Vendor Lock-in – Definition

The condition of being effectively tied to a software vendor because switching away is impractical — usually due to poor data portability or unfavorable contract terms.

Real lock-in risk comes from proprietary data formats without export options, missing APIs, and long contracts without exit clauses — not from choosing a platform-specialized CMS over a generic one. A generic system with no clean export path can pose a bigger lock-in risk than a specialized one with full API coverage.