MIT License
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 3 open source licenses by recommenders
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.
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.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 69%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Simple, permissive, no strings attached
“The whole pt of the MIT license is that you just take it with no strings attached.”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “MIT Non-AI License” “MIT is simple, open, and common which is a big benefit for indie projects”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Announcing Box3D :: Box2D” Widely used and familiar
“MIT is simple, open, and common which is a big benefit for indie projects”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Announcing Box3D :: Box2D” “MIT became ubiquitous because it gives us peace of mind”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Redox OS has adopted a Certificate of Origin policy and a strict no-LLM policy” Easy default for projects
“Just publish it with an an easy license (I like MIT)”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: How do you get over the fear of sharing code?” “personally would still choose MIT in general”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Gpg.fail” Trusted, reliable open source license
“I'll keep releasing works under the MIT until I can no longer in good conscience do so.”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Permacomputing” “MIT is a perfectly fine FOSS license.”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Moss: a Rust Linux-compatible kernel in 26,000 lines of code”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Blamed as careless default choice
“I still can't believe that developers got memed into this being the default license.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “John Carmack about open source and anti-AI activists” “People who choose MIT or BSD licenses etm are idiots.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Michigan bill would bar employers from requiring after-hours coms with workers”
Other open source licenses people recommend
The two most recommended other open source licenses, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GNU Affero General Public License v3 | 21 | 1 | 95% | 9 | — | Approved |
| MIT LicenseThis page | 11 | 5 | 69% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Mozilla Public License | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
13 of the 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“slightly less permissive compared to MIT/Apache”
“the MIT license seems too encumbered with the requirement to keep crediting authors downstream”
“MIT is simple, open, and common which is a big benefit for indie projects”
“People who choose MIT or BSD licenses etm are idiots.”
“it has no patent grant protections”
“I still can't believe that developers got memed into this being the default license.”
“MIT became ubiquitous because it gives us peace of mind”
“I'll keep releasing works under the MIT until I can no longer in good conscience do so.”
“The whole pt of the MIT license is that you just take it with no strings attached.”
“personally would still choose MIT in general”
“doesn't have the copyleft clause to mitigate bad behavior”
“MIT is a perfectly fine FOSS license.”
“Just publish it with an an easy license (I like MIT)”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.