What happens to my software if you stop?
A perfectly fair question with a solo provider — and I'd rather answer it myself, honestly, than wave it away. In short: your data belongs to you and you can leave anytime. The running solution depends on me, that's the honest catch. Here's how I keep that risk small.
Anyone buying software from a single person rather than a large vendor rightly asks: what if that one person falls ill, runs out of time, or simply stops? That's the "bus factor" risk — and talking it away would be exactly the dishonesty I want to avoid. So I'll place it openly.
What protects you in any case
The most important point first, because it defuses the fear: your data always belongs to you. You can export it anytime — not just on cancellation, but as a matter of course. That means: even in the worst case you're not left sitting on lost data. You hold your stock, customers and lists in a common format and can move to another solution with it.
That's the decisive difference from real lock-in: you'd only be trapped if your data were locked in with me. It isn't. Not being locked in is the best protection against a provider dropping out — with me just as with any large tool.
How I actively keep the risk small
Protection is one half, prevention the other. Concretely:
- Your solution stays simple. I build what solves your problem, not an overloaded system — what's lean is easier for someone else to take over in an emergency.
- You can cancel anytime. You're never locked into a long contract term that ties you to me.
- You get your data without hurdles. No leverage, no delay — the export is part of the deal, not a favour.
The honest comparison
A large vendor doesn't drop out over a single person — but it can double its prices, cut features or discontinue your tool entirely without you having any say. So you're dependent there too, just on something more impersonal. With me the dependence is more personal, but in return you have a direct contact and can leave anytime. Both paths carry a risk — my answer to it is transparency and data freedom, not a promise that nothing can ever happen.
If maximum independence matters more to you than an ongoing, maintained service, owning the code via a contract for work is the better path — I place that honestly too: Who owns the code if I cancel? →