Lock-in and exit costs: check how you leave before you commit

Lock-in is what makes leaving a product costly, even when joining it was easy. Before you commit, export a real sample of your own data, open it in another tool, and check what survived. The video above shows the test in about 75 seconds. This page covers the open formats, where your data lives, and the EU right to receive your personal data in a usable form.

What lock-in means and where it hides

Wikipedia's short description of vendor lock-in is switching costs that inhibit a change of vendor. In software, those costs usually take one of four forms:

• Proprietary formats: files that only the vendor's own app reads fully.
• Workflows: shortcuts, templates and habits that exist only inside one product.
• Integrations: connections to other tools that work only with that product or its platform.
• Contracts: minimum terms, annual commitments or fees charged for exporting.

Lock-in is not always a flaw. A tool that does its job well may be worth staying with. The question is whether leaving stays possible at a cost you can accept. Take a hypothetical notes app whose export produces only PDF files. The pages survive, but the links between notes and the editable text do not, so moving the notes means rebuilding them by hand.

Run an export test before you commit

Use a real sample, not a demo note. The test has four steps.

1. Export a sample. Choose notes that look like your real use: one with an image or attachment, one with a table, one that links to another note, and one with an edit history or comments if the product keeps them.
2. Open it in another tool. Use an app from a different vendor, or a plain text editor if the export is text.
3. Check what survived. Look for formatting, attachments, links, tags, history and comments. Write down what is missing.
4. Decide. If the missing parts are ones you can live without, the lock-in is acceptable. If not, you have measured the cost of leaving before you paid for anything.

Some products also offer an API or an import tool. An API lets a script copy data out, but it takes technical work and its terms can change. An import tool moves data into another product, so check whether it keeps the parts you need. The trial guide covers how to run the trial itself.

Export options can depend on the plan. The listing for Bear names export to PDF and Markdown among its features and says the PRO plan adds extra export options, so test the plan you would actually pay for.

Which open formats hold your data

An open format is one whose definition is public, so any tool can be written to read it. Openness describes the file, not the whole product: a file in an open format can still leave out things the app does on its own. These are the formats most often offered for exports, each with its definition source.

• Markdown is plain text with light markup for headings, lists and links. John Gruber released it in 2004 with a description that does not specify its syntax unambiguously, which is why the CommonMark specification was written. Two tools can still read a file slightly differently.
• CSV holds rows of values separated by commas. RFC 4180 documents the format, but as an informational document, not an Internet standard. Fields that contain commas, double quotes or line breaks must be enclosed in double quotes.
• ICS is the file form of iCalendar, the calendar data format defined in RFC 5545. It holds events and to-dos.
• OPML stores outlines in XML 1.0. The OPML 2.0 specification describes it as an open format, and it is widely used to exchange feed subscription lists.
• EPUB is an e-book format. The EPUB 3.1 specification calls it an interchange and delivery format based on XML and web standards.
• PDF keeps the look of a page. ISO 32000-2 defines PDF 2.0. A PDF preserves appearance well, but it is a poor copy of an editable note.
• Plain text has no single definition of structure. What matters is the encoding, so check which one an export uses. UTF-8, defined in RFC 3629, is the usual encoding to look for.

Local files, vendor servers and your own backups

Where the data lives decides how hard leaving is. Obsidian keeps each note as a plain Markdown file in a vault folder on your device, so the notes stay readable without the app. Notion stores pages and databases on its own servers, and the listing on this site calls that a weaker fit for people who want plain-text copies of everything. Evernote syncs notes through its cloud service. Notesnook encrypts notes end to end, so its sync server holds data only the user can read. That protects privacy, but the copy still sits on the vendor's servers. KeePassXC keeps an encrypted database file on storage you choose and runs no sync service, so you move the file yourself.

Whatever the location, keep a copy you control. The Logseq listing notes that its database version and mobile app are beta or alpha, and that the project recommends regular backups. A backup is only useful if you can open it without the app that wrote it, so restore one copy once to confirm it works.

Your data rights under EU law

Article 20 of the GDPR gives a person the right to receive personal data concerning them, which they provided to a controller, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. They may transmit that data to another controller without hindrance, and ask for direct transfer where that is technically feasible. The right applies only where the processing is based on consent or on a contract, and where it is carried out by automated means. The Article 20 text also says the right must not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.

This is an EU rule about personal data. It is not a guarantee that a product's export keeps your links, formatting or history, and it does not cover data that is not personal. Use it when a vendor's own export falls short: ask for your data in the machine-readable form the article describes, and check what arrives.

Exit plan checklist

• Export a real sample and open it in a second tool before you pay.
• Note which data lives only on the vendor's servers.
• Keep a dated copy you can open without the app.
• Check the export options on the plan you will pay for.
• Write down the cancellation steps, the notice period and the next renewal date.
• Name the product you would move to, and test an import into it once.

For the renewal and licence side of the decision, read subscription or one-time purchase. The note-taking apps ranking and the password managers ranking show each product's storage and export differences.

Sources

• Vendor lock-in, Wikipedia: the switching-cost definition used in the first section.
• RFC 4180: Common Format and MIME Type for CSV Files, Y. Shafranovich, 2005.
• RFC 5545: Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification (iCalendar), B. Desruisseaux, 2009.
• OPML 2.0 specification, opml.org.
• EPUB 3.1 specification, International Digital Publishing Forum, 2017.
• CommonMark specification, version 0.31.2, John MacFarlane, 2024.
• ISO 32000-2:2017, Portable document format, Part 2: PDF 2.0.
• RFC 3629: UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646, 2003.
• Article 20 GDPR: Right to data portability, text of Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

Product facts come from the listme.name product files, last verified on 2026-10-10.