The most expensive software decisions are the ones you don't get to redo. Here's a 30-minute due diligence pass to run before paying.
The seven questions
- Has the company shipped a real release in the last 90 days? Look at the changelog. Quiet for a year is a yellow flag, two years is a red one.
- Is there a clear pricing page? "Contact us for pricing" on a $50 SaaS is fine. On a $50K enterprise tool is normal. In between is suspicious.
- What's the data export story? Search for "export" in the docs. If it's not obvious, your data isn't really yours.
- How does support work? Email-only? Forum-only? Real ticketing? Look for response time SLAs.
- What's the refund policy? 30-day money-back is the floor. No refund language is a red flag.
- Is there a recent security advisory page? Real companies have one. Fake ones don't.
- How big is the company? A two-person shop can ship great software but can disappear. A 10,000-person shop won't disappear but can deprioritize your tool.
Quick reputation check
- Search "[vendor] down" — outage history.
- Search "[vendor] shut down" — lifecycle history.
- Search "[vendor] alternatives" — read why people leave.
Pre-purchase smoke test
Try the free tier or trial for 3 days minimum. Software you'd buy after a 5-minute demo is software you'll regret in a quarter.
At LionScripts every product page has the seven questions above answered up front: changelog, pricing tiers, refund policy, support details, and security info — no need to dig. See our trust principles and how software licensing actually works.
