I swapped over about a year ago from sky to freesat...the only real drawback I've found compared to freeview is the lack of Dave....but you can always get a cheap freeview box and have the best of both worlds!
I invested in a Samsung smt 7800 which works pretty much the same as the sky box, and apart from the occasional random reboot works fine and dandy!
I do miss the choice sky offers but like you, was finding the cost of sky just too much. I no the initial outlay of around 200 quid seems a lot but this was covered within a few months of not having the exuberant sky bills!