Seems to be a common story in this area. I remember asking the Hopper folks if they'd do even an academic discount and it was similarly a no. Their argument was

Seems to be a common story in this area. I remember asking the Hopper folks if they'd do even an academic discount and it was similarly a no. Their argument was that it was on par with some academic textbooks .. maybe in the USA, but I never bought a textbook throughout my 3 year CS degree! That's what the library and electronic resources were for. I concede it was more accessibly priced than e.g. IDA but it's definitely a shame HexRays and others aren't as willing to allow non-commercial educational use. I think they'd benefit in the long run, you'd definitely have some folks using the products they're familiar with commercially after a few years. Meanwhile for software development, you have companies like JetBrains and GitHub offering premium products completely free of price.