Your LMS should be an asset you own — not a subscription you rent
US-based custom LMS development on an open-source core, so you keep your code, your data, and your gradebook. A working build in 8–12 weeks, and a named engineer does the work and answers your emails.
Book a 20-minute scoping call See price ranges
Nashville, TN. One engineer owns your build end to end. We reply within one business day.
- US-based, Nashville TN. Not a US front for an offshore queue.
- A named engineer does your work. The person who scopes it builds it.
- Migrations verified row-by-row. Grade history reconciled, not re-imported and hoped for.
- Open-source core. You own the code, the config, and the data — no per-seat tax.
Which of these is you?
We build for four kinds of team
The right build depends on what you're accountable for. Start where you fit — each path goes deeper.
Universities & K–12
You hold student education records and answer to FERPA, accessibility deadlines, and district procurement. You need controlled access, data residency, and a vendor you can actually audit.
FERPA & compliance →Corporate L&D & compliance training
You run mandatory training and need completions to track, certificates to issue, and reporting your auditors trust — without paying per seat as your headcount grows.
Custom development →Healthcare & clinical
You deliver workforce or clinical training and worry about HIPAA. The first question is usually whether your LMS is even in scope — often it isn't, and we'll tell you plainly.
HIPAA & your LMS →Associations, nonprofits & workforce
You issue continuing-education credit, track members across years, and report to funders or boards. You need durable records and workflows that fit how your programs actually run.
Tell us your setup →The honest decision
Build, buy, or rent? The comparison most vendors skip
Three ways to get a learning platform, and they are genuinely different purchases. Here's the trade you're actually making — including where a custom build is the wrong call.
| Consideration | Proprietary SaaS | From-scratch build | Open-source core (us) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns the code & config | The vendor | You | You |
| Who owns the data | Held on the vendor's platform | You | You, hosted where you choose |
| Per-seat licensing | Yes — scales with headcount | None | None |
| Data residency (FERPA/HIPAA) | Vendor decides | You decide | You decide |
| Who you actually reach | Support tier / account manager | Whoever's left on the project | The engineer who built it |
| If you leave the vendor | Platform switches off | You maintain it alone | Keeps running; any dev can take over |
When you should not hire us. If you're a small team with standard needs — a handful of courses, no unusual workflow, no compliance edge case — a managed hosting plan or an off-the-shelf subscription is cheaper and smarter than a custom build, and we'll say so on the call. Custom development earns its cost only when no existing option fits how you actually work. See managed hosting if that's you.
What you actually pay for
The real cost, in plain language
An open-source core means you skip building 60–80% of the table-stakes functionality — enrollment, grading, quizzing, reporting, certificates — and skip the per-seat SaaS tax on top. You pay us for the engineering and support that are specific to you, and you keep the asset.
Total cost of ownership isn't just the build. Being honest about it means naming every piece, because the parts nobody mentions are the ones that surprise you later:
- Hosting and infrastructure. Real, ongoing, and not free — but you pay for capacity, not per learner, which is why it commonly runs well below per-seat SaaS once you're past a few thousand users. Your mileage depends on scale and support needs.
- Implementation and any custom work. Configuration, the workflows that are actually specific to you, integrations, and reporting changes. Quoted as a fixed scope up front.
- Migration. Moving courses, users, and — the part that goes wrong — grade and attempt history, reconciled row-by-row rather than re-imported and hoped for.
- Maintenance and security patching. Open-source software ships updates on a schedule; someone has to apply them. That's either your team or ours, but it's never nobody.
One honest anchor: most focused builds reach a working version in 8–12 weeks and feature-complete in four to six months, with a fixed scope in writing before you commit a dollar. Published ranges are on the pricing page.
Want the numbers for your case? Send us your learner count and current stack, and we'll model a plain build-vs-rent comparison before you commit to anything. Ask for a TCO comparison — no pitch deck.
Services
Mapped to the problem you're trying to fix
Every item below is a concrete deliverable, not an adjective. Most projects use two or three of them.
Custom Moodle development
Enrollment logic, certificates, workflows, and reporting that match how your programs actually run — built as upgrade-safe plugins, not core hacks.
Development →Zero-data-loss migration
Move off Blackboard, Canvas, or an old Moodle with grade history reconciled row-by-row. If a single grade or SCORM attempt drops, we fix it free.
Migration →SCORM & xAPI repair
Completions not tracking, resume broken, suspend_data overflowing? We diagnose, fix, and prove it in SCORM Cloud at a flat per-package price.
SCORM repair →Managed Moodle hosting
Hosting, backups, upgrades, and security patching on a straightforward monthly plan — so the maintenance you'd otherwise forget stays off your plate.
Hosting →Compliance-supporting builds
Access controls, audit logging, encryption, retention, and accessibility — the technical controls that support your FERPA, HIPAA, or accessibility obligations, documented for your auditor.
Compliance →Custom plugins
Purpose-built tools like our free Grade Lookup and Access Expiry plugins — small, focused, and maintained across Moodle's release cycle.
Free plugins →How we work
Discovery to handover, with no relay
- 1Discovery. A free scoping call where we learn what you're accountable for and, sometimes, talk you out of building at all.
- 2Fixed-scope written proposal. What we'll build, what it costs, and how long — in writing, before you commit.
- 3Build. The engineer who scoped it does the work. You see progress, not a status-meeting theater.
- 4Verification & handover. You receive the code, admin access, and documentation. The IP and the data are yours. Migrations ship with a row-count verification report.
- 5Ongoing support. Direct access to the same engineer — not a ticket queue — on a care plan sized to your setup.
The thing that makes this work is small: the engineer who scopes your build is the engineer who builds it and the person you email six months later. No account-manager relay, no offshore handoff, no "let me check with the team."
Proof, not badges
What we can actually show you
We're a boutique studio, so we don't wave a wall of enterprise logos. We'd rather show you things you can check yourself:
- ✓A free tool you can test right now. Our SCORM Inspector classifies and diagnoses SCORM, cmi5, xAPI, and AICC packages in your browser — nothing uploaded. It's hands-on expertise you can poke at before you ever talk to us.
- ✓Migration integrity you can verify. We reconcile grade history row-by-row — including the grades that quietly vanish on re-enrolment. Here's exactly how that failure happens and how we recover it.
- ✓Published engineering notes. We write up the real faults we fix, in enough detail that you could fix some yourself. Read the engineering blog and judge the depth.
Questions you'd ask any vendor
Custom LMS development: straight answers
Who owns the code and the data?
You do. We build on an open-source core, so at handover you receive the code, admin access, and documentation, and the data is yours to host wherever you like. No per-seat licensing, no proprietary lock-in — if we ever part ways, the platform keeps running and any competent developer can pick it up.
Is the work done in the US or offshore?
A named US-based engineer does your work and answers your emails. We're a small studio in Nashville — no US sales front handing your project to an offshore queue. The person who scopes your build is the person who builds it.
What does it cost and how long does it take?
Building on a proven core, you skip most table-stakes work and pay for what's specific to you. A focused build typically reaches a working version in 8–12 weeks and feature-complete in four to six months, quoted as a fixed scope in writing first. Current ranges are on the pricing page.
What happens if we stop working with you?
Nothing breaks. You keep the code, the data, and the hosting. An open-source core means no vendor can switch your platform off and no license expires out from under you. That's the whole point of building this way.
Is Moodle FERPA or HIPAA compliant?
No software is FERPA or HIPAA compliant by itself, and any vendor who says otherwise is a red flag. Compliance is an outcome your organization achieves through policies, a documented risk analysis, workforce practices, and signed agreements. A correctly configured, correctly hosted platform supports those obligations — granular access control, audit logging, encryption, data residency, retention. We build and document those controls; your counsel approves the rest. See FERPA and HIPAA.
What support do we get after launch?
Direct access to the engineer who built your system — not a queue that routes to whoever's free. We reply within one business day. Care plans add monthly development hours and proactive patching, quoted to your setup rather than sold as a one-size SLA we couldn't honestly staff.
Tell us what you're trying to fix
Three things you get by building this way: you own the asset, a named US engineer does the work, and you're dealing with a studio that specializes in education and compliance rather than a generalist agency. Bring your learner count and current stack to a free 20-minute call and we'll tell you plainly whether a custom build, managed hosting, or an off-the-shelf plan is the right move — even when the answer isn't us.
Book a 20-minute scoping call
We reply within one business day — or call (615) 396-7139. Based in Nashville, working with teams across the US.