You just got the Slack message. Your senior Vue developer—the one who knows every corner of the codebase, the one who onboarded three junior devs last year, the one you were counting on for Q1—has accepted an offer somewhere else.
You're surprised. They seemed happy. The salary was competitive. The team culture was good.
But here's what they didn't tell you in the exit interview: They left because of the codebase.
More specifically, they left because they were tired of maintaining a Vue 2 application in 2025. And they're not alone. Across the industry, the best Vue developers are quietly updating their LinkedIn profiles, not because of pay—but because of technology.
The Silent Exodus: Why Developers Are Leaving Legacy Stacks
Let's be honest about what's happening. Vue 2 reached End-of-Life on December 31, 2023. That was over a year ago. The framework that powers your application is officially a legacy technology.
What Your Developers Are Thinking (But Not Saying)
"I haven't learned anything new in 18 months. My skills are getting stale."
"Every conference talk, every blog post, every new library is for Vue 3. I feel left behind."
"My friends at other companies are using Vite and Pinia. I'm still fighting with Webpack and Vuex."
"If I stay here another year, my resume becomes a liability."
Developers are career-minded professionals. They know that technology skills have a shelf life. Working on a legacy stack doesn't just feel frustrating—it actively damages their market value.
The Resume Problem: "Vue 2 Specialist" Is Not a Selling Point
Put yourself in your developer's shoes. They're updating their resume. What do they write?
What They Have to Write
- • Maintained legacy Vue 2 application
- • Vuex state management
- • Webpack configuration
- • Options API patterns
Translation: "I worked on old technology"
What Hiring Managers Want to See
- • Vue 3 with Composition API
- • Pinia state management
- • Vite build tooling
- • TypeScript integration
Translation: "I work with modern, in-demand skills" — see what Vue 3 features your competitors are using.
Here's the brutal truth: Every month your developer spends on Vue 2 is a month they're not building the skills that will define the next decade of frontend development. They know this. And they're acting on it.
The True Cost of Developer Turnover (It's Worse Than You Think)
When a senior developer leaves, you don't just lose a salary. You lose institutional knowledge, momentum, and months of productivity. Let's do the math.
The Cost of Losing One Senior Vue Developer
Industry research consistently shows that replacing a skilled developer costs 50-200% of their annual salary. And that's assuming you can find a replacement at all.
The Compounding Problem
When one developer leaves a legacy codebase, it often triggers a cascade. The remaining team members see their colleague escape to a modern stack, and they start wondering: "Why am I still here?" Before you know it, you've lost your entire senior team.
The Hiring Nightmare: Try Posting a "Vue 2 Specialist" Role
Think replacing that developer will be easy? Try writing the job posting.
Your Job Posting:
Senior Vue.js Developer
Requirements: 3+ years Vue.js experience, Vuex, Vue Router, Vuetify 2...
🚩 Candidate translation: "This is a legacy codebase. They haven't upgraded. Red flag."
Smaller talent pool: The best developers actively filter out Vue 2 jobs. They won't even apply.
Higher salary demands: The developers willing to work on legacy code demand a 20-30% premium. It's hazard pay.
Lower quality candidates: The developers who don't care about working with modern technology often don't care about code quality either.
Longer time-to-hire: Expect 2-3x longer hiring cycles as you wait for someone willing to compromise their career growth.
You're not just competing for talent. You're competing against every company offering Vue 3, React, or any modern stack.
Migration Is a Retention Strategy (Not Just a Technical Upgrade)
Here's the perspective shift that changes everything: A Vue 3 migration isn't just about better performance or security. It's about telling your team: "We invest in your growth."
What Migration Signals to Your Team
"We care about your career growth." You'll work with modern tools that build your resume.
"We invest in our product." We don't let technical debt fester indefinitely.
"We value engineering excellence." We make hard decisions to stay competitive.
"We're building something worth staying for." This is a place with a future.
When you announce a migration project, something interesting happens: morale improves. Developers who were quietly job hunting suddenly re-engage. They see a path forward. They see that leadership understands the technical reality.
The Math That Matters: Retention vs. Migration Cost
Let's put real numbers to this decision:
Cost of NOT Migrating (Per Year)
- Losing 1-2 senior devs: $100,000 - $200,000
- Hiring premium for Vue 2 roles: $20,000 - $40,000
- Extended support fees: $40,000
- Productivity loss (slow tooling): $30,000 - $50,000
- Annual Cost: $190,000 - $330,000
Cost of Migrating (One-Time)
- Migration project: $50,000 - $80,000
- Team training/ramp-up: $5,000 - $10,000
- Ongoing support costs: $0
- Developer turnover: Significantly reduced
- One-Time Cost: $55,000 - $90,000
The Bottom Line
The cost of migration is often less than the cost of losing one senior developer. When you factor in reduced hiring costs, improved retention, and eliminated support fees, migration isn't an expense—it's an investment that pays dividends in talent retention alone.
What Your Developers Actually Want to Hear
If you're a technical leader reading this, here's the message your team needs:
"I know we've been on Vue 2 for a while. I know it's frustrating. I want you to know that we're committed to modernizing our stack. We're actively planning a migration to Vue 3, and I want your input on how we approach it."
"Your skills matter to us. Your career growth matters to us. We're not going to let you fall behind the industry while you work here."
That message alone can buy you time. It shows awareness. It shows intent. It tells your team that you see the problem and you're working on it.
But talk is only valuable if action follows. The developers who've heard "we'll migrate eventually" for two years won't believe it a third time. They need to see a concrete plan with a concrete timeline.
Don't Let Your Best Talent Walk Out the Door
The cost of losing developers to legacy frustration is higher than the cost of migration. Get a fixed-price audit that shows your team—and your leadership—exactly what it takes to move forward. Give your developers a reason to stay.
✓ Fixed-price guarantee ✓ 7-day turnaround ✓ Concrete migration roadmap your team can rally behind
Conclusion
Your best Vue developer didn't leave because of the salary, the benefits, or the culture. They left because they saw no future in maintaining a legacy codebase while the industry moved on without them. They left to protect their career.
The developers still on your team are watching. They're weighing their options. They're wondering if leadership understands the technical reality—or if they're going to be stuck on Vue 2 until they quit too.
A migration isn't just a technical project. It's a statement about what kind of company you want to be. It's an investment in your team, your product, and your future. The question isn't whether you can afford to migrate. It's whether you can afford to keep losing talent while you wait.