The BSD 3-Clause License, also known as the Revised BSD License, New BSD License, or Modified BSD License, is one of the most trusted and business-friendly open source licenses available. It combines the freedom of permissive licensing with a simple safeguard against unauthorized endorsement, making it an excellent choice for developers, startups, enterprises, and academic institutions.
Unlike copyleft licenses, the BSD 3-Clause License allows anyone to use, modify, and distribute the software—including in proprietary, closed-source products—without requiring derivative works to be released under the same license. This flexibility has made it a popular choice for operating systems, networking software, embedded systems, and commercial applications.
The defining feature of the BSD 3-Clause License is its additional non-endorsement clause, which prevents contributors' names or organizations from being used to promote derived products without prior written permission. This small but important protection helps preserve reputations while maintaining the openness that developers expect from a permissive license.
Why Choose the BSD 3-Clause License?
- Highly permissive – Use, modify, and redistribute software with minimal restrictions.
- Commercial-friendly – Integrate open source code into proprietary products without releasing your source code.
- No copyleft obligations – Derivative works can remain closed source.
- Contributor protection – Prevents unauthorized endorsement using the names of original authors or organizations.
- Simple compliance – Requires only preservation of copyright notices, license text, and disclaimer.
- Broad compatibility – Works well alongside many other open source and proprietary licenses.
Best For
The BSD 3-Clause License is ideal for:
- Open source libraries and frameworks
- Commercial software vendors
- Enterprise software development
- Research and academic projects
- Infrastructure and networking software
- Developers seeking maximum adoption with minimal legal complexity
Pros
- Minimal legal overhead
- Excellent compatibility with commercial products
- Encourages widespread adoption and reuse
- Protects contributors from false endorsements
- Well-understood and internationally recognized
- Easy for legal and compliance teams to review
Considerations
Because the BSD 3-Clause License is highly permissive, third parties may incorporate your code into proprietary software without contributing improvements back to the community. If ensuring that modifications remain open source is a priority, a copyleft license such as the GPL or AGPL may be more appropriate.
Verdict
The BSD 3-Clause License strikes an excellent balance between openness, flexibility, and contributor protection. Its permissive nature encourages innovation, commercial adoption, and broad ecosystem compatibility, while the non-endorsement clause provides an extra layer of legal clarity absent from the BSD 2-Clause License. For projects that prioritize maximum reuse with minimal licensing obligations, the BSD 3-Clause License remains one of the strongest and most respected choices in the open source community.
Copyright (c) <year> <owner>.
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.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
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