Sublime Forum

**badger68** · May 2, 2019, 1:47pm

I don’t live in a third world country and I also think that the license is way too expensive. I am not a programmer, but I use the editor to type my notes, paste logs, etc…
In other words, I am not making money by using the editor.
I would be willing to pay $20 for the license, but there is no way I am paying $80.
This very high price alienates many people who would potentially buy the product (not only from the third world countries). Even by looking at this discussion, I can see many potential sales that are not going to happen because of this high price.
The authors should rethink their approach to the pricing model.

**Jackeroo** · May 2, 2019, 2:19pm

Why does this thread keep coming up? If you don’t want to pay for the editor then don’t use it.
There are many simple free editors that would meet your needs.
I don’t make money using the editor, but I paid for it so I can play around with it,

**badger68** · May 2, 2019, 2:50pm

Why does this thread keep coming up?

I believe it keeps coming up, because many people think that this editor is too expensive. This is a constructive feedback. If you just accept things as they are, why do you even bother replying to this thread?

If you don’t want to pay for the editor then don’t use it.

That’s exactly what I did. But I could use it and generate some income for the people that developed this software. The greediness is good for the regular expressions, not for businesses.

**Orlmente** · May 2, 2019, 3:31pm

If X costs 10 and you’re asking/willing to pay 5 then you are not generating an income but a loss… what if your boss asks you to work for half the price? is pretty the same… and if you really want to send some money to ST devs then you can always make a donation…

**milkman** · May 2, 2019, 5:47pm

Everyone could get a box and at the end of the month put n Dollars into it, whatever (s)he thinks it was worth of it that month. And once 80 Dollars are there - buy a license.
I bought it after a week of testing and it helped nearly each day during the following 6 years until now. I never ever regretted it!

**michaelblyons** · May 3, 2019, 1:38pm

This is what I did. I appreciate that the payment structure allows you to do that.

Shareware typically has a time-boxed use limit that I find frustrating: I’m not going to understand your product’s utility (to me) in a month. If I reach the end of the period and realize that I’ve fallen back to my old programs to do things I didn’t know how to do in yours… I’m not going to pay up; I’m just going to drop your program from my workflow. But with the indefinite “continued use requires a license” model, I can use it until I know what I’m doing and understand the value.

I have a new “box” for Sublime Merge, now. I mostly use the Git CLI, but there are a couple things^† I like an external program for. When the box fills up or I become confident that it will, I’ll pay the price.

^† The default git blame is just not great. Also, I will never learn how to 3-way merge with vimdiff.

**clci** · May 3, 2019, 6:42pm

This is an editor designed for programmers, and if you’re not a programmer, likely you’ll get little to no use out of its best and most valuable features. Why can’t you use a really good free editor like Notepad++?

**FHTheron** · May 3, 2019, 7:44pm

Truth. Command line is great, but the moment I need to visualise more than two commits I simply can’t avoid a GUI (or tig on remote servers).

**tgarcia** · January 24, 2020, 8:41am

I’m living in a 3rd world country(PHL) and $80 is too much why?
The average salary of every employee in our country is between $250 to $576, so it’s very rare for someone to buy a license and understand that the price of this software is good but the money exchanged rate 1dollar =PHP51 makes the license more expensive. if the license is $80 in our country then the actual price for is 50x times more expensive (if my math is not correct please correct me) plus outside expensive makes this more complicated to debate. Just say and I’m not against the price.

**shiplu** · March 4, 2020, 10:31am

Maybe think about why you need the license in the first place. There are two options,

Pay as high as 32% of salary for once and support sublime text developers. The pop-up window for buying the license will be gone forever
Don’t pay as its too high price, you don’t have to support developers affecting your income drastically. You can still press ESC when sublime text prompts for it.

The choice is yours.

**usig** · May 5, 2020, 7:17pm

it is not. Option 2 only serves for evaluation purposes.

If you can’t afford it don’t use it. It’s not like you cannot do any work without SublimeText. There are text editors out there that cost you nothing. If you expect the best editor in the world without respecting its price tag you’re just greedy. This behaviour is even more ridiculous considering the free alternatives available!

**enox** · April 23, 2021, 3:20am

I’m a student and can hardly pay my bills, let alone have money left at the end of the month.
I literally can’t afford the license, although I live in a first world country. I don’t like using cracked versions but at a price of $80 and practically no income, I don’t have any different options.
Could I use alternative programs? Yes. But why would I choose a worse product?

The point is that if the software would only cost $20-$30, I’d go for it. Many other people would too.
Also to the ones trying to argue that good software deserves to cost a lot of money:
There’s a ton of really really good software but it doesn’t cost $80 and if it does, there are almost always student deals.

**pokfpoewm** · April 23, 2021, 6:50am

You don’t need to buy a license…

I don’t like using cracked versions

It’s not cracked, it’s official…

Sublime Text may be downloaded and evaluated for free, however a license must be purchased for continued use.

**enox** · April 23, 2021, 12:10pm

Exactly, I’d consider 3 years of university “continued use”, therefore I’d need to buy it.

**facelessuser** · April 23, 2021, 12:35pm

Yeah, while on the one hand, this is true as the trial is so permissive in functionality. Technically, this is not true as the intent is for the user to purchase after such prolonged use. And it sounds like the commenter wants to purchase, but the argument is that it excludes students and only targets professionals, but that may be the business model, and the trial may be the intended loophole for students .

When I think about it, at least on the surface, creating an entry point for students who may become long-time users of Sublime for their professional careers, doesn’t sound like a bad idea, but I’m not sure how that affects the business model and the sustainability of the business model. Not all businesses provide a student tier.

If I were a student again, I’d probably just use the trial for my entire student career until I could afford otherwise . While the popup might be mildly annoying, paying $80 while I’m a student probably would not have happened, and I imagine it doesn’t happen for a lot of students. I’m not sure I’d jump to the “cracked” version for such a mild annoyance though.

**normally** · April 23, 2021, 7:23pm

You choose a worse product because, as you stated, you can’t yet afford your preferred product. That’s kind of how life is. Are people really demanding affordable Lamborghinis as students with no income? The fact is, you might need to drive that hand-me-down Civic for a while till you start making a comfortable income. And you know what, you’ll be fine. There are lots of free text editors available, some really good free IDEs… you have options. They might not have all the features you love from ST (though most these days do), they’ll do you just fine and you’ll still be able to be productive and learn and grow as a developer until such time as you are making sufficient income to afford that ST license. If nothing else, it’s a goal to work towards, like that Lamborghini.

**bschaaf** · April 24, 2021, 5:17am

If I were a student again, I’d probably just use the trial for my entire student career until I could afford otherwise . While the popup might be mildly annoying, paying $80 while I’m a student probably would not have happened, and I imagine it doesn’t happen for a lot of students.

That’s exactly what I did. I used the trial version until I could reasonably afford the license. It’s better to have people using an unlimited trial and possibly pay in the future than it is to not have them use it at all.

**Alex4win** · October 2, 2021, 4:42am

I want to buy SublimeText. But I can’t justify the purchase. I haven’t made any money from it (still a student) and I don’t use it often enough. Especially now that the price rose from $80 to $100. I would still buy it at $100 if it was truly a one-off purchase. But the updates only last so long, so I’d probably have to purchase it again in the future.

The business model makes sense. But it isn’t compatible with more casual users. I’d guess that Sublime HQ doesn’t expect these users to pay.

**bitsper2nd** · October 2, 2021, 11:13am

Don’t worry, when you get a job, you can pay for it. That is what I did.

**anon96742573** · October 4, 2021, 12:21am

I agree with kodeindahjunk license is way too expensive! $90 now for new and $70 for existing upgrades every 3 years for major releases? It should be more fair for everyone! $50 one-time and $20 for major release upgrade. Remember not everyone works at major company and earn thousands.

Many people especially durring pandamic strugling to even pay for food, not to mantion rent/bills. Try to be more sensative to people and you will be very successful. And in fact it has been proven by many, if you charge less you have more clients and more money in the end.

Why is the license so expensive?