open-source licences side by side — what each permits, requires and limits — and produces the licence text with your name and year filled in. The comparison data and the texts are choosealicense.com’s, unedited.

🔒 Runs entirely in your browserlicenselegalopen-source

Compare

LicencePermissionsConditionsLimitations
MIT
  • Commercial use
  • Modification
  • Distribution
  • Private use
  • License and copyright notice
  • Liability
  • Warranty
Apache-2.0
  • Commercial use
  • Modification
  • Distribution
  • Patent use
  • Private use
  • License and copyright notice
  • State changes
  • Trademark use
  • Liability
  • Warranty
GPL-3.0
  • Commercial use
  • Modification
  • Distribution
  • Patent use
  • Private use
  • License and copyright notice
  • State changes
  • Disclose source
  • Same license
  • Liability
  • Warranty
LGPL-3.0
  • Commercial use
  • Modification
  • Distribution
  • Patent use
  • Private use
  • License and copyright notice
  • Disclose source
  • State changes
  • Same license (library)
  • Liability
  • Warranty
AGPL-3.0
  • Commercial use
  • Modification
  • Distribution
  • Patent use
  • Private use
  • License and copyright notice
  • State changes
  • Disclose source
  • Network use is distribution
  • Same license
  • Liability
  • Warranty
MPL-2.0
  • Commercial use
  • Modification
  • Distribution
  • Patent use
  • Private use
  • Disclose source
  • License and copyright notice
  • Same license (file)
  • Liability
  • Trademark use
  • Warranty
BSD-2-Clause
  • Commercial use
  • Modification
  • Distribution
  • Private use
  • License and copyright notice
  • Liability
  • Warranty
BSD-3-Clause
  • Commercial use
  • Modification
  • Distribution
  • Private use
  • License and copyright notice
  • Liability
  • Warranty
ISC
  • Commercial use
  • Distribution
  • Modification
  • Private use
  • License and copyright notice
  • Liability
  • Warranty
Unlicense
  • Private use
  • Commercial use
  • Modification
  • Distribution
none
  • Liability
  • Warranty

Comparison data and texts from github/choosealicense.com@d6277c04899c (choosealicense.com). A comparison aid, not legal advice.

MIT License

A short and simple permissive license with conditions only requiring preservation of copyright and license notices. Licensed works, modifications, and larger works may be distributed under different terms and without source code.

Rough shape of the field: MIT/BSD/ISC ask almost nothing beyond keeping the notice; Apache-2.0 adds an explicit patent grant; MPL-2.0 copylefts single files; GPL-3.0 copylefts whole programs; AGPL-3.0 extends that to software used over a network; the Unlicense waives everything it can. The tag descriptions above are choosealicense.com’s own wording. When real money or real disputes are involved, ask a lawyer, not a web page.

How to use it

  1. Read the comparison table

    Three columns: what you may do, what you must do, and what is not granted. The rough shape of the field is MIT/BSD/ISC asking almost nothing, Apache-2.0 adding a patent grant, and the GPL family requiring the same licence downstream.

  2. Click a row to see its text

    The full licence text appears below with a short description of what it is for.

  3. Fill in the year and holder

    Only some licences have those fields. Where they do not, the copyright notice belongs in your source files or README instead, and the page says so.

  4. Save it as LICENSE

    A file named `LICENSE` at the repository root is what GitHub, npm and most scanners look for.

Common questions

Is this legal advice?

No. It is a comparison aid built on choosealicense.com’s summaries, and those summaries are themselves approximations. When real money or a real dispute is involved, ask a lawyer rather than a web page.

What is the difference between GPL and AGPL?

The AGPL closes the network gap: under the GPL, running modified software as a hosted service is not distribution and triggers no obligation to share source. The AGPL makes network use count. That single difference is why some companies ban it outright.

Can I change licence later?

For code you wrote alone, yes — though anyone who already received it under the old terms keeps them. Once other people have contributed, you need their agreement, which is why relicensing an established project is usually a months-long piece of admin.

What if I do not add a licence at all?

Then default copyright applies and nobody has permission to use, copy or modify your code — public on GitHub or not. "No licence" is the most restrictive option, not the most permissive one.

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Next

These accept what this tool produces, so the result can go straight in.

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Builds a .gitignore by combining language, framework and editor templates, with duplicates merged.

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Encodes and decodes Base64 and Base64URL for text or files, handling UTF-8 correctly.

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Computes MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512 and CRC-32 of a string, with an uppercase and Base64 output option.

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JSON ⇄ CSV

Flattens nested JSON into columns or rebuilds objects from a table, with a dot-path column naming rule.

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