Really? If you're a programmer you probably spend 6-16 hours a day in your text editor. An artist pays $120+ a year for Photoshop. They don't generally settle for gIMP. The 2 are barely comparable. Similarly construction workers don't use tools from the 99¢ store.

If you value your time you shouldn't look at a few hundred dollars as the difference between using some software and not. That software is a force multiplier.

I'm not saying sublime text is better than atom. I'm only saying that price should not be the reason to choose something you use several hours a day.