I am considering buying Sublime Merge. I want to use it as my daily driver at my 9-5 development job at a software company. And I also want to use it at home on my personal projects that aspire to evolve into commercial endeavours.
Will the personal license be the correct choice?
I personally bought a license for Merge. I use it at home, and I use it at work. I do not offer my license to fellow employees, and when I go, my license goes with me. I am the only user of it whether I am at home or work. As far as I am aware, I am using it within the my rights as a license holder.
If your company is willing to buy you a copy, and that is the route you go, then it may be correct to only use it at work.
I am not a lawyer, just a developer.
I find the best approach is to get a personal license. It will allow you to use it for whatever you want and you can take it with you if you change jobs or whatever else the future holds for you. My previous employer was gracious enough to refund me the cost because I needed the software for work. But the license was in my name, so that’s the least complicated approach.
Just to cover all of the bases here, the Sales FAQ for Merge specifically states:
###USING A PERSONAL LICENSE AT WORK
As licenses are per-user, you’re welcome to use your license key on all computers where you are the primary user, including at work.
However, personal licenses are only available for personal ownership: businesses and organizations must purchase a business license.
So, if you purchase a personal license, you can use it at home and at work, but you specifically are the one that owns it, so only you can use the software.
On the other hand, business licenses belong to the business and not you, so you’re only allowed to use it for work purposes:
###TAKING A BUSINESS LICENSE HOME
Employees should not use a business license at home, unless on a work computer or for work purposes. License keys are owned by the business, and may not be shared with other companies or individuals.
As such based on your description of what you want to do, you want to purchase a Personal License because you want to be able to use it at work and at home.
Hopefully you already bought it by this point though, because it’s pretty awesome. 