Sublime Text is great, so I suspect many users would happily pay (or donate, if given the choice) $5-20 for the privilege of such a tool. Sublime's asking price is $80, however, and as a result no one seems to pay (even large corporates).<p>I'm curious 1) why Sublime doesn't allow smaller payments from devs who want to support the project and 2) what entities are actually paying for licenses (government, companies with strict procurement rules, &c.)
$80 USD for a lifetime license on as many machines as you like doesn't seem that expensive, especially considering their market: most entry-level devs in the US earn 60K/year. Granted, there are users in other markets and countries earning less (such as myself), but taking into account it's capabilities, how customizable it is and how I haven't found any products with the same or similar capabilities that are as lightweight at it is, makes it a very impressive product that IMHO is well worth the price.<p>As far as who buys it, I will as soon as I get a better paying job, I've been using it for years and I can't imagine my life without it. What demographics buy it seems more like a question you would ask the ST team themselves.
If you use Sublime Text instead of the countless quite usable - if perhaps not as good - text editors out there chances are you use it professionally.<p>For someone using such a tool professionally and earning good money while doing so $80 already is a ridiculously low price.<p>There are professionals though who for reasons I never quite seemed to understand aren't willing to pay for the tools they use. Absurdly enough this habit is particularly common with developers and companies making money by selling software.<p>To them 60 USD less wouldn't make a difference. They would never buy the product anyway. So, lowering the price doesn't make any sense at all.<p>This particular example is just one instance of a more general, widespread fallacy in the software industry: Because software can essentially be copied and reproduced for free people seem to think that the tools used for creating that software have to be available for free as well (many open source tools indeed coming for free doesn't exactly help in this case either).<p>Many organisations have no qualms with wasting a huge amount of employee time on meetings or on engineers being less productive because they use inadequate or sub-par tools. Yet at the same time the same organisations often tend to make a huge fuss about buying tools that cost a tiny fraction of that waste of time while helping with eliminating that waste.
A) If you're a developer who is even halfway worth his salt, $80 is chump change.<p>B) Sublime Text is one of the few things I encounter on a daily basis that gives me any hope whatsoever for the fate of humanity. They earned every penny of that $80 and then some.<p>C) Adobe is $20 a month, and I throw up in my mouth a little every time I see it on my statement. Not because it's $20, but because it's Adobe.
From all accounts Jon Skinner (the developer) makes a living, and has taken on at least one employee, so clearly enough users do pay for his purposes. Perhaps paying his bills by working on an extremely high quality product completely on his own terms is precisely what he wants from the venture? ST has been around for long enough to conclude that it's probably working for him.<p>I personally can't see how $80 could be considered 'expensive' for a professional tool. My tradie friends would love to be able to buy their most significant tools for so little. I'm not an ST user, and am at (or below) the bottom end of developer income, but wouldn't hesitate to pay that for such a well-crafted piece of software.
I use Sublime every day and have for the last year. Before that, I was using free editors that were ok but had some annoying weaknesses. $80 doesn't seem like all that much for a professional tool that I use to help make my living every single day. Compare this to my neighbor, a professional mechanic who has $150k invested in SnapOn tools - and makes less money than I do.
First off Sublime Text is a great tool and has saved me so many hours of time over the years.<p>I was happy to purchase a license. I did use it for free initially but after a while you're like this is a valuable time saving tool so it's easily worth the price.<p>The free/nag version covers students and those who can't or don't feel they can afford it.<p>I think the price is fair considering most developers are billing out at $100/hr+/-.<p>If you're a developer and think $80 is too expensive, look at raising your rates.<p>Leveling up is something I learned from Patio11, we are all leaving money on the table. Read everything from Patio11 it will help you level up and make more money.<p>I'm also a fan of Rob at StartUpsForTheRestofUs.com he has some great info too and if you start at the beginning of the podcasts you can follow him along from beach towel drop shipping, to a $XXM exit with Drip.<p>So try raising your rates on your next project and that will pay for sublime text and other things you need to work more efficient.
I’m not sure what the data behind your conclusion that “no one seems to pay” for Sublime is. At $80, for me it’s a steal. This is one of the most important tools that a professional developer uses every day and a lifetime license on all of their machines costs less than 1 hour of their time.<p>Sublime is worth so much more than it costs. They could triple the price and it’d still pay for itself quickly. If they really really focused on making the most money they could sell it on a subscription model like JetBrains. Apple gets $100/year from an app dev for Xcode which is a nice round approachable number. Sublime could do the same if they wanted to.
I work for a division/business unit of a large corporate. Majority of us use sublime with license.<p>We're (the business unit) roughly about 300-400 developers (and growing) writing mostly Javascript every day.
Is this a circuitous way of conveying that the <i>zJayv entity</i> is annoyed with the prospect of paying $80?<p>Where's the data that Sublime HQ's individual and corporate revenue is hurting?
"no one seems to pay" - how did you get that conclusion? There are loads of Sublime zealots on here, I don't think it's possible that zero of them have paid.
<a href="https://www.sublimetext.com/sales_faq" rel="nofollow">https://www.sublimetext.com/sales_faq</a><p>The Expiration Date bullet answers your question basically.<p>So it seems they have wanted to let as many people use it as possible so they realize how awesome it is then start charging people. If they try to charge $80 I think a lot of people won't upgrade to Sublime Text 4. I know I won't because 3 does everything I need it to.
No, the price needs to be high enough that sales support the developer. $50-100 is appropriate for a tool like Sublime. (I paid when it was $70 and previously paid $50 for Textmate.)<p>Lowering the cost to $5-20 would convert hardly any of the tire kickers and make people who would have paid $80 nervous about the longevity of the company supporting the product.
clarifications<p>question based on premises:<p>- many people use Sublime for free<p>- many people don't pay bc the asking price is $80 and bc VS Code and <insertEditorHere> are free<p>- many people would pay if price was lower<p>what I'm curious to know:<p>- for people that do pay, are they paying for personal use or bc their company pays? --> this is what I'm really getting at, whether Sublime's revenue stream comes from corporate or fans of the project<p>what I'm <i>not</i> assuming<p>- that $80 is expensive is an absolute sense [as Toast_25 points out, bargin for product value * usage] but rather comparatively expensive (vs. other v good and completely free editors out there)<p>- that Sublime is making an incorrect business decision (I suspect they'd have <i>more</i> people paying if contributions via Paypal or Patreon were available but also suspect this would have minimal revenue impact, esp. if they maintained the current sales price)<p>- that Sublime owes a cheaper price to its user based (esp. given that it's providing an awesome product for, again, free)
I don't use sublime but your editor is your main tool. I don't see many general contractors pulling out Ryobi tools to do their job. Those are for the weekend DIYer. The pros invest in their tools to get their job done. $80 is really a small ask for a lifetime license for an app you spend most of your time in.
It's good! I paid for it because I use it constantly every day. It's a great tool and the price is reasonable imo. My company has also bought a license for a couple dozen seats.