How long does it take to build a website: real timelines, phase by phase

A landing page is ready in 1-2 weeks, a brochure site in 2-4, a business site in 4-8, an e-commerce in 6-12, a web app in two months or more. These numbers hold on one condition though: that you already have copy and photos ready. The real constraint is almost never the code. It is how long it takes you to hand me the content.

I am writing this because it is the second question people ask me, right after the one about price, and the honest answer breaks a common assumption. "Two weeks" is true maybe one time in five, the case where the client shows up with copy already written and photos already taken. In the other four, the calendar is set by whoever has to deliver the material, not by whoever writes the code.

Timelines by type of site

These timelines start from the day we begin working, not from when you sign the quote, and they assume you reply within a day or two whenever your input is needed.

The ranges are wide for the same reason they are wide on price: "brochure site" covers both the client who sends me five pages of copy already done, and the project where we write the content together from zero, photography included. The second case takes twice as long because it is, literally, twice the work.

The real phases of a project, and how long each takes

A site does not appear all at once. It moves through six phases, and knowing how long each one takes helps you see where a timeline can shrink and where it cannot.

• Discovery (goals, structure, what content is needed): 2-5 days for an average site. This is where we decide what the site has to do, before we even touch how it looks.
• Design: 1-2 weeks, usually two drafts and one round of corrections before final sign-off.
• Build: the longest phase in hours of work, but often the fastest on the calendar because it is not waiting on anyone but me.
• Content: copy and images loaded into the site. This is the phase that can stall for weeks, and it is almost always the one that decides the real delivery date.
• Review: a couple of revision rounds. Three, if the first round opens up internal discussion on your side.
• Launch: domain, technical checks, a look on desktop and phone. One day, if everything else is already in place.

In practice, these phases never line up neatly one after another. While I build the structure of the site, I am already working on the design of later pages, and content often arrives in pieces during the build, not all at once at the start. That is normal, and it is fine. The problem starts when the content does not arrive at all, or only arrives once everything else is already finished and sitting idle.

What actually delays a project

I have delivered sites in ten days, and sites that were supposed to take thirty on paper and took ninety instead. The difference was almost never the code.

• Content that is not ready. This is the number one cause, by a wide margin. A booking form costs me two days. Waiting for shop photos or the founders' bios can cost fourteen, and no amount of fast coding recovers that lost time.
• Slow feedback. A review round that waits a week for a plain "looks good" adds a straight week to the project. It is not laziness, it is just life, but it weighs on the calendar all the same.
• Scope creep. "While we're at it, let's also add…" is the phrase that stretches timelines the most, because it lands after the project has already started, and every addition slots into work already underway instead of into the original plan.

None of these three causes has anything to do with how fast I personally am. You control most of them, and that is the part worth dwelling on: a quote that says "4 weeks" is not a promise that holds regardless of how we work together. It is an estimate that holds only if the work flows from both sides.

How to actually shorten the timeline

A few things, done well at the start, matter more than any promise of a lightning-fast delivery.

Prepare your copy and images before you write to me, even in draft form. Reply to review rounds within a day or two, not a week. Decide on structure and features before we start building, not halfway through: every page added after kickoff takes time away from the ones already planned. And if you are not sure which type of site you actually need, it is worth deciding that first. I cover it here: brochure site, e-commerce or landing page.

If you also want a sense of what it costs, not just how long it takes, I wrote a separate guide: how much does a website cost. And if you already have a clear idea of your project and want a timeline and cost estimate tuned to your case, the services page has a configurator that answers in a couple of minutes.