The condition in which leaving a supplier costs so much, in money, disruption or risk, that staying stops being a choice. Rarely imposed in one move; usually accumulated through decisions that each looked efficient.
Lock-in is not a clause you sign. It is a position you drift into, and its price is paid not at exit but at every renewal negotiation you enter without a credible alternative.
Last reviewed 3 July 2026 · Free and ungated
The dependency is cheapest to challenge before signature; put it to operators who have negotiated renewals from inside locked-in positions.
Pressure-test your shortlistVendor lock-in is a dependency on a specific supplier created by proprietary technology, data formats, contractual terms, accumulated customisation or scarce skills, such that switching would carry costs and risks the organisation is unwilling to bear. The dependency can be technical, commercial, operational or all three at once.
The cost of lock-in is usually imagined as a hypothetical future migration. The real cost arrives earlier and repeats: a supplier who knows you cannot leave prices every renewal, every change order and every support escalation against that knowledge. This is why lock-in belongs in the original selection decision rather than in some later contingency plan, and why the platform that looks cheapest at signature is sometimes the most expensive over a decade. At selection, exit cost should be priced as a line item; after signature, it can only be managed, never removed.