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Ask HN: How many of you have paid for sublime text?

27 points by blhack ↗ HN
I have recently moved to sublime away from years and years of vim over ssh. The price is pretty steep ($70).

ALL of my developer friends use it, and I don't know anybody that pays the $70 for it.

I'm curious how this pricing model has worked out for the developers vs either a lower price point (~$10) or a SaaS subscription (~$1-2/mo).

81 comments

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davelnewton
I paid for it, but I use Atom now. Easier (for me) to extend and customize than Vim or Sublime.
therealidiot
I've done it, it's usually running for a good chunk of every working day

I still use vim a lot though

skylark
I'm guessing most of their money comes from businesses who purchase licenses for their developers. I've personally been responsible for four license purchases (my own + 3 companies bought a license for my work computer).
andreyf
Sublime license follows you around, so new employers don't need to purchase new ones.
iaw
Depends on the employer, my big co handles it opaquely so I'd have to get a new one at a new company.
andreyf
Then you don't own a license, the business does, and they can re-use it for any employee, as long as only one employee gets a license at a time. Their FAQ explains it all well: https://www.sublimetext.com/sales_faq
shshhdhs
I also had my employer purchase a license. I switched to Atom for a bit, but promptly returned to Sublime
anonfunction
Had two companies pay for me to use it, but prefer the open source atom / vim combo.
Veen
I paid for it. I'm curious how it breaks down between Mac users, who are used to paying for apps, and Linux users, who aren't.
lanna
really, is $70 for a productivity tool you use for most of the day, every day, "pretty steep"? many developers make that in a hour. i paid for it.
wjoe
It's not steep in the value it provides, or the amount I've used it. But it's steep enough that it's more than I often pay for one thing. It's steep enough to make me come up with some excuse -

"well, it's optional..."

"I can't afford it this month, maybe later"

"It's good, but it's not $70 better than other text editors"

"I'm mostly using it for work, so I'm not going to pay for it out of my own pocket" (and the company isn't going to pay for the above reasons)

"It's not open source, and I don't want to contribute to proprietary software" etc...

I think if it was a limited free trial, the price was cheaper, or if they had some sort of subscription model, they'd probably get more money from people. Personally, I put off paying for it when I was poor and unemployed in the past, and now Atom is a decent open source alternative, so I tend to use that.

Until Atom existed, if you'd given me Sublime for a month, then told me to pay up or go back to using Scite/Gedit/Notepad++, or learning Vim, I'd have dropped the money on it in a heartbeat

lanna
> I'm mostly using it for work

so you definitely must pay for it

lanna
> well, it's optional...

no, it is not. payment is not optional, you are abusing the developer's trust.

he is not apple, he is not google. he is a developer, like you and me, and he needs to make a living out of his work, too.

there is nothing wrong about paying for software.

agnivade
> is $70 for a productivity tool you use for most of the day, every day, "pretty steep"?

Yes it is. I am not from US. Its a lot of money to pay for an editor/IDE.

willary
I didn't know they asked for money
hoopyfrood
I have personally and got licenses for whole dev teams bought by employers in the past too. Aware of alternatives, not as appealing as ST
wyager
I've had employers pay for it.
TACIXAT
First employer was nice enough to get the license in my name.
kylecordes
I paid for it, and I'm happy to have done so even though I mostly use other editors. It fits an important niche, it loads very quickly and handles very large files without trouble.

However, I'm in rooms with dozens of developers (as an instructor) regularly, and I always ask how many of them use sublime text. Many. Then I asked how many of them paid for sublime text. Very very rarely one hand is raised.

tomcam
I have, twice, for what the anecdata is worth. Still switched to vim :O
andreyf
Paid for it gladly! Would pay again for Sublime 3. $70 is not much at all compared to what I've been paid for the work I do using it!
jeffehobbs
I got my company to buy it for the whole team. :)
wraith69
I payed it with a smile. The tech is awesome and the price point for a lifetime license is beyond reasonable. I hope they get the capital to keep working on it.

Doesn't mean I don't still use vim, buts that's a different use case to me.

ubernostrum
I haven't paid for it but also don't use it.

I paid for a TextMate license years and years ago when it was the hot thing everybody said to just use, but quickly went back to Emacs and mostly swore off the "this year, X is the hot editor everybody should switch to" fads. These days when I need to display some code in a GUI editor (common when doing code-review sessions projected on a screen), I fire up VS Code, which is shaping up to be quite good.

jrgifford
I paid for it after I got paid for writing code for the first time. Seemed like the decent thing to do. I was also considering starting a screencast series, and having an editor that wouldn't nag me for a license in the middle of a video seemed important.
securityfreak
Same here. Used it for free while studying and open source projects. Bought it as soon as I got a paying job, coincidentally coding in sublime. Fantastic tool. Fantastic community.
jeremyswank
I paid. I also paid for BBEdit. I still use both.
lowmagnet
I've paid for Sublime Text, TextMate 2, and IntelliJ IDEA.
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[dead] lowmagnet
I've paid for Sublime Text, TextMate 2, and IntelliJ IDEA.
chrisrickard
I paid for Sublime, and worth every cent. Loved it, and although I now use a mix of Atom/VSCode, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for Sublime!
faitswulff
I paid for it after using it for free for roughly 3 years. No regrets - also no nag screen!
yodsanklai
I've been using Sublime for a couple of years (switched from vim). I haven't paid for it. I probably would have paid already if it was cheaper (< $30).
joeydi
I paid happily. ~1hr of work for a tool I use all day every day. Support independent developers!
storrgie
I paid, I stopped using it because I felt like there wasn't a whole lot of transparency with development. I now bop between vim and atom.