[Burnsedia]

MIT is great for fast adoption, but if you go that route, you’d need closed-source add-ons or a SaaS layer to monetize. Apache is also good for adoption and for getting corporate clients and sponsors, but the trade-off is that anyone can take your code and repackage it without contributing back.

GPL or AGPL gives you more direct monetization options because it forces reciprocity. GPL protects against proprietary redistribution, while AGPL goes further by preventing companies from just hosting your project as a service without contributing. That makes AGPL especially useful for developer tools like LSPs, since it also sets you up for a dual-license model (AGPL for community use, commercial licenses for companies that want to integrate it into proprietary tooling).

In short: MIT/Apache = growth and sponsorship potential, GPL/AGPL = stronger control and licensing revenue. It really depends on whether your priority is fast adoption or direct monetization.

[dapperdrake]

Also note GPLv2 vs. GPLv3 vs. GPLv3-or-later and the analogous chain for AGPL.

For example, the Linux kernel is purposefully GPLv2 instead of GPLv2-or-later.