Vendor lock-in
Also called lock-in, platform lock-in.
When leaving a supplier, platform or tool would cost so much time or money that you are effectively stuck with it.
Last updated
What it is.
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 PaaS services and SaaS tools save real effort. The risk is lock-in nobody chose on purpose.
Why it matters
Lock-in weakens your position on price and service, and it can make a needed change, such as a new region for data residency or a cheaper provider, slow and costly. It is part of total cost of ownership, because the cost of leaving is a cost of staying.
In a product build
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.
Common mistakes.
- 01
Spreading a provider's special APIs across the whole codebase instead of behind one layer.
- 02
Never testing a full data export.
- 03
Signing long terms before the product has proven itself.
Work it out with a tool.
Related terms.
- PaaS (platform as a service)Cloud hosting where you deploy your own application and the provider runs the servers, operating system and runtime underneath.
- SaaS (software as a service)Software you use over the internet, usually by subscription, while the provider runs the application and everything under it.
- Handover (software handover)Moving the code, accounts, documents and know-how of a product from the team that built it to the team that will run it.
- Source code escrowAn arrangement where a vendor's source code is held by a neutral third party and released to the customer if agreed events happen.
