The real cost of platform lock-in
The cheapest website decision in year 1 often becomes the most expensive in year 3. A framework for thinking about switching costs before they become unavoidable.
Every platform promises you can leave whenever you want. What they don't tell you is what leaving costs.
I've seen businesses trapped on Wix, Squarespace, HubSpot, and Webflow not because the platform was actively bad, but because the cost of exit had quietly gone from "an afternoon" to "two months of pain."
How lock-in accumulates
1. Content locked in proprietary formats
Your blog posts are stored in a format only the platform understands. Exporting gives you HTML that's full of platform-specific class names, shortcodes, or embed markers. Usable? Sort of. Easy to import elsewhere? Not really.
2. Integrations stacked on top of each other
You added a form plugin. Then an SEO plugin. Then a booking integration. Each one works with the platform. None of them work anywhere else. Migrating means re-integrating every piece from scratch.
3. URLs that can't move
Your blog posts are at yourplatform.com/blog/post-slug. When you move, every URL changes. You can set up 301 redirects, but only if the new host supports them — and only if you still have admin access at the old host to set the redirects up there.
4. Design only exists inside the editor
Your site's design was built in a visual editor. There's no "source code" you can take with you. Recreating the design somewhere else is a full rebuild, not a migration.
The Orbit alternative
When we ship a site, you get:
- The full source code in a GitHub repo you own
- Database contents exportable as standard SQL
- DNS / domain registered at a neutral registrar
- Email list in Resend or your chosen ESP, exportable as CSV any time
- Documentation on how everything is wired up
If you ever want to leave Orbit, you don't need us. You can hire any other competent Next.js developer and hand them the repo. Migration is a weekend project, not a disaster.
A simple test
Ask your current platform this one question: "If I wanted to move to a different host tomorrow, what would it cost me in time and money?"
If the honest answer is more than a week's work and $1,000, you're locked in. Every month you stay is accruing more switching cost. At some point the math flips and you'll never leave, even when the platform is clearly holding you back. That's the trap.
We'd rather you start somewhere you never need to leave.
