Creative Commons License
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 open-source license on the web.
It has 88.1% of the license market share and is detected on 0.4% of all websites.
It is especially popular in Ukraine, appearing on 1.3% of all websites in the country.
- 🏠 Website
- 🔗 Links
📊 Rankings and Market Share
- Licenses
- Rank: 1
- Market share: 88.1%
🏆 Creative Commons License Awards
- 🥇 Most popular in the United States in the Licenses category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Germany in the Licenses category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Spain in the Licenses category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Italy in the Licenses category.
- 🥇 Most popular in the United Kingdom in the Licenses category.
- 🥇 Most popular in France in the Licenses category.
- 🥇 Most popular in the Czech Republic in the Licenses category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Russia in the Licenses category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Brazil in the Licenses category.
- 🥇 Most popular in the Netherlands in the Licenses category.
⚡ Sites Using Creative Commons License
We have data on 14,909 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.
| # | Website | Rank | Country | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | wikipedia.org |
#12 | United States | English |
| 2 | #164 | Brazil | Brazilian Portuguese | |
| 3 |  wikimedia.org |
#180 | United States | English |
| 4 | #613 | United States | Korean | |
| 5 | #720 | India | English | |
| 6 | #1,038 | United States | English | |
| 7 | #1,327 | Spain | Spanish | |
| 8 | #1,330 | United States | English | |
| 9 |  mediawiki.org |
#1,357 | United States | English |
| 10 | #1,498 | Italy | Italian | |
| 11 |  developer.mozilla.org |
United States | American English | |
| 12 | #1,519 | India | Odia | |
| 13 | commons.wikimedia.org |
United States | English | |
| 14 | #1,624 | English | ||
| 15 | #1,739 | Italy | Italian | |
| 16 | #1,796 | United States | English | |
| 17 | #1,834 | United States | British English | |
| 18 | #1,895 | United States | English | |
| 19 |  libreoffice.org |
#1,940 | Germany | American English |
| 20 | #2,166 | English |
📈 Usage Statistics
Most of the sites that use Creative Commons:
- are located in the United States
- have content in English
- use the .com domain extension
- fall into the Blogs/Wiki category.
Most of the sites using Creative Commons License are from the United States, Germany, and Spain.
- United States 17.6%
- Germany 9.2%
- Spain 8.2%
- Italy 6.9%
- United Kingdom 4.8%
- France 4.5%
- Ukraine 4.1%
- Czech Republic 2.9%
- Russia 2.8%
- Other 39%
Most Creative Commons License users speak English, Spanish, or German.
- English 53.8%
- Spanish 9.9%
- German 5.4%
- Italian 5.1%
- French 3.6%
- Ukrainian 3.1%
- Portuguese 2.6%
- Russian 2.3%
- Czech 1.7%
- Other 12.5%
The Creative Commons license is especially popular on .com, .org, and .net top-level domains.
- .com 28.8%
- .org 20.5%
- .net 6.4%
- .de 4%
- .it 3.1%
- .gov.ua 2.3%
- .cz 1.9%
- .ru 1.7%
- .info 1.5%
- Other 29.8%
The primary market segments for websites utilizing Creative Commons License include blogs and wiki, education and reference, and business.
- Blogs/Wiki 17.9%
- Education/Reference 15.1%
- Business 9.6%
- Marketing/Merchandising 5.2%
- Non-Profit/Advocacy/NGO 4.4%
- Software/Hardware 4.2%
- Entertainment 3.6%
- Technical/Business Forums 3.5%
- Internet Services 3.3%
- Other 33.2%
🔢 Creative Commons License Versions
The most popular version of Creative Commons License is BY 4.0, used by 21% of sites where versions were detected. In addition, 13.9% of sites use Creative Commons License BY-SA 4.0, and 12% use Creative Commons License BY-NC-SA 4.0.
- BY 4.0 21%
- BY-SA 4.0 13.9%
- BY-NC-SA 4.0 12%
- BY-NC-ND 4.0 9.7%
- BY-SA 3.0 7.2%
- BY 3.0 6.3%
- BY-NC 4.0 6.3%
- BY-NC-SA 3.0 6.2%
- BY-NC-ND 3.0 5.9%
- Other 11.5%
🕵️ Similar Technologies
These are some of the best Creative Commons License alternatives.
🆚 Compare Alternatives
Compare Creative Commons License to…
💬 Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Creative Commons License from?
Creative Commons License is from 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, gov.br, and
wikimedia.org.
Is Creative Commons License used on government websites?
Yes, for example, it is used by interno.gov.it and
odisha.gov.in. Overall, we found Creative Commons License on 345 government sites in Ukraine and 3 in the United States.
Do academic institutions use Creative Commons License?
Yes. In total, we know of 16 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 open-source 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.
🗃️ About This Data
- We evaluate the popularity of technologies based on the number of websites where we detect their usage.
- Technologies without a detectable web footprint, and those we do not track, are not reflected in the calculated market share.
- This report is based on the analysis of 3,976,354 websites.
- Statistics were last calculated on .
- For more details, see our methodology and disclaimer.