Quick Answer:
Building custom eLearning in-house often makes sense when your team has the right expertise, enough capacity, and an ongoing need for similar development. Outsourcing may be a better choice when you need specialized skills, additional capacity, or the ability to meet a deadline without adding permanent headcount. For many L&D teams, the best answer is a hybrid approach: keep strategy and ownership internally while bringing in outside expertise where it adds the most value.
When a new custom eLearning development project lands on your team’s plate, one of the first decisions may be who is going to build it.
Do you assign it to your internal L&D team? Bring in a contract eLearning developer? Or outsource the entire project to an external partner?
There isn’t one right answer. The better question is whether your organization has the skills, capacity, time, and resources to deliver the learning experience you need.
When Does It Make Sense to
Build Custom eLearning In-House?
If you already have a strong internal development team, keeping the project in-house can offer some real advantages.
You Have the Right Skills on Your Team
Custom eLearning can require much more than knowing how to use an authoring tool. Depending on the project, you may need instructional design, advanced development, graphic design, animation, video production, accessibility expertise, or simulation design.
If those capabilities already exist internally, there may be little reason to go outside.
Your Team Actually Has the Capacity
This is different from having the capability.
An instructional designer may be perfectly capable of developing a course in Storyline, but that doesn’t mean they have 200 hours available to do it.
When internal employees are already committed to other priorities, assigning them another development project can extend timelines or push other important work aside. Before deciding to build internally, ask not only, “Can we do this?” but also, “What won’t we do if we take this on?”
You Have an Ongoing Volume of Similar Work
If your organization produces a steady stream of similar eLearning for business, maintaining internal expertise can make good financial and operational sense.
Your team may already have templates, brand standards, processes, reusable assets, and established relationships with SMEs. Those efficiencies can make internal development particularly effective.
Internal Knowledge Is Critical
Some projects require deep knowledge of the organization’s products, systems, culture, or processes. An internal team may be able to move more quickly because they already understand the context and know the right people to involve.
The Content Requires Frequent Updates
If a course changes constantly because of product releases, policies, systems, or procedures, internal ownership can also make maintenance easier.
When Should You Consider Outsourcing
Custom eLearning Development?
Choosing to outsource eLearning doesn’t necessarily mean your internal team lacks expertise. Some of the strongest L&D teams use outside resources because the needs of the business don’t always line up neatly with the size and capabilities of a permanent team.
Your Team Has More Work Than Capacity
This may be the simplest reason to look outside.
Your team knows what needs to be done. They know the audience and the business. They may even know exactly how they would design the solution.
They just don’t have enough hours to build it.
Adding outside development capacity allows the internal team to continue focusing on its priorities without putting another important initiative on hold.
You Need Specialized Expertise
Suppose you’re developing a sophisticated branching simulation, an animation-heavy course, or learning that needs to meet specific accessibility requirements.
You may need expertise your team doesn’t use every day.
Hiring a full-time employee for a capability you need for one project may not make sense. An experienced contractor or outside partner can provide that expertise for as long as it is needed.
You’re Facing a Firm Deadline
A system implementation, regulatory change, product launch, merger, or major onboarding initiative can suddenly create far more development work than an internal team can absorb.
Outside resources can help an organization scale development quickly and then scale back when the initiative is complete.
The Project Is Outside Your Team’s Usual Experience
Not all custom eLearning is the same.
A team that excels at developing straightforward product training may not have experience creating a complex software simulation. A developer who creates highly interactive courses may not have the right experience for video-based learning.
Often outsourcing is less about getting “better” talent and more about getting the right talent for this particular project.
Does Outsourcing Mean
Handing Over the Entire Project?
No, and this is an important distinction.
When organizations think about outsourcing, they sometimes picture handing an entire initiative to one of the many eLearning development companies or learning and development companies in the market.
That’s one option, but it isn’t the only one. Organizations can use several models:
- Staff augmentation: Add one or more contract eLearning developers to work alongside the internal team.
- Specialist support: Keep most of the work in-house while bringing in outside expertise for animation, advanced development, accessibility, video, or another specialty.
- Full-project outsourcing: Engage an outside partner to manage most or all of the design and development process.
The right model depends on how much expertise, capacity, and project ownership you want to retain internally.
What Are the Hidden Costs
of Building eLearning In-House?
It’s tempting to compare the cost of an internal employee with the hourly rate or project fee for an outside resource. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.
Consider the opportunity cost.
If an instructional designer on your team spends eight weeks developing a course, what other projects aren’t moving forward? If the designer has to learn an unfamiliar tool or technique along the way, how much additional time does that require? Will SMEs spend more time reviewing and correcting the work because the team hasn’t tackled this type of project before?
Other potential internal costs include software licenses, learning curves, quality assurance, accessibility remediation, project coordination, and rework.
Outsourcing has costs too. Your team still needs to provide project direction, make SMEs available, review deliverables, answer questions, and make timely decisions.
The useful comparison is therefore not simply internal salary versus outside rate. It’s the total resources required to deliver the project successfully.
How Can You Decide Whether to Build or Outsource?
|
Build In-House When…
|
Consider Outsourcing When…
|
|---|---|
Your team already has the skills the project requires. |
You need skills or expertise your team doesn't have. |
Your team has enough capacity to take on the project without delaying other priorities. |
Your team is at capacity or taking on the project would delay other important work. |
You have an ongoing need for similar eLearning development. |
The need is temporary or tied to a specific initiative. |
The project is similar to work your team regularly develops. |
The project requires specialized expertise or is outside your team's usual experience. |
Your internal team can comfortably meet the required deadline. |
You need additional resources to meet a firm or accelerated deadline. |
The content changes frequently and is easier to maintain internally. |
The content is relatively stable or outside resources can be brought back for updates. |
You probably won’t find that every factor points in the same direction. Your team might have the expertise but not the capacity. Or you may want to keep instructional design in-house while bringing in specialized development expertise. That’s why the decision doesn’t always have to be either/or—and why a hybrid approach can work so well.
Could a Hybrid eLearning Development Model
Be the Better Choice?
For many organizations, the decision isn’t really in-house or outsourced.
It’s deciding which parts of the work belong inside and which are better handled by outside talent.
An internal instructional designer might own the learning strategy and design while a contract eLearning developer handles production. An internal development team might bring in an animator for one portion of a project. Or the internal team may handle its normal workload while several contract developers provide temporary capacity for a major initiative.
This approach allows L&D leaders to preserve institutional knowledge and internal ownership while accessing specialized skills or additional capacity when they need it.
It can also help avoid building a permanent team sized for the organization’s busiest months.
What Should You Decide Before
You Outsource eLearning?
Before approaching an outside developer or partner, clarify as much as possible about the project.
That includes your business and learning objectives, audience, scope, available source content, desired level of interactivity, authoring tools, LMS requirements, accessibility standards, timeline, budget, review process, and expectations for ongoing maintenance.
It’s also increasingly important to address AI use.
Can outside developers use generative AI while working on your project? Which tools are approved? What information can be entered into those tools? Are there client, employee, proprietary, or confidential materials that cannot be shared with an AI platform?
Those expectations should be discussed before development begins rather than discovered halfway through the project.
So, Should You Build Custom eLearning
In-House or Outsource It?
Build internally when you have the skills, capacity, technology, and ongoing need to support the work effectively. Consider outsourcing when you need additional capacity, specialized expertise, faster scale, or skills that don’t make sense to maintain permanently.
And don’t overlook the middle ground.
You can keep strategy, stakeholder relationships, and project ownership inside your organization while adding experienced custom eLearning talent to help execute the work. For many L&D teams, that combination provides the flexibility they need as priorities and workloads change.
What to Read Next:
To learn more about why companies outsource custom eLearning development, read these articles:
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is it cheaper to build eLearning in-house or outsource it?
It depends on the project and your existing resources. If you already have the necessary skills and available capacity, internal development may be more economical. If employees need to learn new skills, purchase tools, delay other work, or spend significantly more time developing the course, outsourcing may offer a lower total cost.
When should a company outsource eLearning development?
Organizations often outsource when internal teams lack capacity, need specialized expertise, face a firm deadline, or have a temporary increase in development volume. Outsourcing can also make sense when a project requires skills the organization doesn’t need frequently enough to maintain internally.
What is the difference between outsourcing eLearning and staff augmentation?
With full-project outsourcing, an outside partner typically takes responsibility for much of the project’s design and development. With staff augmentation, contract professionals join or complement the internal team while the organization retains more direct ownership of the project.
Can we outsource only part of a custom eLearning project?
Yes. Organizations can bring in outside specialists for specific portions of a project, such as eLearning development, animation, video, accessibility, graphic design, or quality assurance, while keeping the rest of the work internal.
What should I look for in an eLearning development company?
Look for experience with projects similar to yours, strong samples of previous work, appropriate technical expertise, clear development and review processes, and an understanding of your business and learners. Also clarify who will actually perform the work and how communication and project management will be handled.
