The low-code industry punishes success. While these platforms promise to democratize software development, they've created a trap that costs organizations millions.The numbers tell the story: 83% of migrations fail, leaving companies with zero negotiating leverage. Pricing explodes from $50K to over $500K for a single application as it scales. Success becomes a financial burden, with costs rising exponentially as users grow.This is by design. Vendor lock-in happens through proprietary runtimes, closed ecosystems, and non-standard code requiring complete rebuilds to migrate.

Pricing models make it worse with per-user fees that become untenable, per-app pricing that multiplies costs, and complex credit systems nobody understands.Take PowerApps: 400 users with premium licenses costs €90,000 per year for one application. Over 4-5 years, that's nearly half a million euros. Organizations with dozens of applications face bills in the millions. Geographic location doesn't equal sovereignty either. A Dutch government agency chose a local provider, only to have it acquired overnight by a US company, instantly eliminating data sovereignty.