Should we let users export their data, or does that make leaving too easy?

A customer asked me last week for a full export of everything they've put into the product — every record, every file, every note. And I froze.

My first instinct was trust. Of course they should be able to take their data. It's their data, not mine. Refusing would be exactly the kind of lock-in behavior I've always hated in other products. A product that holds your data hostage isn't a product — it's a hostage situation with a login page.

But then the quieter instinct showed up. If leaving is frictionless, people leave more easily. One bad week, one frustrating bug, one tempting competitor, and they can be gone in a single click, taking years of history with them. A little friction at the exit is, honestly, part of what keeps a business alive.

The clean answer is that the data is theirs and I should make it easy to take. The honest answer is that every founder who says that is also quietly aware that their export button is a little slower than it should be.

Have you built a real export? Did you ever measure whether it increased churn? And where do you draw the line between respecting your users and protecting your business?