Free Checklist
10 vendor lock-in red flags
The warning signs your current IT provider has made it harder than it should be to leave — checked against real switching conversations, not guesswork.
What's inside
- 1You don't hold admin credentials for your own Microsoft 365 tenant, domain registrar, or firewall.
- 2Your domain name or SSL certificates are registered under the provider's account, not yours.
- 3Backups are stored in a proprietary format only their software can restore.
- 4There's no documented network diagram or asset inventory — just what's in someone's head.
- 5The contract auto-renews with no clearly defined exit or handover process.
- 6Hardware or software licences are held in the provider's name, not your business's.
- 7Data export or migration fees were never disclosed upfront.
- 8One named contact handles everything, with no escalation path or team redundancy.
- 9The SLA doesn't define response time and resolution time as separate, measurable things.
- 10You've never been given your own control panel access to DNS or hosting "for security reasons."