Switching software house in the age of do-it-yourself AI
Code, accesses, data and handover, to change supplier without stopping the business; and when it makes sense to look after the software yourself with AI.
When does it pay to switch software house?
When the problem is who looks after the software, not the software: changes arrive late, quotes grow without explanation, answers thin out, and you would not know how to carry on without that supplier. Each of these signs has a first step you can take before deciding.
| Sign | What it tells you | First step |
|---|---|---|
| Every change takes weeks | nobody is left on your project, or the code has become hard to touch | ask who works on it, by name, and how much time they give it |
| Quotes grow and nobody can say why | fixes, updates for new rules and new features end up in the same figure | ask for the quote split by item, in writing |
| Few answers, always from the same person | the software depends on whoever knows it | ask for the procedures only that person can do to be written down |
| Servers, domains and services are in the supplier's name | if they disappear, you control nothing | ask for the list of accesses and whose they are |
| You do not know where the code is | you do not know whether you can have it changed by others | reread the contract: assignment, license or nothing |
The most serious sign is not the price: it is not knowing what would happen if the supplier disappeared tomorrow. If the answers to the first steps arrive, and they are good, the relationship can perhaps be fixed. If they do not arrive, you have already started preparing the switch.
Sometimes the problem is the software, not who looks after it: if it is old and every change breaks something else, changing supplier is not enough. The choice between keeping it, modernizing it or rebuilding it is in the guide on legacy software.
What must you have in hand before you give notice?
The code with its whole history, the accesses in your name, a copy of the data you have tried restoring, the instructions to get the software running again and a contract that lets you have it changed by others. The repository is the archive of the code with every change, who made it and when: a ZIP file with the latest version does not replace it, because it does not say why the code is the way it is.
| What | How you check it is really there |
|---|---|
| The repository with its complete history | a developer, yours or the new supplier's, opens it and sees every change with date and author |
| The accesses to servers, databases, domains and cloud | they are in the company's name, with at least two administrators of your own |
| The connected services: e-invoicing, payments, email, couriers | you know which they are, in whose name and with which keys |
| A complete copy of the data | it has been restored on another machine, and the totals match |
| The instructions to build, install and publish | someone who did not write the software has followed them, and succeeded |
| The rules written only in the code: calculations, exceptions, month-end closes | whoever knows them has explained them, and someone has written them down |
| The contract | it says whether the code is yours (assignment), whether you can only use it (license) and with what notice you leave |
| Third-party components and their licenses | you know what is not yours and what it costs |
The proof that you have everything is a single one: another team, with what you were handed, installs the software in a test environment, restores the data and publishes a small change, without asking the old supplier anything. Notice goes out after this test, not before.
On 31 October 2026 Google's AI Mode advised getting code and passwords under a pretext, such as a check for the insurance, “without letting the old supplier know you are leaving”. We do not advise it: what the contract gives you, you ask for in writing and without excuses, and what it does not give you does not become yours through a pretext. For the handover, besides, you will still need that supplier, and an excuse found out makes it harder. What we hand over at the end of a project is in the frequently asked questions.
Is the code yours if the contract does not say so?
Not necessarily: if the contract says nothing about the rights to the code, a judge decides. Italian copyright law requires the assignment of rights to be proven in writing (article 110 of Law 633 of 1941), and for software commissioned from an outside supplier it has no express rule. The full picture, with the difference between assignment and license, is in the guide on how to choose a software house.
Among trial courts the view favourable to whoever commissioned the software prevails, according to the editors of Brocardi, and three recent decisions go the same way. The Court of Bologna, in ruling 96 of 2020, wrote that the client acquires the code “originally”, as a consequence of the contract for the work, and held the refusal to hand it over unlawful; in that case the contract had a clause on the rights. The Business Court of Brescia, in an order of 14 April 2025, sided with a company against the software house that denied it the sources, claiming to have given it only a license of use: for the judge the client's acquisition “does not depend on payment of the fee”, and the code was seized. The Court of Venice, on 24 June 2025, applied to commissioned software the rule for software written by employees and ordered, as an interim measure, the delivery of the source code: without it, the client could not entrust maintenance to others. These are decisions of single courts, not a rule; the Court of Cassation, in 2022, followed a different principle for commissioned works.
Ask Google and you find both views. On 31 October 2026 AI Mode, asked by a company whose supplier denies it the code, answered “No, you cannot demand the source code unless the contract expressly provides for it”; for the search “source code ownership” in Italian it cited Bologna and Brescia in favour of the client.
You get the code through a negotiation sooner than through a lawsuit: a lawsuit takes months, and the software has to work in the meantime. The negotiation has a currency, the handover days the old supplier invoices you, to be traded for the written assignment of the code and the delivery of the repository. If the code stays theirs, there is deposit with a third party, that is escrow, or replacing the software starting from the data, which are yours.
A technical contribution
Laws and rulings are summarized from the sources listed at the bottom, read on the date at the top of the page. Like the other guides, this is a technical contribution, not legal advice; have your lawyer read any contract that matters.
And the data, can you get it back?
Yes, and it pays to do it before giving notice, in a format another program can read: a copy of the database or CSV files, not PDF printouts. Then the copy gets tested, by restoring it and comparing the totals.
If the supplier processes personal data on your behalf, of customers or employees, the contract the GDPR requires between you and them (article 28) must provide that at the end of the service, at your choice, they delete it or return it to you, and delete the copies. Choose return, check the data, and ask for deletion only afterwards.
If the software is supplied to you as a cloud service, on their servers and with a fee, since 12 September 2025 the Data Act, the European regulation on data, applies too. It requires the conditions for switching to another provider to be written into the contract and made available before signing.
| What the Data Act requires | Article |
|---|---|
| the switching conditions written into the contract, before signing | 25 |
| a notice period of at most two months to start the switch | 25 |
| at most 30 days of transition, during which the service continues | 25 |
| at least 30 days to retrieve the data | 25 |
| complete deletion of the data after the switch | 25 |
| from 12 January 2027, no switching charges | 29 |
For a service largely custom-built for a single customer, and not offered from a catalogue, the ban on switching charges does not apply (article 31), and the provider must tell you before the contract. If the software is custom and runs on an account of yours, the problem does not arise: the data are already in your hands. That is why we advise you to create the accounts yourself from the start, and give us access.
How do you move from one supplier to the other without stopping?
In six steps, with the software staying on and looked after until the new team has shown it can run it on its own.
| Step | What happens | When it is done |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Inventory | code, accesses, data, connected services and contracts are listed | every item has an owner and a copy |
| 2. Code review | the new team reads the code and describes its state, before any quote | you have the problems in order of severity |
| 3. Handover | the old supplier explains architecture, releases and procedures, in recorded and paid sessions | the procedures are written, and someone has repeated them |
| 4. Independence test | the new team installs in a test environment, restores the data and publishes a small change | it succeeded without asking for help |
| 5. Key rotation | the old supplier's accesses are revoked and service passwords and keys are changed | no old credential works any more |
| 6. Stabilization | for a few weeks only fixes, no new features | the new team has made at least one normal release |
Passwords and keys are changed right after the last session with the old supplier: before, you need them for the handover; after, they are an open door. If the review shows the software needs replacing, the method that does not stop work, one module at a time, is in the guide on legacy software, under how do you change it without stopping work.
How much does it cost to switch software house?
On top of the work the new supplier will do afterwards, the switch costs three things: the old supplier's days for the handover, the time the new team takes to understand the code and the weeks in which the software gets no new features. What the review finds to fix is a separate cost, which already existed and which the switch makes visible.
With us securing the system starts at 5,000 €: we recover code and accesses, make a complete copy of the data and restore it on another machine, and whoever knows the system shows us the operations nobody else can do. The old supplier's days are invoiced by them. Maintenance afterwards we estimate on the work the software really needs, not as a percentage of its initial cost.
Ask Google or an AI assistant for the figure and you get ranges far apart.
| Who answers | Cost of the switch |
|---|---|
| Google AI Overview | 500-2,500 $ with a cooperative supplier, 3,000-10,000 $ and more with a hostile or messy one, no source |
| Google AI Mode | 2,000-10,000 $, from 10 to 40 hours of an experienced developer, no source |
| ChatGPT | from 1,000-2,500 € if it is simple to 12,000-25,000 € and more if it is poorly documented, stated as its own estimates |
| Perplexity | 5,000-20,000 € for a small application, over 25,000-50,000 € for a large or poorly documented system |
| Volcanic Minds | securing the system from 5,000 €, plus the old supplier's days |
Answers collected on 31 October 2026 to the same question, in English, from a company with custom software made by a small agency.
Would you rather talk it through?
Book a call with people who work on these topics every day: we will look at your case together.
Does it pay to look after it yourself with AI?
For small changes yes, if someone in the company can read the code and answers for it; for the whole system, without that person, no. Tools like Cursor or Claude Code write code fast. They do not know whether a change breaks the month-end close, because that rule sits in six-year-old code and in the head of whoever wrote it.
That AI makes people who already program faster, besides, is less obvious than you read. In 2025 METR, an independent research institute, had 16 experienced developers work on the large open source projects they contributed to, with and without the tools of early 2025: with AI they took 19% more time, while beforehand they expected to take 24% less.
Extra time to finish a task, with AI
16 experienced developers, 246 tasks on their own projects.
In February 2026 METR updated the study with more recent tools: developers are probably faster with AI today, it writes, but the new data are only weak evidence of it. And on security, Veracode saw models that, given the choice, chose the insecure solution in 45% of tasks: the guide on the AI-built prototype covers it.
| Work | In-house, with AI? | On what condition |
|---|---|---|
| Reports and data extractions | yes | on a copy of the data, not on the live database |
| One more field or screen | yes, if whoever does it can program | whoever knows the system reviews the change before release |
| Fixing a bug | yes, if whoever does it can program | a test that fails before and passes after |
| Calculations of prices, invoices, stock | with caution | tests on the data of a month already closed, comparing the totals |
| Database, permissions, payments, releases | no, not alone | handled by whoever answers for the system |
The risk is replacing dependence on a supplier with dependence on a tool nobody in the company can check. The middle way that holds up is a supplier, or an experienced developer, who answers for architecture, security and releases, and an in-house person who makes the small changes with AI, reviewed by them. A tool like Cursor or Claude Code sends the code it reads to its provider's models: give it a copy without personal data of customers or employees.
We use AI every day too, with a rule written in our FAQ: code written with the help of AI is reviewed by a person who answers for it, and the hours saved are not invoiced to you.
Better to keep it or rebuild it from scratch?
If it does its job, keep it. Software that works but is held captive by its supplier should be freed, not rebuilt. Rebuilding pays when the review finds problems that cost more than a new system, or when the software can no longer carry what the business has to do. With us changing it one module at a time starts from 10,000 € for the first module, and rebuilding an essential management system in one go starts from about 15,000 €, plus data migration. The three-year comparison, item by item, is in the guide on legacy software.
An example: 30 people, a 15,000 € update and the code denied
An illustrative example, from the question we put to Google and to AI assistants. A 30-person company has software for orders and stock made by a small software house, which asks 15,000 € for an update and denies the code because, it says, the contract does not provide for it.
- It rereads the contract. A written assignment settles the matter; a license tells it what it can do; a contract that says nothing leaves it in the uncertain case, and it pays to have a lawyer read it.
- It asks right away, in writing, for the data and the accesses. A complete copy of the database in a readable format and the list of servers, domains and services, with the owner. For the personal data the supplier processes, article 28 of the GDPR is on its side.
- It asks for the 15,000 € quote split by item. Fixes, updates for new rules and new features: to know what it is buying, and what it can buy from others.
- It asks a second supplier to look at what is there. Without code, the review works on the database and on what the software does, observed with the people who use it every day.
Then there are three roads. The first is negotiating: part of that figure paid for a handover with a written assignment and the repository. The second, if the code stays the supplier's, is replacing the software starting from the data: with a ready-made product, if it also covers the rules the company had built into its own, or with a new custom one. Without code and without another point to connect from, though, replacing it one module at a time cannot be done. The third is the court, with the Bologna, Brescia and Venice decisions in favour of the client, and the time and costs to weigh with the lawyer.
Google proposed moving to a standard management system, with unsourced figures: the Overview 3,000-8,000 € for setup and migration plus 1,500-4,000 € a year, AI Mode 6,500-16,500 € in the first year. Perplexity reported between 36,000 and 102,000 € for implementing an open source ERP in a company of 15-30 users. These are figures for different things, and none is the cost of switching on the same software.
Sources and further reading
- Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 on data (Data Act), articles 2, 25, 29, 31 and 50eur-lex.europa.eu, accessed 31 October 2026
- Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on data protection (GDPR), article 28eur-lex.europa.eu, accessed 31 October 2026
- Italian Law no. 633 of 22 April 1941 on copyright, article 110, written proof of the transfer of rightsnormattiva.it, in Italian, accessed 23 October 2026
- Brocardi.it, “Di chi è il codice sorgente di un software?” (Who owns the source code of software?), 26 April 2018brocardi.it, in Italian, accessed 23 October 2026
- Annalisa Spedicato, “Lavori di grafica su commissione, di chi è il file sorgente? Ecco cosa stabilisce la Cassazione” (Commissioned graphic work, who owns the source file? What the Court of Cassation rules), Agenda Digitale, 17 October 2022agendadigitale.eu, in Italian, accessed 23 October 2026
- Arlo Canella, “Codice sorgente: la software house è tenuta a consegnarlo al committente?” (Source code: must the software house hand it over to the client?), Canella Camaiora, 21 June 2025canellacamaiora.it, in Italian, accessed 31 October 2026
- Luigi Manna, “La sorgente della discordia: chi è il vero proprietario del software?” (The source of discord: who really owns the software?), Martini Manna, 7 May 2025martinimanna.it, in Italian, accessed 31 October 2026
- Court of Venice, 24 June 2025, “Software commissionato in appalto: titolarità del committente e consegna cautelare dei codici sorgente” (Software commissioned under a contract for works: the client's ownership and interim delivery of the source code), Giurisprudenza delle impresegiurisprudenzadelleimprese.it, in Italian, accessed 31 October 2026
- METR, “Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivity”, 10 July 2025metr.org, accessed 31 October 2026
- METR, “We are Changing our Developer Productivity Experiment Design”, 24 February 2026metr.org, accessed 31 October 2026
- Veracode, “AI-Generated Code Poses Major Security Risks in Nearly Half of All Development Tasks”, 30 July 2025veracode.com, accessed 29 October 2026
Can the old supplier refuse to give me the source code?
If the contract leaves the rights with them, yes; if it assigns them to you in writing, no. If the contract says nothing a judge decides, and some recent decisions, such as those of the Courts of Bologna in 2020, Brescia and Venice in 2025, have sided with the client. Before a lawsuit a negotiation pays: the handover days in exchange for the written assignment of the code.
Do I have to pay the old supplier for the handover?
Usually yes, because the days in which they explain the software and hand over documentation and accesses are work. It pays to ask for a separate quote, listing what they hand over and the test that closes the handover, that is another team installing and publishing the software without them.
Can an employee change our software with Cursor or Claude Code?
For small changes yes, if the employee can program and someone who knows the system reviews every change before release. Database, permissions, payments and releases stay with whoever answers for the system. First check that the code is yours, and give the tool a copy without personal data: the code it reads goes to its provider's models.
What happens to the data if the software is in the old supplier's cloud?
They are yours, and the supplier has to return them. If they include personal data, the GDPR obliges whoever processes them on your behalf to return or delete them at the end of the service, at your choice. If the software is a cloud service, the Data Act requires the switch to be governed in the contract, with at least 30 days to retrieve the data and, from 12 January 2027, no charges, except for services custom-built for a single customer.
What do you do when you take over from another supplier?
First securing the system, which starts at 5,000 €. We recover code and accesses, restore a copy of the data on another machine and write down the procedures only whoever knows the system can do. Then the code review, and only afterwards do we tell you whether it pays to keep it, modernize it or rebuild it.
And if one day I wanted to leave you?
Nothing blocking: the code is already yours and the rest is designed to be picked up by someone else. Each paid milestone transfers to you ownership of the part of the project it covers, and you create the accounts yourself from the start. If you keep working with us, it will be because you are happy with us, not because we forced you to.
Want to know what you are missing to switch?
Tell us about the software you have and who looks after it, in an introductory call, free and with no commitment: we tell you what to recover before giving notice and where to start.
- You won't talk to a salesperson
- NDA before we get into the details
- The code stays yours
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