Definition
Switching cost is the total expense - financial, technical, and operational - of moving from one vendor or platform to another.
Switching cost is the engine of vendor lock-in. Drivers include data egress and reformatting, re-integration, staff retraining, and parallel-run periods. Projecting it at years 3, 5, and 7 turns an invisible risk into a number you can negotiate against.
Go deeperSoftware total cost of ownership: the hidden costsRelated terms
From definition to deal
Benchside turns switching cost into the exact questions, exclusions, and lock-in math for your specific vendor - your first project is free.