The choice of the required version of a given NMR methodology greatly depends of the sample requirements.

• The sample concentration is the key factor affecting to the sensitivity of any NMR experiment. Thus, polarization transfer techniques or inverse spectroscopy are highly recommended when limited amount of compound is available or when solubility becomes a serious drawback.
• The user must choice between magnitude-mode vs phase sensitive mode spectra in multidimensional experiments.
• The use of selective 1D vs 2D versions can afford improved results  in terms of resolution and experiment time but not in terms of spectral dispersion.
• In most biochemical applications, 90% H₂0/10% D₂0 is commonly used and therefore, specific NMR experiments including effective solvent suppression schemes must be applied.
• Type of compound. In general, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy is the basis for structure elucidation for the most of organic and biochemical compounds. In particular, specific NMR experiments (also incorporating ¹⁵N NMR spectroscopy) have been designed to study peptides/proteins, nucleic acids or biomolecular complexes.
• Other NMR-active nuclei can be also used for this purpose (for instance, on organometallic and inorganic compounds).