Stage 2: Hard to leave
Your network, data, purchases, and habits make leaving costly or awkward, even as the bargain shifts.
Stage
Function
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Cash App
2 Hard to leaveSquare’s consumer wallet: still relatively simple, but Bitcoin, stocks, and borrowing expand the funnel toward fee-bearing products.
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Claude
2 Hard to leaveAnthropic’s assistant: Pro and Max plans monetize, but positioning still emphasizes capability and safety over ad models.
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GitLab
2 Hard to leaveOpen-core DevOps platform: self-host option preserves some exit, SaaS still pushes seat-based upsell.
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Ko-fi
2 Hard to leaveTips and memberships with lighter branding than Patreon; Gold tier and shop features add platform dependency over time.
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Perplexity
2 Hard to leaveAnswer-first search with citations; Pro tier and publisher deals raise questions about who gets traffic and margin.
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Shopify
2 Hard to leaveMerchant platform still oriented toward independence, though app ecosystem, payments, and enterprise upsells add lock-in over time.
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Stripe
2 Hard to leaveDeveloper-first payments rails: pricing is real, but docs and APIs still deliver strong surplus to builders versus legacy processors.
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Substack
2 Hard to leaveNewsletter + payments with clearer creator cut than ad platforms; network features and video push toward fuller stack lock-in.
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Vercel
2 Hard to leaveFrontend cloud with stellar DX: usage-based billing and framework coupling can still surprise teams at scale.
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Brave
2 Hard to leaveChromium fork pushing privacy and optional rewards—fewer trackers by default, but still a product with its own wallet, ads narrative, and ecosystem bets.
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Discord
2 Hard to leaveStrong real-time product for communities, but your social graph and server history are deeply embedded—switching means rebuilding social capital elsewhere.
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Figma
2 Hard to leaveCollaborative design in the browser; files, libraries, and plugins embed teams so deeply that leaving feels like a migration project.
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Notion
2 Hard to leaveFlexible docs and databases users love; leaving means migrating templates, permissions, and team workflows—sticky by design.
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Slack
2 Hard to leaveTeam chat that became the default layer for work comms; switching means migrating channels, bots, and ritualized workflows.
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Telegram
2 Hard to leaveFast clients and huge channels; optional E2EE and a semi-centralized model create a distinct trade-off between freedom and trust in the operator.
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Xbox (Microsoft)
2 Hard to leaveConsole ecosystem with Game Pass value—great until subscriptions, store rules, and account lock-in define what “ownership” means.
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Signal
2 Hard to leaveStill user-respecting by default, but growing reliance on the nonprofit’s roadmap and network effects builds soft lock-in.
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Steam
2 Hard to leaveDominant PC games client; strong library lock-in and social graph, still delivering real value to buyers.
