{"head":{"title":"What Is Vendor Lock-in in Software? Definition | OceanLab","description":"Vendor lock-in is when leaving a supplier or platform would cost so much that you are stuck with it. Where it comes from, an example and how to limit it.","canonical":"https://oceanlab.in/glossary/vendor-lock-in"},"crumbs":[{"name":"Home","path":"/"},{"name":"Glossary","path":"/glossary"},{"name":"vendor lock-in","path":"/glossary/vendor-lock-in"}],"slug":"vendor-lock-in","term":"Vendor lock-in","aka":["lock-in","platform lock-in"],"category":"Buying software","short":"When leaving a supplier, platform or tool would cost so much time or money that you are effectively stuck with it.","body":[["Lock-in comes in several forms. Technical: code built around one provider's special features. Data: no easy way to export your records in a usable format. Contractual: long terms or high exit fees. People: only the supplier's team knows how the system works."],["Some lock-in is a fair price for speed. Managed ",{"href":"/glossary/paas","text":"PaaS"}," services and ",{"href":"/glossary/saas","text":"SaaS"}," tools save real effort. The risk is lock-in nobody chose on purpose."]],"why":["Lock-in weakens your position on price and service, and it can make a needed change, such as a new region for ",{"href":"/glossary/data-residency","text":"data residency"}," or a cheaper provider, slow and costly. It is part of ",{"href":"/glossary/total-cost-of-ownership","text":"total cost of ownership"},", because the cost of leaving is a cost of staying."],"example":["A company wants to move its app to a cheaper host. The code uses the old provider's proprietary queue and auth services in dozens of places, and the database is in a format only that provider supports. The move becomes a three-month project instead of three weeks."],"inBuild":["Keeping repositories and cloud accounts in the client's name, writing a proper handover, and noting every provider-specific service are the main ways a product build keeps lock-in a choice."],"mistakes":[["Spreading a provider's special APIs across the whole codebase instead of behind one layer."],["Never testing a full data export."],["Signing long terms before the product has proven itself."]],"related":[{"href":"/glossary/paas","label":"PaaS (platform as a service)","detail":"Cloud hosting where you deploy your own application and the provider runs the servers, operating system and runtime underneath."},{"href":"/glossary/saas","label":"SaaS (software as a service)","detail":"Software you use over the internet, usually by subscription, while the provider runs the application and everything under it."},{"href":"/glossary/handover","label":"Handover (software handover)","detail":"Moving the code, accounts, documents and know-how of a product from the team that built it to the team that will run it."},{"href":"/glossary/source-code-escrow","label":"Source code escrow","detail":"An arrangement where a vendor's source code is held by a neutral third party and released to the customer if agreed events happen."}],"tools":[{"href":"/tools/build-vs-buy","label":"Build vs buy","detail":"Free tool"}],"links":[{"href":"/questions/who-owns-the-code","label":"Who owns the code when you hire a software agency?","detail":"Question"},{"href":"/software","label":"Software by industry","detail":"Systems we build per industry, with guides and tools."}],"sources":[],"legal":false,"updatedAt":"2026-10-25"}