Well for programmers, the base tools needed to get work done vary depending on the project. If you use a free engine like Unity/UE4/etc, you could save money assuming you don't need any plugins. Visual Studio Community is also free for use in paid applications if you are working with a small team or on an open source…
Thaaaat's why I said Relax with the knee-jerk dichotomies guys, I never suggested throwing in third party libraries without consulting anyone. Granted this is definitely more true of smaller teams like startups or independent clients (the subject of this thread), if you say, "We need to do task v, it will take w story…
Dude, just no. Freelance programmers are almost never responsible for buying libraries. They're hired to write code, not buy it. You don't hire 3D artists and expect them to buy assets from elsewhere; in fact you'd probably be pretty pissed off if they did. Programmers might recommend you buy a library to save time and…