Most business software in India is bought the same way. A salesperson runs a demo, the screens look good, a price is agreed, and somebody starts typing in a year of records. Nobody in that meeting asks what happens if it does not work out. It feels rude to ask about divorce at the wedding.
I make software for businesses through TUD Innovations, and I have spent years on workshop floors where software is used every day. From both sides, my view is the same: how a product lets you leave tells you more about it than any demo. Here is what I would check before signing up for anything, and what we do ourselves.
Lock-in is rarely a clause in the contract
When people hear "lock-in" they picture a three-year contract with a penalty. That exists, but it is the easy kind to spot. The kind that hurts small businesses is quieter.
It is customer records you can see on screen but cannot download in a form Excel can open. It is a domain registered under the developer's name. It is a Google listing owned from an agency's account. It is a workflow that only exists inside one vendor's product, so leaving means retraining every person in the business. None of these are written down anywhere, and all of them make leaving expensive.
Test the export before you pay
Every vendor will tell you that you can export your data. Ask them to show you, during the demo, with sample records. Then open the file yourself.
A real export is a spreadsheet with one row per customer, invoice or job, and the history attached. A PDF of each invoice is not an export; it is a printout. For anything that touches accounts, ask whether your CA can file from what it produces. In India that usually means Tally and GST exports, not just a pretty report.
This is a rule at Kenro: every record is readable and exportable to Excel at any time, including after the contract ends. Kenro Workshop sends month-end to the CA as Tally and GST exports. If you cannot get your data out on a normal Tuesday, you will not get it out on the day you are angry.
Ask what happens the day you stop paying
This is the single most useful question to ask any software company, and the answer should be specific. "Do not worry, you will be fine" is not an answer.
Here is ours, as a worked example. If a business stops paying for Kenro, the software goes read-only. For twelve months the owner can still open every record and export all of it, at no charge, with reminders before anything is deleted. After that, the data is deleted, apart from records the law requires us to keep.
You might expect "we keep your data forever" to be the better answer. I do not think it is. Nobody can honestly promise forever, and India's data protection law, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, expects personal data to be deleted once its purpose is over. A clear window with reminders is a promise a company can keep. "Forever" is a promise that will be broken quietly.
Own the things that point to your business
Software can be replaced. Your name on the internet is harder to replace, so make sure it is yours from the start.
The domain should be registered with you, or your company, as the registrant. You can ask the registrar, or whoever manages it, to confirm in writing. The Google Business Profile should be owned from your account, with any provider added as a manager, not the other way round. The WhatsApp number customers know should be on a SIM and an account the business controls.
When we built Karyo, the domain rule was the first thing we fixed and the one we do not bend: the owner is the registrant, and Karyo is only the technical contact. If you leave, the name stays with you. That is not generosity. A business that cannot leave is not really a customer, it is a hostage, and hostages do not recommend you to their friends.
Prefer one price per business, not per user
Per-user pricing looks fair in the demo. In practice it punishes you for adding a helper at the counter or giving the accountant a login, so people share passwords and the audit trail becomes useless. Usage meters and credits do something similar: the bill moves every month, and you start rationing the tool you are paying for.
At TUD Innovations every product is one figure per site or per business, never per user. Kenro Workshop has one published price with every module included. Karyo is one monthly plan per business with nothing metered. A price you can predict is one you can plan around, and one you can compare honestly when you are deciding whether to stay.
With custom work, know what you actually own
Custom software is where the most misunderstandings happen, so it is worth being precise. With most custom builds, you are not buying a pile of code that is entirely yours. You are buying the work done for you, running on top of a platform the builder maintains for many clients. That is normal and usually good for you, because the platform keeps getting fixed and upgraded. The problem is when nobody says it out loud.
So ask, in writing: if we part ways, what do I get? At Karyo Studio, our build-to-order arm, the answer is that we hand over your data, your content and the custom work built only for you, and the platform stays licensed. I would rather say that plainly before a project than have someone discover it after.
Be careful with the opposite as well: a one-off fork of a product, built just for you, that no one else uses. It feels special until the vendor stops maintaining it and you are stuck on a version nobody updates. Kenro is configured for each business and never forked for one customer for exactly this reason. Upgrades keep coming because everyone is on the same engine.
A short checklist
Before you sign, get a clear answer to each of these, ideally in writing:
- Show me a real export of my sample data, in a file Excel can open.
- Can my CA file from what this produces at month-end?
- What exactly happens on the day I stop paying, and for how long can I still read my records?
- Whose name is the domain registered in, and who owns the Google listing?
- Is the price per business or per user, and is anything metered?
- For custom work: what do I get if we part ways?
None of these questions are hostile. A good vendor will answer them in a minute, and some will be glad you asked. If the answers are vague, that tells you what you need to know.
I would much rather a business stays with us because the software is good than because leaving is hard. That is the standard every TUD product is held to, and the terms behind it are written out on how we work. You can see the products themselves on the Kenro and Karyo pages, at usekenro.com, usekaryo.com and quoreca.com, or read more about me.