MOCVD has many promising advantages over physical processes but industrial applications are still sparse, probably because commercial availability of suitable precursors is limited. In this Research News article the stringent requirements for metal‐organic compounds for thermal MOCVD as well as for photo‐MOCVD and MOMBE are critically reviewed. In particular, the problem of carbon incorporation in deposited films and the use of single‐source precursors for multi‐element deposits are discussed.