How to evaluate an AI tool switch in five questions

Almost every switch decision goes wrong the same way. Someone compares feature lists, finds the challenger equal or better, moves, and then discovers the cost was never in the features. It was in the export format, the licence tier, and the four evenings spent rebuilding configuration.

These five questions, asked in order, catch that before you cancel anything.

Question 1: what happens to your work when you stop paying?

Ask this first because it is the only question with an irreversible wrong answer. Can you export your data in a format something else can read, does the export include everything or only the part the vendor considers yours, and does export require a higher tier than the one you are on?

That last clause catches people repeatedly. Several tools gate code or data export behind a plan above the entry tier, which means the cheapest paid plan is not the cheapest way to keep your work.

• AI tool lock-in: what to check first
• Lovable vs Base44: export and lock-in

Question 2: does your plan permit the use you have in mind?

Commercial rights are usually attached to a tier rather than to the product. A free tier that produces excellent output you are not licensed to sell is worth nothing to a business, and a paid tier one step up may be the only compliant option.

Read the plan page rather than a review. Reviews describe capability; only the vendor states permission, and permission is what a client or a platform will ask about.

Question 3: what is the replacement's free floor?

Before spending anything, find out how far the candidate goes for free, because that is your evaluation budget. A published free tier lets you run a real week of work against the substitute while the incumbent is still live, which is the only test that produces a defensible answer.

If a candidate has no free tier and no trial, that is not disqualifying, but it does mean your evaluation has a price, and you should decide that price before you start rather than after.

• How to read an AI tool's free tier
• The hidden costs of switching

Question 4: how many hours will the move take?

Count them honestly: exporting, re-importing, rebuilding configuration and prompts, re-teaching whoever else uses the tool, and the fortnight of reduced speed while the new thing is unfamiliar. Multiply by what an hour of your time is worth.

A switch that saves ten a month and costs fifteen hours pays back in over a year, which is longer than most of these products stay unchanged. That arithmetic kills more switches than any feature gap does.

Question 5: is the pricing model wrong, or just the price?

If your usage is bursty and you are on a flat subscription, the model is wrong and any metered replacement wins. If your usage is heavy and daily and you are metered, the model is wrong in the other direction. Fixing the model produces a durable saving; shopping for a cheaper version of the same model produces a small one.

Answer that before you shortlist anything, because it eliminates most candidates immediately and turns a vague comparison into a narrow one.

• Usage-based vs seat-based pricing
• When not to switch at all