Buy or Build Training Content? A Practical Decision Guide
When a new training need appears, the first question is almost always: buy or build? Most L&D teams answer it reflexively, either always buying because it's faster, or always building because it "fits better." Both are oversimplifications that regularly lead to the wrong decision.
The right answer depends on the content type.
#What Off-the-Shelf Content Does Well (and Where It Fails)
Ready-made courses work well when content is universal and stable. That's the case for:
Compliance fundamentals: GDPR awareness, general health and safety, IT security basics, code of conduct foundations. These topics are defined by regulation and change slowly. A high-quality ready-made course covers 80–90% of what most employees need to know.
Universal soft skills: Communication, presentation techniques, time management, project management fundamentals. These competencies are relevant across roles, and the core principles don't change quickly.
Broadly applicable technology: Microsoft 365, Excel basics, video conferencing tools. For standard software, high-quality ready-made courses exist at a fraction of the custom development cost.
Ready-made courses do not work well for:
- Company-specific processes and internal systems
- Regulatory topics where the interpretation is industry- or organisation-specific
- Content where your own scenarios, examples, or branding matter
- Topics that change frequently and need regular updates
#The Real Cost of Building
The industry rule of thumb for e-learning development is 40–80 development hours per hour of finished learning content. That sounds like a lot, but it's realistic once you include planning, scripting, visual design, voiceover, review cycles, and corrections.
A 30-minute e-learning module costs 20–40 internal development hours. At an internal rate of $65/hour, that's $1,300–2,600 in development time alone, before tool costs or external contributions.
On top of that:
- Review cycles with subject-matter experts (2–5 hours per module)
- Maintenance and updates when content changes
- Quality assurance and technical testing
Custom development is worthwhile when the content justifies the time. For standard compliance topics, that's rarely the case.
#The Real Cost of Buying
Ready-made courses seem inexpensive, but the calculation has two sides.
Direct costs:
- Single-course licences: $15–80 per employee (one-time or annual)
- Content library subscriptions: $12–35 per user/month (LinkedIn Learning, Coursera for Business, GoodHabitz, and similar)
Hidden costs:
Ready-made content that doesn't match your audience produces low completion rates and poor transfer. A course that's technically comprehensive but written for financial services employees, using financial services examples and language, will be less effective for employees in a manufacturing company.
Completion rates for poorly matched content can be 40–60% lower than for relevant content. For mandatory training, that's a compliance gap, not just a metrics problem.
#The Decision Framework
| Situation | Recommendation | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Standard compliance (GDPR, health and safety, IT security) | Buy | Content is regulatorily defined, ready-made courses cover the need |
| Universal soft skills | Buy | Low custom-development need, broad market offering |
| Internal processes and systems | Build | No ready-made course can map your specific process |
| Company culture and onboarding | Build | Branding, values, and context are unique to your organisation |
| Compliance with org- or industry-specific interpretation | Hybrid | Buy a solid foundational course, build a short custom supplement |
| Fast coverage of a known standard topic | Buy | Speed-to-deployment matters more than customisation |
#Key Providers of Ready-Made Training Content
This is not an exhaustive list, but a practical orientation:
Compliance-focused:
- OpenSesame offers a wide international library with strong compliance coverage across multiple languages
- ELearning Brothers (Courseware) for US-focused compliance content
- Skillsoft Percipio for broad compliance libraries in regulated industries
Broad content libraries:
- LinkedIn Learning is strong on technology and professional skills, primarily English-language content
- Coursera for Business for deeper subject-matter topics with more academic depth
- GoodHabitz for soft skills and personal development, particularly strong in European markets
AI-generated on-demand content:
- Coursebox generates course content based on your own documents, good for fast first drafts of custom content
#The Hybrid Model in Practice
The hybrid model works best for most mid-market teams: buy a solid GDPR awareness course for $25 per employee, then build a 15-minute module showing how your organisation specifically handles data subject access requests, who is responsible, and what the internal process looks like. One hour of custom development, substantially more relevant overall training.
The same logic applies to onboarding: buy a good Microsoft 365 foundations course. Build your own module showing how your organisation uses Teams, SharePoint, and internal folder structures.
Scibly supports both approaches: integrate ready-made content and build your own courses directly on the platform, without needing separate authoring tools. Everything runs in one place.