In 2019, a well-known e-commerce platform discovered they were spending more on their integration middleware than on their primary database infrastructure. When they tried to optimize costs by migrating some workflows in-house, they found it would take 18 months and a team of six engineers. They stayed.
This is vendor lock-in in action. Not the dramatic kind where a vendor holds your data hostage—the subtle kind where switching costs become so high that staying put is always the 'rational' choice, even when the current solution no longer serves you well.
What is Vendor Lock-In?
Vendor lock-in occurs when the cost of switching from one solution to another becomes prohibitively high. In the integration space, this typically manifests in three ways:
- Proprietary Formats: Your workflows are written in a vendor-specific language that can't be exported or translated
- Data Dependencies: Your operational data flows through vendor systems, making it hard to untangle
- Knowledge Silos: Your team has built expertise in a specific platform that doesn't transfer to alternatives
The insidious thing about lock-in is that it rarely feels like a problem when you're getting locked in. The platform works great. The features are helpful. The pricing seems fair. It's only later—when your needs change, when you scale, when you want to optimize—that the bars of your cage become visible.
Signs You're Locked In
How do you know if you're already locked in? Here are the warning signs:
- You can't export your workflows in a standard format (code, JSON, YAML)
- Your integration logic only exists in a vendor's UI
- You've had to upgrade pricing tiers just to access features you need
- The thought of migrating makes your stomach hurt
- You've built workarounds for platform limitations rather than fixing the root cause
- Your vendor has raised prices and you felt powerless to respond
If three or more of these apply to your current situation, you're experiencing meaningful vendor lock-in. The good news: awareness is the first step.
The Ownership Spectrum
Integration solutions exist on a spectrum from fully managed to fully owned. Understanding where each option falls helps you make intentional decisions:
Fully Managed (iPaaS): Zapier, Workato, Tray.io. You use a visual builder, everything runs on their infrastructure. Maximum convenience, minimum ownership. Good for: Non-technical teams, prototyping, workflows that won't scale.
Managed with Export (AlgorithmShift): You build visually but can export clean, runnable code at any time. The convenience of iPaaS with an escape hatch. Good for: Teams that want speed now and flexibility later.
Open Source Libraries: Libraries like Airbyte, n8n, or custom code using SDKs. Maximum ownership, more setup required. Good for: Teams with strong engineering capacity and specific requirements.
Fully Custom: Building everything from scratch with raw API calls. Maximum control, maximum effort. Good for: Edge cases where no existing solution fits.
Decision Framework
When evaluating an integration solution, ask these questions:
- Can I export my work? If you can't get your workflows out in a usable format, you're building on sand.
- What happens at 10x scale? Price out your costs at 10x current volume. Is the pricing model sustainable?
- Who owns the runtime? Does code run in your infrastructure or theirs? What are the security implications?
- What's the migration path? If you needed to leave in 6 months, what would that look like?
- Is the logic readable? Can a new engineer understand what your integrations do without access to a specific UI?
Migration Strategies
If you're already locked in, here's how to plan your escape:
Document Everything: Before you touch anything, document every workflow. What triggers it? What does it do? What systems does it connect? This documentation will be valuable regardless of what you do next.
Prioritize by Risk: Not all workflows are equal. Identify which ones are business-critical, which handle sensitive data, and which are candidates for migration. Start with low-risk, high-frequency workflows.
Run in Parallel: Don't do a big bang migration. Run new and old systems in parallel, comparing results. Gradually shift traffic to the new system as confidence grows.
Build Migration Muscle: The first few workflows will be slow. You're building knowledge, patterns, and templates. By workflow 10, you'll be 5x faster than workflow 1.
The Middle Path
The debate between 'use a platform' and 'build everything custom' is a false dichotomy. The best solutions give you both: the speed and convenience of a platform with the ownership and flexibility of custom code.
That's the philosophy behind AlgorithmShift. Use our visual builder when you want speed. Export to code when you want control. Run in your infrastructure when you want ownership. The choice should always be yours.
The best integration solution is one that makes itself optional. You should stay because it provides value, not because leaving is too hard.
Whatever you choose, make sure you're making an intentional decision about ownership. The integration choices you make today will shape your options for years to come.
AlgorithmShift Engineering
Engineering Team
The AlgorithmShift engineering team builds tools that help developers ship faster while maintaining full code ownership.