A startup is more likely to die for another reason first, such as a founder-breakup, or some form of "running out of money". Google App Engine and Heroku and A

A startup is more likely to die for another reason first, such as a founder-breakup, or some form of "running out of money". Google App Engine and Heroku and Azure also have lock-in too, to varying degrees -- but at the start it still makes sense to use these sorts of services rather than worry about lock-in. (And if someone later gives you $100k of compute credits on their platform, and it costs you less than that to rewrite the "lock-in" parts, then you still win.)