Creative Commons License

Mountain View, California, United States

Creative Commons (CC) licenses are a set of standardized copyright licenses that let creators share their works with the public while clearly defining how others may use, remix, or redistribute them under specific conditions.

They offer distinct permissions such as Attribution (CC BY) which lets others use and build on a work with credit, Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) requiring adaptations to carry the same license, Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND) allowing redistribution without changes, and Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) variants that restrict commercial use.

According to our data, Creative Commons is the most popular software license on the web.
It has 87.6% of the license market share and is detected on 0.4% of all websites.

📊 Rankings and Market Share

🏆 Creative Commons License Awards

⚡ Sites Using Creative Commons License

We have data on 12,366 websites that use the Creative Commons license. Here is a list of some of the top ranked ones.

The highest rated site using Creative Commons is wikipedia.org.

#WebsiteRankCountryLanguage
1 wikipedia.org #11 United States English
2 wikimedia.org #102 United States English
3 gov.br #240 Brazil Brazilian Portuguese
4 namu.wiki #604 United States Korean
5 mozilla.org #1,003 English
6 wiktionary.org #1,071 United States Amharic
7 wikisource.org #1,317 United States English
8 developer.mozilla.org American English
9 xkcd.com #1,529 English
10 getbootstrap.com #1,542 English
11 eldiario.es #1,610 Spain Spanish
12 commons.wikimedia.org United States English
13 libreoffice.org #2,057 Germany American English
14 mediawiki.org #2,098 United States English
15 runescape.wiki #2,112 United States British English
16 stardewvalleywiki.com #2,296 English
17 addons.mozilla.org American English
18 upload.wikimedia.org United States English
19 wikidata.org #2,908 United States English
20 dx.doi.org American English

📈 Usage Statistics

Most of the sites that use Creative Commons:

Most of the sites using Creative Commons License are from the United States, Germany, and Spain.

  • United States 20.3%
  • Germany 10.3%
  • Spain 7.9%
  • Italy 6.5%
  • United Kingdom 5%
  • France 4.9%
  • Ukraine 3.7%
  • Netherlands 3%
  • Canada 2.7%
  • Other 35.7%

Most Creative Commons License users speak English, Spanish, or German.

  • English 55.5%
  • Spanish 10%
  • German 5.3%
  • Italian 5%
  • French 3.4%
  • Ukrainian 2.8%
  • Portuguese 2.5%
  • Russian 2.1%
  • Chinese 1.6%
  • Other 11.8%

The Creative Commons license is especially popular on .com, .org, and .net top-level domains.

  • .com 30%
  • .org 20.7%
  • .net 7%
  • .de 4.1%
  • .it 3%
  • .gov.ua 2%
  • .cz 1.7%
  • .info 1.5%
  • .ru 1.4%
  • Other 28.6%

The primary market segments for websites utilizing Creative Commons License include blogs and wiki, education and reference, and business.

  • Blogs/Wiki 18%
  • Education/Reference 14.9%
  • Business 9.4%
  • Marketing/Merchandising 5.6%
  • Non-Profit/Advocacy/NGO 4.5%
  • Software/Hardware 4.4%
  • Entertainment 3.8%
  • Internet Services 3.4%
  • Technical/Business Forums 3.4%
  • Other 32.6%

🔢 Creative Commons License Versions

The most popular version of Creative Commons License is BY 4.0, used by 19% of sites where versions were detected. In addition, 13.2% of sites use Creative Commons License BY-SA 4.0, and 11.4% use Creative Commons License BY-NC-SA 4.0.

  • BY 4.0 19%
  • BY-SA 4.0 13.2%
  • BY-NC-SA 4.0 11.4%
  • BY-NC-ND 4.0 9.3%
  • BY-SA 3.0 7.7%
  • BY-NC-SA 3.0 7.1%
  • BY 3.0 6.9%
  • BY-NC-ND 3.0 6.3%
  • BY-NC 4.0 5.7%
  • Other 13.4%

🕵️ Similar Technologies

These are some of the best Creative Commons License alternatives.

RankName
2
GNU License
Boston, Massachusetts, United States

The GNU General Public Licenses are a family of free, copyleft software licenses created to guarantee users the freedom to run, study, share, and modify software while ensuring those freedoms are preserved when the software is distributed.
3
MIT License
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

A permissive software license that allows commercial use and does not require that the source code be made available to end users.
4
Apache License
Wilmington, Delaware, United States

A permissive software license that allows commercial use and does not require source code to be disclosed.
5
BSD License

BSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses that impose minimal restrictions on the use and distribution of covered software.
6
MPL License
Mountain View, California, United States

A free and open-source weak copyleft license that is more restrictive than the permissive software BSD-style licenses.

🆚 Compare Alternatives

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💬 Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Creative Commons License's headquarters?

Creative Commons License is located in Mountain View, California, United States.

Which country uses Creative Commons License the most?

The majority of Creative Commons License users are from the United States.

Who uses Creative Commons License?

According to our data, Creative Commons License is used on thousands of sites, including such established ones as wikipedia.org, wikimedia.org, and gov.br.

Is Creative Commons License used on government websites?

Overall, we found Creative Commons License on 248 government sites in Ukraine and 3 in the United States.

Do academic institutions use Creative Commons License?

Yes. Overall, we know of 15 academic websites in the United States that use Creative Commons License.

How does Creative Commons License compare to its competitors?

Creative Commons License is the most popular software license on the market, outranking all others.

What are the alternatives to Creative Commons License?

Alternatives and possible competitors to Creative Commons License may include GNU License, MIT License, and Apache License.

Statistics were last calculated on .
For details, see our methodology and disclaimer.