Your question is very "open"!
Separate from what?
ie Do you currently have eg Sky, or a generic Digital Satellite Receiver?
Freesat is just a means of pulling together many of the Free To Air Channels from 28E with a user friendly 7 day EPG.
If you are happy with just Now and Next programme info and the lack of simple recording interface, then you can use a cheap and cheerful non-Freesat receiver.
But you really need to give us some more inormation/background/thoughs of your own.