These assets — can you actually use them?
The biggest trap with free assets isn't finding them — it's not knowing whether you can use them commercially. SVGSafe files every asset into a license tier, with a snapshot of the original license and the date we checked it. First the three tiers, then common licenses in plain words.
Three license tiers
Green · Use freely
Commercial use, hosting and redistribution allowed, no attribution required. Only this tier is hosted by default.
Download, copy and recolor — all fine.
Amber · Attribution
Commercial use allowed, but you must keep the author credit. An attribution snippet ships with the download.
Downloadable; keep the attribution when you use it.
Red · Link only
The license doesn't let us redistribute (or the terms are unclear), so we don't host the file — we only point to the source.
No download; click through to the source site.
Common licenses (plain words)
CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication
The author waives all rights — effectively public domain. Use it however you like: commercial, modified, redistributed, no attribution needed.
MIT License
A very permissive open-source license. Commercial use, modification and redistribution are all allowed; the only requirement is to keep the license notice when you redistribute the source. In finished designs it's essentially unrestricted.
ISC License
Equivalent to MIT — a very permissive open-source license. Commercial use, modification and redistribution allowed; just keep the license notice.
Apache 2.0 License
A permissive open-source license allowing commercial use, modification and redistribution, with an explicit patent grant; just keep the notice and a statement of changes when redistributing.
CC BY 4.0 Attribution
Free to use, including commercially, and to modify — but you must credit the original author. We file it under Amber and hand you a ready-made attribution line on download.
Source-site custom free terms
Free terms written by the source site itself — usually free for commercial use, but often with limits like 'no redistribution of the original file' or 'must obtain from source.' Hence filed under Red, link only.
Our discipline
- We only host redistributable assets. Anything the license won't let us redistribute goes to Red — link only, file never hosted.
- Every asset has a check date and a license snapshot. Source sites do change their terms (it really happens), so we can trace and take down.
- Quarterly license re-checks. We re-run the harvester on a schedule to compare whether licenses have changed.
- We respect added terms. If a source marks 'no AI training,' for example, we keep that note and surface it.
Note: this page is a plain-language explanation, not legal advice. For actual use, defer to the full text of each license.