Vetting a tool vendor is a different job

Vetting a tool vendor is a different job
Vendors do not owe you money, so people skip diligence entirely. Then the tool becomes load-bearing and you discover what you agreed to.
Ask before you integrate:
— Where does the data live and who can access it? Your traffic data is competitive information.
— Can you export everything, in a usable format, without asking permission? If export needs a support ticket, you are renting your own numbers.
— What happens on cancellation — immediate cutoff, or a grace period with retention?
— How does pricing behave as you grow? Usage-based costs have a habit of arriving all at once.
— What is the actual support commitment, and what is the escalation path when something breaks at a bad time?
— How hard is migrating away? Ask it concretely: if this vendor disappeared overnight, what would the week look like?
— Do they resell or aggregate your data anywhere?
Depth of integration should match depth of diligence.