Totara engineers - taking new projects

Hire Totara developers and consultants

Engineers who know the Moodle-derived architecture behind Totara inside out. We build plugins and report sources, connect Totara to your HR and identity systems, tune programs and certifications, and keep large enterprise sites fast and up to date.

10+ years on Moodle-based LMS
Enterprise and regulated sectors
NDA and data agreements first
Reply within 1 business day

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10+Years in LMS engineering
500+LMS projects delivered
150+Clients served
30+Countries
4.9/5Average client rating
NDA before accessWe sign your NDA before you share code, data or credentials.
You own 100% of the codeCode, documentation and credentials are yours. No lock-in.
Talk to the engineerYou speak with the person doing the work, not a salesperson.
Reply within 1 business dayEvery request is read by a senior LMS engineer.

Common Totara problems we solve

Sound familiar?

Totara is chosen for compliance, organisational hierarchies and serious reporting. Those same strengths make it complex to integrate and maintain.

Users, job assignments and managers are kept in sync by hand

Automated HR import from your HRIS, with organisations, positions and manager relationships updated on a schedule and errors reported.

Certification and recertification rules are hard to manage

We review your programs and certifications, simplify the rules where Totara now supports it, and fix learners stuck in the wrong state.

Report builder cannot show the data leaders want

Custom report sources and embedded reports, or a data feed to your BI tool, so compliance status is one click away.

Upgrades keep getting postponed

A plugin and customization inventory, staging rehearsal and a scheduled production upgrade with rollback.

Single sign-on is unreliable

SAML or OIDC sign-in with your identity provider, with clear rules for account creation and matching.

Large reports and dashboards are slow

Database tuning, caching, scheduled report generation and right-sized infrastructure.

What our Totara developers do

Totara development services

Custom plugin development

Local plugins, blocks, activities and admin tools built on Totara and Moodle APIs.

HR import and hierarchies

Users, organisations, positions and managers synced from your HR system.

Report builder sources

Custom sources, embedded reports, scheduled reports and BI exports.

Programs and certifications

Compliance program design, recertification rules and data clean-up.

SSO and identity

SAML 2.0, OIDC and Azure AD sign-in with account matching rules.

Upgrades

Version upgrades with plugin compatibility checks and staging rehearsal.

Performance tuning

Database, caching, cron and infrastructure tuning for large enterprises.

Migrations

From Moodle, a SaaS LMS or an older Totara site, or out of Totara.

Support and maintenance

Security updates, monitoring and a named engineer for your platform.

Code-level expertise

Totara extensions built on its event system

Totara inherits Moodle's plugin and event architecture, so the same discipline applies: no core edits, observers instead of hacks, and slow work moved to background tasks. That is what keeps upgrades predictable on large enterprise sites.

Event observers. React to completions, assignments and certifications without touching core files.
Ad hoc tasks for slow work. External systems are called from cron, never during a learner's page load.
Capability checks and privacy. Every feature respects Totara roles and data protection obligations.

This observer sends course completions to an HR system through a background task.

<?php
// local/hrfeed/db/events.php
$observers = [
    [
        'eventname' => '\core\event\course_completed',
        'callback'  => '\local_hrfeed\observer::course_completed',
    ],
];

// local/hrfeed/classes/observer.php
namespace local_hrfeed;

class observer {
    public static function course_completed(\core\event\course_completed $event): void {
        $task = new task\send_completion();
        $task->set_custom_data([
            'userid'   => $event->relateduserid,
            'courseid' => $event->courseid,
            'time'     => $event->timecreated,
        ]);
        // Queued; cron sends it to the HR system with retries.
        \core\task\manager::queue_adhoc_task($task, true);
    }
}

The same observer pattern works on Moodle. The ad hoc task class handles the HTTP call, retries and logging.

Skills

The Totara stack we work with every day

Totara platform

Totara Learn
Programs and certifications
Report builder
HR import
Organisations and positions
Audiences
Seminars
Event observers

Integrations

SAML 2.0
OIDC and Azure AD
HRIS feeds
Web services
SCORM
Zoom and Teams
BI exports

Engineering and operations

PHP 8
PostgreSQL
MySQL and MariaDB
Redis
Nginx and PHP-FPM
Docker
PHPUnit
Git and CI

Engagement models

Hire Totara developers your way

Pick the model that fits today and switch when your needs change. Every model includes a senior engineer, code review and a staging site.

Hourly

Bug fixes, small changes, audits and urgent issues.

from $45/hour

Billed on hours actually worked
Task-level time log with every invoice
Start with a single task
Senior engineer, not a junior

Hire by the hour

Part-time dedicated

Steady roadmap work and ongoing maintenance.

from 2500/month

A named developer, about 4 hours a day
Shared task board and weekly report
Updates, monitoring and small features
Scale up or down month to month

Hire part-time

Full-time dedicated

Large roadmaps, platform teams and agencies.

from 4500/month

A developer who works only on your LMS
Daily async updates and agreed overlap hours
Code review and QA by a second engineer
Add QA, design or DevOps when needed

Hire full-time

Fixed-price project

Well-defined features, migrations and new builds.

from 3000 minimum

Written scope, price and timeline up front
Milestone-based payments
Staging demos before each release
Post-launch warranty period agreed in the proposal

Get a fixed quote

Every engagement starts with a free technical call and an NDA. Prices exclude applicable taxes.

How it works

How hiring a Totara expert works

Tell us what you need

2 minutes

Use the short form: platform, what is wrong or what you want built, and how you prefer to work. Two minutes is enough.
Free technical call

30 minutes

A senior engineer reviews your site or requirements, asks the awkward questions early and suggests the simplest approach that will last.
Proposal and NDA

1-3 business days

You get a written plan: fixed price and timeline, or the developer profile and monthly plan for dedicated work. NDA signed before any access.
Work starts on staging

Weekly demos

We set up staging and version control, ship in small reviewed increments and demo every change before it reaches your live site.

Compare

A Totara team vs a freelancer vs hiring in-house

Criterion	All-in-One LMS	Freelance marketplace	In-house hire
Engineers who work only on learning platforms	Yes	Partial	Partial
One team for WordPress LMS, Moodle, Open edX, Canvas and custom LMS	Yes	No	No
Cover when your developer is ill or on leave	Yes	No	Partial
Code review and QA before every release	Yes	Varies	Partial
NDA and IP assignment in the contract	Yes	Varies	Yes
No recruitment, payroll or notice periods	Yes	Yes	No
Scale hours up or down month to month	Yes	Partial	No
One accountable point of contact	Yes	No	Yes

A general comparison of how each model usually works. Individual freelancers and in-house teams vary.

Totara in 2026: what is new

Totara version 20, launched in early 2026, focuses on compliance, skills and AI-assisted authoring. Multi-year certification cycles can now be consolidated into a single certification with several recertification paths, a Compliance Insights dashboard gives an organisation-wide view, "competencies" are renamed to "skills" with a team skill proficiency view for managers, and new built-in tools include a writing assistant, knowledge check creation and offline course downloads.

For existing customers, the most valuable change is usually the certification consolidation, because complex recertification rules are a common source of support tickets. It is worth reviewing your programs before or during an upgrade, rather than carrying old workarounds forward.

How to hire the right Totara developer

Ask about Moodle-style plugin development

Totara shares Moodle's plugin conventions. A good developer will build local plugins, observers and report sources instead of editing core code.

Ask about hierarchies and HR import

Organisations, positions, job assignments and manager relationships drive much of Totara's value. A specialist will ask how yours are maintained today.

Ask about compliance data

Programs and certifications hold audit-critical history. Your developer should treat any change to them with tests, backups and a rollback plan.

Check enterprise operations experience

Large Totara sites need database tuning, scheduled reports and careful cron management, not just application code.

Running Moodle as well? See our Moodle developers page, or read multi-tenant LMS architecture for enterprise set-ups.

Hiring a Totara expert: FAQ

How much does it cost to hire a Totara developer?

Integrations, report sources and upgrades are normally fixed-price once the scope is clear; ongoing support suits a part-time dedicated plan. You get a written estimate after the free technical call.

Can you integrate Totara with our HR system?

Yes. We automate HR import of users, organisations, positions and managers, schedule it, and report errors so mismatched records are fixed rather than silently skipped.

Do you build custom Totara report sources?

Yes: custom report builder sources, embedded reports, scheduled reports and data feeds to BI tools.

Can you help with certifications and recertification rules?

Yes. We review program and certification design, fix learners in the wrong state, and simplify rules where newer Totara versions allow it.

Can you upgrade our Totara site?

Yes. We inventory plugins and customizations, rehearse the upgrade on staging, and schedule production with a rollback plan and a post-upgrade checklist.

Do you also work on Moodle and Moodle Workplace?

Yes. Our engineers work across Moodle, Moodle Workplace and Totara, which helps when organisations run more than one or are deciding between them.

Can you migrate us to or from Totara?

Yes. Users, courses and completion history can be migrated; what carries over depends on what the source exports, which we confirm before quoting. See our LMS migration services.

Free estimate

Tell us about your Totara project

Share your Totara version, roughly how many users you have and what you need. A senior engineer will reply with questions or a first estimate.

A senior engineer reads every request
Written estimate before any work starts
NDA signed before you share access