Aseprite

Animated pixel art & sprite tool

Added: 2026-04-09

Last Reviewed: 2026-04-09

Nope!

It's not FOSS, and it doesn't currently claim to be, although it may have been in the past.

Details

The project source is provided under a non-FOSS EULA. Some modules and libraries are provided under the MIT license. Educational Institutions can request a special educational license to use Aseprite in classrooms, and the Steam releases are distributed under the terms of the Steam Subscriber Agreement.

As stated on their blog before Aseprite v1.1.8 the project was GPLv2 licensed and then changed in 2016 to an EULA that allows modification & compiling only for personal & contributing purposes, while also preventing redistribution.

Aseprite is marketed as source-available software with a downloadable trial version (Where sprites cannot be saved). The project appears to generate revenue by selling licenses of its software. The first commercial version was Aseprite v1.0.0 published in 2014.

The project is developed by Ignara Studios.

Details last reviewed 2026-04-09. Our reviews are performed manually, without legal expertise, and therefore may be inaccurate or missing detail relevant for your use. Please don't treat this as legal guidance or assurance of any kind.

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Related Concerns

Copyleft License with CLA

Creating a silent imbalance of rights between authors and users

Overly Complex Licensing

You shouldn't need to spend hours to understand your rights