I've run into this a few times before too. Sometimes discussing maintenance/ongoing costs and how minimal they are with an Elixir/Phoenix app can be compelling

I've run into this a few times before too. Sometimes discussing maintenance/ongoing costs and how minimal they are with an Elixir/Phoenix app can be compelling, though not always. I prefer to be over-transparent with clients so I'll usually add that if they plan to switch contractors often then it's probably not (tho sometimes still is) a good idea to go with Elixir. When I compare the amount of ongoing effort to keep a PHP, Node, or Python app running securely in prod with the ongoing effort with a Phoenix app, it's usually a better deal for them. The one Danger Zone area though is when they want something between WordPress and a "real" app. A lot of the clients I've talked to already have WordPress and are really trying to stretch the framework to places it isn't really made to go. Those customers often think "I should be able to get a full app built for <=$10,000" and often shop around until they find someone who will accept it, and then they usually end up getting a bad/buggy product that is slow as dirt. At that point it's often too late as well because nobody wants to pay to start over. For those clients though I wouldn't recommend Elixir because they would almost rather spend more in maintenance costs than in initial development because the numbers feel smaller when spread out, even if they add up to more in the long run and with a much worse product. That is not to say of course that any Elixir app is going to be better - there are bad Elixir devs just like any stack, though I think Elixir's relative lack of popularity actually leads to an overall more skilled dev pool.