Locked-in

Vendor lock-in doesn't happen all at once. It creeps in. A new tool promises to save time, a platform offers "seamless" integration, and before you know it, critical workflows depend on a system you don't control. Prices go up. Critical support slows down. New development stagnates. Features change in ways that no longer work for you.

But by then, switching is too costly.

You're stuck.

The alternative — building or moving in-house — feels like you're in control, but it brings its own burdens and risks. Internal projects will always take longer than expected, they will always require ongoing maintenance and development — and even worse, they very rarely match the pace and quality of third-party alternatives.

Closed source vendors promise convenience, but they come with a hidden cost: control. When a product becomes critical to your business, you rely on the vendor to keep it affordable, maintain it, and support your use case. But this is the risk of convenience.

If they eventually price you out, discontinue features, or shut down, you have no fallback. Your entire business is at their mercy — especially for critical infrastructure, like licensing and distribution.

This is vendor lock-in, and every vendor wants it.

Alternative distribution models like open and fair source offer a better path: the right to self-host — the vendor lock-in escape hatch. When a vendor starts to become misaligned, you aren't left scrambling — you can run it on your own infrastructure and keep your business moving without disruption. And in extreme cases, you can even fork.

These alternatives let you avoid costly migrations and unnecessary in-house rebuilds. You can de-risk by keeping the option to migrate from managed to self-hosting — without feeling "locked-in."

Vendors lock you in. Have an escape hatch.