Lock-in is a real cost. How to read a platform's exit before you commit.

Before you commit, ask how you would leave. If the answer is a rebuild, price that into the decision.

Myth: pricing is the cost. Reality: the switching cost two years in is the number that bites.

Do this: check if your data and logic export cleanly. Not this: assume you will never migrate.

We picked a platform that exports its workflows as plain files. Boring feature, saved us a quarter later.

Exit cost is the line item vendors never put on the quote. Add it yourself.