This is a comparison of free and open-source software licences. The comparison only covers software licences with a linked article for details, approved by at least one expert group at the FSF, the OSI, the Debian project or the Fedora project. For a list of licences not specifically intended for software, see List of free content licences.
FOSS stands for "Free and Open Source Software". There is no one universally agreed-upon definition of FOSS software and various groups maintain approved lists of licences. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is one such organization keeping a list of open-source licences.[1] The Free Software Foundation (FSF) maintains a list of what it considers free.[2] FSF's free software and OSI's open-source licences together are called FOSS licences. There are licences accepted by the OSI which are not free as per the free software definition. The open source definition allows for further restrictions like price, type of contribution and origin of the contribution, e.g. the case of the NASA Open Source Agreement, which requires the code to be "original" work.[3][4] The OSI does not endorse FSF licence analysis (interpretation) as per their disclaimer.[5]
The FSF's Free Software definition focuses on the user's unrestricted rights to use a program, to study and modify it, to copy it, and redistribute it for any purpose, which are considered by the FSF the four essential freedoms.[6][7] The OSI's open-source criteria focuses on the availability of the source code and the advantages of an unrestricted and community driven development model.[8] Yet, many FOSS licences, like the Apache License, and all Free Software licences allow commercial use of FOSS components.[9]
For a simpler comparison across the most common licenses see free-software license comparison.
The following table compares various features of each license and is a general guide to the terms and conditions of each licence, based on seven subjects or categories. Recent tools like the European Commissions' Joinup Licensing Assistant,[10] makes possible the licenses selection and comparison based on more than 40 subjects or categories, with access to their SPDX identifier and full text. The table below lists the permissions and limitations regarding the following subjects:
Licence | Author | Latest version | Publication date | Linking | Distribution | Modification | Patent grant | Private use | Sublicensing | TM grant |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Academic Free License[11] | Lawrence E. Rosen | 3.0 | 2002 | Permissive | Permissive | Permissive | Yes | Yes | Permissive | No |
Affero General Public License | Affero Inc | 2.0 | 2007 | Copylefted[12] | Copyleft except for the GNU AGPL[12] | Copyleft[12] | ? | Yes[12] | ? | ? |
Apache License | Apache Software Foundation | 2.0 | 2004 | Permissive[13] | Permissive[13] | Permissive[13] | Yes[13] | Yes[13] | Permissive[13] | No[13] |
Apple Public Source License | Apple Computer | 2.0 | August 6, 2003 | Permissive | ? | Limited | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Artistic License | Larry Wall | 2.0 | 2000 | With restrictions | With restrictions | With restrictions | No | Permissive | With restrictions | No |
Beerware | Poul-Henning Kamp | 42 | 1987 | Permissive | Permissive | Permissive | No | Permissive | Permissive | No |
BSD License | Regents of the University of California | 3.0 | ? | Permissive[14] | Permissive[14] | Permissive[14] | Manually[14] | Yes[14] | Permissive[14] | Manually[14] |
Boost Software License | ? | 1.0 | August 17, 2003 | Permissive | ? | Permissive | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Creative Commons Zero | Creative Commons | 1.0 | 2009 | Public Domain[15][16] | Public Domain | Public Domain | No | Public Domain | Public Domain | No |
CC BY | Creative Commons | 4.0 | 2002 | Permissive[17] | Permissive | Permissive | No | Yes | Permissive | No |
CC BY-SA | Creative Commons | 4.0 | 2002 | Copylefted[17] | Copylefted | Copylefted | No | Yes | Copylefted[18] | No |
CeCILL | CEA / CNRS / INRIA | 2.1 | June 21, 2013 | Permissive | Permissive | Permissive | No | Permissive | With restrictions | No |
Common Development and Distribution License | Sun Microsystems | 1.0 | December 1, 2004 | Permissive | ? | Limited | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Common Public License | IBM | 1.0 | May 2001 | Permissive | ? | Copylefted | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Cryptix General License | Cryptix Foundation | N/A | 1995 | Permissive | Permissive | Permissive | Manually | Yes | ? | Manually |
Eclipse Public License | Eclipse Foundation | 2.0 | August 24, 2017 | Permissive[19] | Copylefted[19][20] | Copylefted[19] | Yes[19] | Yes[19] | Copylefted[19] | No[19] |
Educational Community License | Indiana University[21] | 1.0 | 2007 | Permissive | ? | Permissive | ? | ? | ? | ? |
European Union Public Licence | European Commission | 1.2 | May 2017 | Permissive, according to EU law (Recitals 10 & 15 Directive 2009/24/EC) | Copylefted, with an explicit compatibility list[22] | Copylefted, with an explicit compatibility list[22] | Yes[23] | Yes[23] | Copylefted, with an explicit compatibility list[22] | No[23] |
FreeBSD | The FreeBSD project | N/A | April 1999 | Permissive[24] | Permissive[24] | Permissive[24] | Manually[24] | Permissive[24] | Permissive[24] | Manually[24] |
GNU Affero General Public License | Free Software Foundation | 3.0 | 2007 | GNU GPLv3 only[25] | Copylefted[26] | Copylefted[26] | Yes[27] | No network usage[27] | Copylefted[26] | Yes[27] |
GNU General Public License | Free Software Foundation | 3.0 | June 2007 | GPLv3 compatible only[28][29] | Copylefted[26] | Copylefted[26] | Yes[30] | Yes[30] | Copylefted[26] | Yes[30] |
GNU Lesser General Public License | Free Software Foundation | 3.0 | June 2007 | With restrictions[31] | Copylefted[26] | Copylefted[26] | Yes[32] | Yes | Copylefted[26] | Yes[32] |
IBM Public License | IBM | 1.0 | August 1999 | Copylefted | ? | Copylefted | ? | ? | ? | ? |
ISC license | Internet Systems Consortium | N/A | June 2003 | Permissive | Permissive | Permissive | Manually | Permissive | Permissive | Manually |
LaTeX Project Public License | LaTeX project | 1.3c | ? | Permissive | ? | Permissive | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Microsoft Public License | Microsoft | N/A | ? | Copylefted | Copylefted | Copylefted | No | Permissive | ? | No |
MIT license / X11 license | MIT | N/A | 1988 | Permissive[33] | Permissive[33] | Permissive[33] | Manually[33] | Yes[33] | Permissive[33] | Manually[33] |
Mozilla Public License | Mozilla Foundation | 2.0 | January 3, 2012 | Permissive[34] | Copylefted[34] | Copylefted[34] | Yes[34] | Yes[34] | Copylefted[34] | No[34] |
Netscape Public License | Netscape | 1.1 | ? | Limited | ? | Limited | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Open Software License[11] | Lawrence Rosen | 3.0 | 2005 | Permissive | Copylefted | Copylefted | Yes | Yes | Copylefted | ? |
OpenSSL license | OpenSSL Project | N/A | ? | Permissive | ? | Permissive | ? | ? | ? | ? |
PHP License[35] | PHP Group | 3.01 | 2019 | With restrictions | With restrictions | With restrictions | Yes | Yes | With restrictions | Manually |
Python Software Foundation License | Python Software Foundation | 3.9.1 | 2020-10-05 | Permissive | Permissive | Permissive | Yes | Permissive | Permissive | No |
Q Public License | Trolltech | ? | ? | Limited | ? | Limited | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Sleepycat License | Sleepycat Software | N/A | 1996 | Permissive | With restrictions | Permissive | No | Yes | No | No |
Unlicense | unlicense.org | 1 | December 2010 | Permissive/Public domain | Permissive/Public domain | Permissive/Public domain | ? | Permissive/Public domain | Permissive/Public domain | ? |
W3C Software Notice and License | W3C | 20021231 | December 31, 2002 | Permissive | ? | Permissive | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License (WTFPL) | Banlu Kemiyatorn, Sam Hocevar | 2 | December 2004 | Permissive/Public domain | Permissive/Public domain | Permissive/Public domain | No | Yes | Yes | No |
XCore Open Source License also separate "Hardware License Agreement" |
XMOS | ? | February 2011 | Permissive | Permissive | Permissive | Manually | Yes | Permissive | ? |
XFree86 1.1 License | The XFree86 Project, Inc | ? | ? | Permissive | ? | Permissive | ? | ? | ? | ? |
zlib/libpng license | Jean-Loup Gailly and Mark Adler | ? | ? | Permissive | ? | Permissive | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Other licences that don't have information:
Licence | Author | Latest version | Publication date |
---|---|---|---|
Eiffel Forum License | NICE | 2 | 2002 |
Intel Open Source License | Intel Corporation | N/A | ? |
RealNetworks Public Source License | RealNetworks | ? | ? |
Reciprocal Public License | Scott Shattuck | 1.5 | 2007 |
Sun Industry Standards Source License | Sun Microsystems | ? | ? |
Sun Public License | Sun Microsystems | ? | ? |
Sybase Open Watcom Public License | Open Watcom | N/A | 2003-01-28 |
Zope Public License | Zope Foundation | 2.1 | ? |
Elastic License 2.0 (ELv2) | Elastic.co | 2.0 | ? |
Server Side Public License | MongoDB | 1.0 | 2018-10-16 |
This table lists for each licence what organizations from the FOSS community have approved it – be it as a "free software" or as an "open source" licence – , how those organizations categorize it, and the licence compatibility between them for a combined or mixed derivative work. Organizations usually approve specific versions of software licences. For instance, a FSF approval means that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) considers a licence to be free software licence. The FSF recommends at least "Compatible with GPL" and preferably copyleft. The OSI recommends a mix of permissive and copyleft licences, the Apache License 2.0, 2- & 3-clause BSD license, GPL, LGPL, MIT license, MPL 2.0, CDDL and EPL.
Licence and version | FSF approval [36] |
GPL (v3) compatibility [37][38][39][40][41] |
OSI approval [42] |
Debian approval [43][44] |
Fedora approval [45] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Academic Free License | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Affero General Public License 3.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Apache License 1.x | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Apache License 2.0 | Yes | GPLv3 only[46] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Apple Public Source License 1.x | No[47] | No | Yes | No | No |
Apple Public Source License 2.0 | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Artistic License 1.0 | No[note 1] | No | Yes | Yes | No |
Artistic License 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Beerware License | see "informal licence" section[48] | see "informal license" section[48] | No | No | Yes[49] |
Original BSD license | Yes | No | No[50] | Yes | Yes |
Revised BSD license | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Simplified BSD license | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Zero-Clause BSD License | ? | ? | Yes[51] | ? | ? |
Boost Software License | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
CeCILL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Common Public License | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Creative Commons Zero | Yes[52] | Yes[52] | No[53] | Partial[54][55] | Yes[56] |
Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 | Yes | GPLv3[57] | ? | Yes | ? |
Cryptix General License | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Eclipse Public License | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Educational Community License | Yes | Yes[58] | Yes | No | Yes |
Eiffel Forum License 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
European Union Public Licence | Yes | Yes[22] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
GNU Affero General Public License | Yes | Yes[25][59] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
GNU General Public License v2 | Yes | No[note 2][60] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
GNU General Public License v3 | Yes | Yes[note 3][60] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
GNU Lesser General Public License | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
GNU Free Documentation License | Yes | No[61] | Yes[62] | No[63] | No |
IBM Public License | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Intel Open Source License | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
ISC license | Yes[64] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
LaTeX Project Public License | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Microsoft Public License | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Microsoft Reciprocal License | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
MIT license / X11 license | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Mozilla Public License 1.1 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Mozilla Public License 2.0 | Yes | Yes[note 4][65] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
NASA Open Source Agreement | No | No | Yes | ? | No |
Netscape Public License | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
Open Software License | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
OpenSSL license | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
PHP License | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Python Software Foundation License 2.0.1; 2.1.1 and newer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Q Public License | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Reciprocal Public License 1.5 | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Sleepycat License | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Sun Industry Standards Source License | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Sun Public License | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Sybase Open Watcom Public License | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Unlicense | Yes[66] | Yes[52] | Yes[67] | ? | Yes[56] |
W3C Software Notice and License | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License (WTFPL) | Yes[note 5] | Yes | No[68] | Yes | Yes |
XFree86 1.1 License | Yes | Yes[69] | No | No | No |
zlib/libpng license | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Zope Public License 1.0 | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
Zope Public License 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |