Break free from vendor lock-in (or avoid it) with composabilty

Think about the last time you shopped for something that required some research. Maybe it was a new digital asset management tool (DAM) for your business or appliances for a kitchen remodel.

There were likely many options that could do the job, but only a few that stood out with features designed for your specific needs or preferences. If someone limited which vendors or brands you could choose from, you would still get a functional DAM or a beautiful kitchen, but it might not be the best fit for you. 

This is how vendor lock-in feels. Limited choices leave you with a system that feels like it's built for someone else. You’re stuck with tools that work well together (at least according to the vendors) but don’t work well for you. And it gets more frustrating over time.

In this post, you’ll find strategies to prevent vendor lock-in risk and advice on how to break free.

The fallacy of an all-in-one suite

The idea that a monolithic content management system (CMS) or digital experience suite can provide the best tools for all its customers is a fallacy.

Every customer has unique business needs that determine which tools are best for them. For example, several excellent digital asset management solutions (DAMs) are on the market, but they target different use cases and personas. Even if a suite offers one of these leading DAMs, it won't be the best fit for everyone. 

And that’s just one tool. The average marketing team uses more than 120 cloud services, and there’s a field of more than 15,000 different vendors to choose from.

One vendor can’t offer every company the best combination of these tools. What’s more, suite vendors typically build out their toolset by acquiring companies that aren’t leading the market, making it even less likely that their toolset will be the best fit for your business. 

Suite vendors are pivoting to composable

Suites that lock you into a limited toolset or a particular vendor’s technology can’t meet the future needs of most businesses. Gartner states in its 2025 Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) that “by 2026, at least 70% of organizations will be mandated to acquire composable DXP technology, as opposed to monolithic DXP suites.”

In response, traditional suite vendors are trying to jump on the composable trend by providing app marketplaces that offer an impressive list of tools you can integrate. But buyers should beware, these are not easy, one-click integrations. Some marketplaces just link you to sales forms for different vendors. Others require a lot of coding to get the integration working. 

Offering integrations that are difficult to set up and use is another form of vendor lock-in. Of course, I might be biased. Contentful has been composable from the start and has an exceptionally easy-to-use app marketplace. 

In the Contentful App Marketplace, you click install, plug in an API key, select which content fields you want the app to manage, resulting in you being up and running in minutes. We take integrations a step further with an App Framework that lets you build and integrate your own apps. So long, vendor lock-in; hello, freedom, and the competitive advantages that come with getting the tools you need.

How vendor lock-in happens

Initially, a suite might meet a company’s needs, so they take advantage of discounts on additional features from the same vendor and invest in setting up integrations and customizations. Unfortunately, investments in and dependency on a single vendor make it harder to switch providers when a limited suite of tools no longer meets your needs.

Three common ways vendors lock you in:

• Pricing discounts are based on how many of their applications you use. When the discount ends, you're stuck with whatever pricing the vendor sets. 

• Making it hard to integrate external tools. App marketplaces that lack easy integration capabilities make it harder to use external tools, forcing you to rely more and more on tools from the same vendor or a limited list of preferred vendors.

• Lack of support for custom apps. Most suites make it difficult to integrate custom solutions, locking you into their solutions, but sometimes, you need to build it yourself to get what you want. This is why Contentful offers the App Framework. 

Why it's critical to break free now

The world is changing fast. New technologies like advanced personalization and AI-powered features are becoming table stakes. Your ability to experiment with emerging tech and integrate it into your stack is critical.

Legacy suites limit your pace of innovation, forcing you to wait for them to offer new features and integrations. To compete effectively, you need the freedom to experiment with emerging tech, swap out tools that aren’t working, and build a stack that fits your needs.

Marketing leaders also need to maximize return on investment to counter rising costs. Suites offering steep discounts might sound like a good deal, but people tell us that they're only using five or 10% of what they bought. That adds up to a waste of money that you could invest in better tools that your teams actually use.

Reasons why companies cling to legacy tech 

So, why do companies stay on legacy platforms, even when it’s clear those platforms are holding them back?

For some, it's the fear that migrating off a legacy platform will incur high switching costs and a painful migration. You’ve already invested so much into the platform that it feels safer to stick with it. However, this thinking often leads to missed opportunities and greater costs in the long run.

For others, there’s a sense of loyalty to a platform that has served them well. But as Justin Watts of Loblaws explains in this video about their decision to modernize their tech stack, what got you this far might not be enough to meet your future needs. 

The decision can also be complicated by on-premise software vendors that are now offering cloud services. They market it as an upgrade to a modern platform, but the switch is often as complicated as a migration, meaning you might as well consider other options. Furthermore, migrating to a cloud platform from the same provider won’t necessarily solve the problems with your current vendor. 

While discussing one vendor pivoting to cloud architecture, Scott Simmons, Principal Analyst at Real Story Group, says, “Yes, it's SaaS. Yes, it's composable, but it's already old technology… you'll inherit technical debt in a cloud wrapper.”

Staying with your current vendor may feel safe, but it comes at the cost of flexibility, speed, and long-term ROI. Companies that wait too long to break free of vendor lock-in will fall behind competitors who have more freedom to choose the best technologies.

Options for breaking free of vendor lock-in

Leaving your current vendors doesn’t have to be a painful rip-and-replace. You can take a gradual approach and still benefit from composable architecture, better tools, and faster time to market.

1. Phased migration: Start by just moving the CMS from Adobe, Sitecore, or whatever suite you use to Contentful. In most cases, you can continue to use other martech components of your suite alongside Contentful. This enables you to migrate over time. Some customers even serve older content from their legacy CMS while creating new content on Contentful.
   Learn more about content migration with Contentful.

2. Controlled rip and replace: In some cases, replacing legacy tech is the best option. For example, you might face a forced upgrade or sunsetting of your existing tech. Even then, composable offers a more controlled migration by allowing you to use some components of your old stack while migrating others. 

Prevent vendor lock-in risk with a composable CMS or DXP

A composable DXP is the opposite of a suite. It’s built on the idea that you should be able to choose the best tools for your business and swap them out when your needs change.

Unlike suites, which limit you to their tools and preferred vendors, composable platforms are designed for flexibility. You can pick the CMS that fits your team, the DAM that fits your assets, and the personalization engine that fits your strategy. 

However, not all composable platforms are equal.

Some suite vendors rebrand as “composable” without delivering the promised value. In a post about vetting legacy vendors, Simmons advises, “Prospective customers should press hard on supporting SLAs, roadmap transparency, and funding commitments. Ask which products are receiving net-new investment versus those simply being kept on life support.”

Contentful DXP: Composable from the start

Contentful has focused on flexibility from the start. The Contentful DXP provides the core DXP components: headless CMS, personalization, visual editing, the App Framework, and the App Marketplace with pre-built integrations.

Then, we make it easy for you to integrate any modern SaaS application so you can assemble the stack you want and swap components as new tech emerges or your business needs change.

Contentful’s composable DXP offers:

• Flexibility and composability: Contentful is API-first and fully composable, so you can choose the best tools for each function and integrate them seamlessly. 

• Speed to market: Structured content and headless architecture enable marketers to launch campaigns without developer bottlenecks, while developers can move faster with independent front-end deployments.

• App Marketplace and ecosystem: The App Marketplace offers plug-and-play integrations with tools like Google Analytics, Vercel, Salesforce, Cloudinary, and Shopify, plus full support for custom apps through the App Framework.

• Omnichannel content delivery: Contentful separates content from presentation, making it easy to deliver consistent experiences across the web, mobile, kiosks, in-store displays, chatbots, and more, all from a single source of truth.

• Lower total cost of ownership: With Contentful, you only pay for what you use. You control your tech stack without expensive licensing, vendor lock-in, or heavy implementation costs.

• Future-proof architecture: Contentful’s cloud-native, API-first foundation ensures you build on modern, scalable infrastructure. Integrate modern tools, scale with confidence, and replace outdated components without starting over.

• Security and governance: Contentful supports enterprise-grade compliance with SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, SSO, RBAC, audit logs, and more — critical for regulated industries.

• Content reuse, localization, and personalization: Structured content combined with built-in localization and personalization features allows you to maintain brand consistency while tailoring content to target audiences.

Bottom line: Choose a composable platform to avoid vendor lock-in risks

Avoiding vendor lock-in helps you stay competitive by ensuring your teams have the best tools now and in the future. A composable platform allows you to turn your tech stack into a competitive advantage.

As new technologies emerge, companies need to work with multiple vendors that invest in the future and give them room to innovate. Those who cling to the status quo will struggle to keep up with more agile competitors. If you’re outgrowing a legacy platform or feeling locked in, now is the time to consider your options.

Let’s talk about how Contenful’s modern platform gives you the flexibility you need to drive success now and in the future.

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