Sublime Forum

Why buy ST2 is so expensive?

#55

Calling Sublime Text expensive, considering its quality, is pretty lame.

Go launch Notepad, cheapo.

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#56

The current price of ST2 is what suits Jon’s business model and I applaud him for sticking to it. For years people have tried prove the theory of, “well if it was only x amount of dollars it would sell so many more”, but that is never how it really pans out. Say Jon did drop the price to 10 bucks and he sold 3 times the amount of licences, that would also mean 3 times as many customers to support. People would DEMAND instant support since they’re a paying customer and in the long run Jon would spend most of this time answering support questions. If he did hire someone it’d have to be a few hours a week or a couple bucks an hour to keep cost low.

SublimeText is a professional level quality Text Editor for the minilist minded developer with a lot of torque. If you’re a weekend warrior and want to dabble in some code here and there, there are dozens of free options. No one is twisting your arm to use SublimeText just like no one is twisting it to buy a copy. Considering the going hourly rate for most developers, the current price is drop in the bucket, baffles me how people piss and moan over the price.

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#57

It is funny how so many people are in favor of this silly idea that “well, considering occupation X hourly rate, it’s not much” and other relative justifications. I see so many marketing people put that message for any stuff they sell.

Now, a bit more about product. I am just trying it now, so I don’t yet know what this editor is capable of, however when I saw price, my expectations are really high - I mean, it should really do some magic! I do not consider myself cheap, when talking about development tools, I am user of some very advanced IDE (EDIT: name excluded to not be considered as promotion) which costs $199 ($99 if you buy on discount), if you interested only in web development there are non-Java versions of $99 or less. I would say this IDE does magic! So if ST is only text editor, I would say it is extremely overpriced for $70 compared to other tools or it must do something really magical!

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#58

If you want magic, install the Emmet plugin.

If you buy a Porsche 911 it doesn’t automatically take corners for you, it will demand more of you, eventhough it’s more expensive than an Audi. Same goes for Sublime. It’s a simple editor that probably can be customized into the best coding tool you’ll ever have. But there’s also things it doesn’t do. He doesn’t force anyone to pay, so you can just use it without paying or find something else to use if you don’t think it’s worth it.

For me personally I have it set up the way I like it, also bought a SFTP license to automatically sync my code to my staging server. For me it’s better than Notepad, Dreamweaver, Aptana, Eclipse etc. But it’s a matter of taste, and whether you can be bothered to set up your environment. I will pay for anything I use as long as it’s reasonable compared to what it gives me considering options, and if I’m able to. The price is definitely in the upper tier, but the program is also really good, in my view.

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#59

I thought it was expensive too. But it’s so much better for me than Notepad++ or alternatives that I went ahead and bought it. No regrets.

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#60

Go and check out the price of UltraEdit. $59 and that’s for just one platform with only a year of free updates and it’s garbage compared to Sublime Text. I work on multiple platforms so $70 for the same editor on all 3 is a complete no-brainer. I do wish Jon would put native printing support in though!

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#61

$59 is a deal imo. Coda is $99 (on sale for $75), and that’s a bargain too. Of course the feature sets are different, but both are great IDEs

If you can’t afford it, use the fully capable freeware version.

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#62

I don’t code much, but I write LaTeX all day. Came from vi to Sublime, and it’s a pure blast. It’s neat, fast, extremely configurable and versatile, and geared towards people who want an excellent text editor with configurable IDE-like facilities.

And for that, paying 70$ is a bargain. This is an extremely high quality GUI software. The only other that striked me this way were µtorrent back in the day, and SumatraPDF. Slick, fast, does what it does in a very neat and precise way and doesn’t bother with flourishes.

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#63

I would say for me it’s because I would use it as my primary OS if it where possible. I find myself constantly searching for/making ways to do everything in ST. I guess it’s the freedom to customize and it’s incredible speed that makes it so. It’s a sucky explanation but it’s all I have. The price is right if you want to see it where you want it to go.

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#64

While I’m a stickler for open source software, I found myself using Sublime Text more often than Aptana, for web development work. I ran the evaluation for a month and with the help from the community, integrated Sublime into my daily workflow with a few additional plugins. For $70, it’s paid for itself already with time and efficiency. It’s clean, unobtrusive and slick. What more could you want?

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#65

Yes, $70 is expensive for an editor.

But is $70 really a good price? If the goal is to maximize revenues (product sold * price of product), what is the optimal price for maximum revenues? I am very curious as to how someone arrived at the price of $70.

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#66

It is true that there are many free text editors out there. Sublime is not an IDE, and so one might think “Why should I buy it?”. That and there is no time limit to using the trial version. I suggest you take a look at http://net.tutsplus.com/articles/news/perfect-workflow-in-sublime-text-free-course/. Mr. Jeffery Way shows a lot of features that are unique to Sublime Text. I’ve watched the first 10 or so and I think it is very cool compared to other editors.

To answer the “Why should I buy it?” question:

It depends on whether you can afford to pay for it. If you can’t, you’ll have to put up with the unregistered version’s reminder pop-up when it shows up. Think of it this way though: let’s say you made a really cool program or website that offers very useful services. Depending on how many people are helping you (if any) develop the project, as well as how time consuming it will be to implement the project, you will probably want to get some compensation from others using your services. For example, if I make a simple tic-tac-toe web-based game, I probably would not charge people for playing the game. If I make an application that helps businesses run more smoothly, such as a mobile app template that allows customization with pre-built functionality (add clients, calculate expenses and earnings, etc.), it would probably take me quite a bit of time and money as well on my end (I may need to hire other developers more experienced in a particular area, they will want to get something too.) It is reasonable to charge some money for these services; I may give a free month to new users so they can see if they like it, and then charge a reasonable monthly fee.

Mr. Jon Skinner is being very nice to us and only charging a one-time fee of $70. You are free to use this license on as many computers as you want. For the amazing features unique to Sublime Text, as well as the license terms, I think it’s very affordable and a nice way to help Mr. Skinner out; I’m sure he has expenses of his own to cover.

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#67

I think the main question is: Should I update from ST2 to ST3 just for the sake of getting updates?

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#68

Still using the evaluation. I was waiting for print support before registering. Now I’m thinking I’ll just register for v3 when it’s released. Sublime Text is good, but it’s by no means perfect. In some sense the price is reasonable, but in others it’s high. On Mac, I look at other software such as Pixelmator which is very good and not expensive (maybe 1/2 to 1/3 the price of Sublime Text).

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#69

I haven’t used this forum for months. How can you be still discussing this?

I use ST every day to write code:

  • Web dev (HTML/CSS/JS/PHP/Haxe)
  • App dev (Adobe Air)
  • Game dev (C#, C++)

While not perfect, ST can solve all your coding needs and you should be able to produce it’s price with a few hours of work. 70$ is peanuts for god’s sake.

Stop thinking ST is just an editor. An editor does not upload files, does not use GIT commands, does not call compilers with params, etc. If you want an editor try TextWrangler which is free and does just that: edit text files.

If you are a student just use the free version and stop complaining.

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#70

yes.

[/thread]

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#71

AFAIK there is no TextWrangler for Windows.

Why? I, for one, will probably leave ST for Emacs then.
Not everyone has the money for that.

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#72

I’ll chime in here.

I too, when I first came upon Sublime Text, asked “why so expensive?”
For me it was a big deal, I am a pensioner and only code part-time to keep my mind active but after only a few days I changed my mind.
I am using the beta of version 3 and there is NO WAY I could ever go back to something else.
If you only want to edit text then fine go somewhere else but if you want a tool that does ALL that ST does, and as fast, then there is no option.

This is without a question one of the finest pieces of software I have ever used and I will, and do, tell any who listen to use it.

So to answer the question posed in the OP:

Because it is simply the best at doing what it does and if you think it is too expensive then you are not using it for it’s right purpose.

Put it this way. Would you buy a Ferrari if you were only going to drive to the shops and back? No. You’d get by with a Mazda or something.
But if your neighbour said “here use my Ferrari, and if you want you can help with the fuel costs, otherwise no problem.” Would you drive it and complain about how much fuel it uses? Or say “Wow. I’m driving a Ferrari.”

Sublime Text == Ferrari
good neighbour == developers
complaining user == ?

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#73

If you don’t want to buy it don’t buy it.
I’ve used ST2 for a long time when I was a student, but never bought it because I didn’t have much money to spare. When I got a job I didn’t have to think twice about buying ST3. It’s great and considering the time I spend using it ST hardly costs me anything.

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#74

Sublime Text is the best software purchase I’ve ever made. I’ll happily buy ST3 the day it goes on sale even if the price is 10x ST2. My only complaint about this software is that it has set the bar so high, every other software is trash in comparison.

I look back at the days when I was sadly leaving Textmate, and I can’t believe I ever dragged my feet. Sublime Text is the best software I’ve ever used.

(Although I still miss the transparency feature Textmate had.)

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