Sublime Text
native code editor with a one-off personal licence
This version
Updates are included for 3 years from purchase. After that you keep and can keep using every version the licence covered, but new builds require a paid upgrade. If you use it at a company the personal key does not apply: business licences are sold only as an annual per-seat subscription. Unlicensed use is an unlimited evaluation rather than a timed trial, but it interrupts you with a purchase reminder.
Cost over five years
$99 once = 5 months of Cursor Pro. Over five years that is $1,200 rented against $99 owned — $1,101 kept, and you still have the app.
Cursor Pro priced at $240 a year — Cursor's Individual plan at $20/month; the page shows no cheaper annual figure. Checked 2026-09-22.
Sublime Text is the editor you buy when startup time and responsiveness are the features you care about. It opens a 400 MB log file and scrolls it without thinking; most of its competitors do not. Multiple cursors, Goto Anything, and a project-wide search that returns before you have finished reading the query are the reasons people stay with it for a decade.
It is not an IDE. There is a built-in LSP client and Package Control has an extension for most things, so modern language tooling works — but you assemble that setup rather than receive it. If you want refactoring tools and a debugger present on day one, buy something else.
The licence is $99 once, personal, one key across every computer and operating system you use, with three years of updates. After three years the app you have keeps working indefinitely and newer builds need a paid upgrade. That is the honest shape of it: not updates-forever, but three years is generous by any current standard and you never lose what you paid for.
The trap worth naming: if you use it at work, the personal licence does not cover you, and business licensing is an annual per-seat subscription with no buy-once option. Plenty of people quietly run the free evaluation forever instead. It nags, it does not expire, and if you only open an editor to fix a config file now and then, that is a reasonable place to stop.
What it looks like
What it does
- Opens multi-hundred-megabyte files without stalling
- Multiple selections and Goto Anything fuzzy navigation
- Package Control ecosystem plus a built-in LSP client
- One licence key covers macOS, Windows and Linux
- Unlimited free evaluation with a purchase reminder
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Also bought outright in dev tools
The facts
- Price
- $99
- Licence
- Own this version forever
- What you get
- One payment buys this major version outright. The next major version is a separate purchase, if you want it.
- Details
- $99 USD personal licence, a once-off purchase that includes 3 years of updates; after 3 years an upgrade is required for newer builds. One key covers all your computers and operating systems. Business licensing is separate and subscription-only, at $65/seat/year for the first 10 seats scaling down to $50. A Sublime Text + Sublime Merge bundle is sold at a discount.
- Free trial
- Yes
- On Setapp
- No
- Minimum macOS
- not stated
- Developer
- Sublime HQ
- Price checked
- 2026-09-22
Check it yourself - Price band
- $60 to $120