Ask HN: How to you thwart the countless competitors approaching your client?

Other than roping a client into some contractual commitment what is it that everyone is doing these days to keep their web development clients?

It seems there is an endless supply of competitors out there and as always they’re trying to undercut you. Price is important to some, while value to others. Competitors claim to offer the ‘same’ thing at $5 less. Perhaps this is just the nature of the beast. Happy to say I haven’t lost many to such a thing but nevertheless I feel it’s time to turn up the heat on client thieves.

What’s everyone doing to make this happen? I suppose being dependent on proprietary frameworks could certainly be one way to go about it… but that just feels wrong, right from the get-go. Any suggestions?