Buying an elearning content library is a capital investment. As an L&D Director you need to be clear that you are buying the right library, and you might need more than one.
I have been involved in building custom and off-the-shelf content for years. I have spoken to a lot of people and I have been consistently surprised by the amount of money I have seen wasted. Not saved. Wasted. The trend in L&D is towards impact and behavioural shift, but rarely do people talk about ROI and total cost of ownership. I have spoken to people who have spent £30,000 on a five-minute elearning course built in Articulate Rise. I know of a council that was running two contracts with a large LMS provider and paying for the same content twice, when they could have consolidated into one. The LMS provider should have told them. They did not.
This guide is for L&D Directors who are in the process of choosing an elearning content provider. It is a practical 10-step process for making a confident, well-informed decision, without spending months doing it.
Build your pre-qualification list
Before you start talking to providers, get clear on what you actually need. If you do not have a pre-qualification list, a set of criteria that any provider must meet before you invest time in them, and you will end up being led by whoever markets themselves most effectively, not whoever is the best fit. Your pre-qual list should cover at minimum: the topic areas you need now, the topics you will need in the next 12 to 24 months, your learner numbers, your LMS or LXP, the languages you need, and your budget range. With that list in hand, you can disqualify providers quickly rather than spending time on demos that were never going to work.
Define your content needs
Identify both your current and future training needs. Some organisations combine ready-made and custom content. You may not need custom content right now, but it is worth knowing whether a provider can support it if your needs change. Be specific about the topics, the formats you want, and the quality standard you expect. A library marketed with thousands of resources may be mostly PDFs and infographics. Make sure what is in the library is actually what you need.
Start with online searches and demos
Use online searches to find providers and explore publisher websites for course lists and demos. Check if the courses are well designed, structured and produced to a high standard. The library may be marketed with a high number of resources but ensure that you are not overpaying for a library full of PDFs and infographics. A library may include videos, infographics, interactive modules, or PDFs, but make sure they fit your needs before you go any further.
Use social media, but be sceptical
LinkedIn and YouTube can provide useful updates, samples, and customer stories. But be careful about what you are actually looking at. A lot of what circulates as thought leadership is promotional content in disguise. I have seen people post that we do not need any more elearning content, or that they do not like a particular LMS, then appear on a sponsored post promoting that same LMS two weeks later. I have seen people openly criticise tools and then promote alternatives where they have a clear commercial interest. If you are following voices in the industry, follow them for a while before acting on what they say. Check whether they disclose when they are being paid to promote something. Build your own view rather than outsourcing your decision to someone else’s network.
Get recommendations from peers
Ask your network and professional associations for recommendations. Peer reviews are useful because they come from people who have actually used the content, not just evaluated it. Platforms like OpenSesame also carry publisher reviews that can give you a picture of how a provider performs in practice. But always do your own review. A recommendation from a peer is a starting point, not a verdict. Their organisation may have different needs, a different LMS, a different learner audience. What worked for them may not work for you.
Attend conferences for direct interaction
L&D conferences and exhibitions are a good way to meet multiple providers, watch live demos, and ask questions without the pressure of a formal sales process. They are also useful for seeing how a provider handles questions they were not expecting. But not every good provider exhibits at conferences. Some of the best content libraries do not have a large events budget. Do not limit your shortlist to whoever had a stand at the last event you attended. Our guide to L&D conferences and exhibitions covers the main events worth attending if you are in buying mode.
Be cautious with consultants and sponsored content
Consultants can be useful but they may have preferred suppliers or commercial relationships that influence their recommendations. Ask directly whether they have any commercial relationship with the providers they are suggesting. The same applies to sponsored content, awards lists, and “best of” roundups. Many of these are pay-to-play. A provider appearing at the top of a sponsored list tells you they have a marketing budget, not that they are the best fit for your organisation. Do your own evaluation and trust your pre-qualification criteria over anyone else’s ranking.
Request samples without conditions
Any provider worth considering should be willing to share sample content without requiring you to sign an NDA or go through a lengthy procurement process first. If a provider makes it difficult to see their content before you commit, that tells you something about how they operate. When reviewing samples, look beyond production quality. Ask whether the content matches your learner audience, whether it reflects current practice in the topic area, and whether it would work in your LMS without significant technical work. Ask how often content is updated and who is responsible for keeping it current.
Match content to your needs using AI
Once you have a shortlist of providers, compare their course catalogue against your pre-qualification list. For larger libraries, this can be time-consuming. AI tools can help. You can upload a course list and your topic requirements and ask the tool to identify gaps and overlaps. It is not a replacement for human judgement but it can significantly reduce the time spent on manual comparison. Check format and content variety too: microlearning, videos, interactive exercises, PDFs. Be clear about what you need and do not pay for formats your learners will not use.
Plan your review process and track feedback
If a provider has hundreds of resources, you cannot review all of them before making a decision. Sample a percentage across your key topic areas. Build a consistent review process that you can reuse across providers: the same criteria Set up a system to collect and track feedback so you can analyse it across your whole shortlist. If the same issues keep appearing across a provider’s content, that is a signal worth taking seriously before you sign anything.
There are a lot of voices in the L&D market and a lot of people positioning themselves as thought leaders. The best protection against being led in the wrong direction is having done your own groundwork before anyone starts pitching to you. Be clear about what you need, build your own list, and trust your own judgement. Choosing an elearning content provider does not need to take months. The investment is worth making properly. The cost of getting it wrong, in wasted budget and content that nobody uses, is considerably higher than the cost of doing the process well.
How do I know if an elearning content provider is right for my organisation?
Start with your pre-qualification list: the topics you need, your LMS, your learner numbers, your languages, and your budget. Any provider that cannot meet those criteria clearly is not the right fit, regardless of how well they present. Ask for samples without conditions and assess them against your actual needs, not against marketing materials.
How long should it take to choose an elearning content provider?
With a clear pre-qualification list and a structured review process, most organisations can move from longlist to decision in four to six weeks. The process takes longer when criteria are not defined upfront or when too many stakeholders are involved without clear responsibilities.
Should I trust recommendations from consultants or industry influencers?
Use them as a starting point, not a verdict. Ask whether consultants have commercial relationships with the providers they recommend. For influencers and industry commentators, check whether they disclose sponsorship or paid relationships. Build your own view based on your own review of the content.
What should I ask an elearning content provider before signing a contract?
Ask about pricing model, contract length, renewal terms, access periods, and what happens to your access if you do not renew. Ask how often content is updated and who is responsible for keeping it current. Ask whether the content is SCORM-compliant and compatible with your LMS. Ask to see samples without signing an NDA.
Do I need more than one elearning content provider?
Possibly. No single provider covers every topic area at the same level of quality. Some organisations use one primary library for core compliance and mandatory training, and a second provider for skills or leadership content. The key is not to duplicate. If two providers cover the same topics at similar quality, you are paying twice for the same thing.
Scott Hewitt
Scott Hewitt is the founder of Real Projects, an off-the-shelf elearning content library trusted by organisations including M&S, GSK, AstraZeneca and Ticketmaster. He has built a library of over 800 courses across nine languages, with a focus on practical workplace training that is ready to deploy on any major LMS.
Scott has spent over 25 years working in elearning as a buyer, supplier, and creator of content. He has been on both sides of the buying process and has seen at first hand how much budget gets wasted when the procurement process is not properly structured.
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