# Choosing a vendor is signing up for three years
Understanding · principle · https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-06-choosing-a-vendor-is-signing-up-for-three-years.html

## The reflex

A tool or a supplier answers the immediate need. You sign. Its cost in three years and the price of getting out, nobody has looked at.

## The builder's reflex

> "Before we commit, how does the cost move with volume, and how long does it take to get out?"

## Why

A service billed per message costs little at launch. Two years later it is wired into sign-up, reminders and receipts, volume has tripled, and switching would take six months. A vendor's real price is what it costs the day you want to leave.

Currency counts too. A vendor billing in dollars when your income is in another currency makes you carry the exchange risk. Put it in the calculation.

Not every choice deserves this analysis. A small tool you can replace in a day, no. Whatever carries your customers, your data or your payments, yes.

The people who use, integrate, pay for and maintain the service each see a different risk. Ask them before you sign.

## Try this

For an upcoming choice, write three lines:

> Cost at current volume and at three times the volume, with the currency: ...
> What happens with a price rise or an outage, and the fallback: ...
> The work of getting out: data, integrations, training, time: ...

Share them before you sign. Test an export of your data in the first week. If it is hard now, it will be worse in three years.

## To discuss

Which vendor would hurt us most by doubling its price tomorrow?