The best open source licenses, according to hackers
3 open source licenses were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 2 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The two most recommended open source licenses with the badge. Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
GNU Affero General Public License v3
21 recommend, 1 criticize, 95% approval
Ranked 1 of 3 by recommenders
Closes the network server loophole
Copyleft license that extends source-sharing duties to software run as a network service and blocks tivoization. Critics say it is not a silver bullet for open source authors.
Simple, permissive, no strings attached
Simple permissive open source license that lets anyone reuse code with few conditions and is widely trusted. Critics say it lacks copyleft and patent protections.
All 3 open source licenses, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GNU Affero General Public License v3 | 21 | 1 | 95% | 9 | — | Approved |
| 2 | MIT License | 11 | 5 | 69% | 8 | — | Approved |
| 3 | Mozilla Public License | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same open source license in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to open source licenses that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
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