Most simple websites take 2–4 weeks to build. A standard business site with custom pages, a blog, and a few integrations runs 4–8 weeks. E-commerce builds typically take 6–12 weeks, and larger or highly custom projects can stretch to 3–6 months.
Those ranges assume one thing: you’re not the bottleneck. Design and development time is fairly predictable. What isn’t predictable and what causes almost every delay we see is how quickly a client can supply content, sign off on decisions, and give feedback. More on that below.
Timeline by site type
| Site type | Typical timeline | Best for |
| Simple brochure site (3–5 pages) | 2–4 weeks | Freelancers, local services, landing pages |
| Standard business website (5–15 pages, blog, forms) | 4–8 weeks | SMEs, professional services, multi-location businesses |
| E-commerce store | 6–12 weeks | Retailers, product-based businesses |
| Custom web application / complex platform | 3–6 months | Booking systems, member portals, bespoke tools |
These figures assume content is provided on schedule and feedback is turned around within a few business days at each stage. Add delays to either of those and the timeline extends accordingly often by more than the delay itself, because a stalled project loses momentum and has to be re-scheduled around other client work.
Phase 1: Discovery and planning (3–7 days)
This is where we define scope, sitemap, and goals: what the site needs to do, who it’s for, and how success will be measured. For a simple site, this might be a single call and a short brief. For an e-commerce or custom build, it includes technical scoping payment gateways, inventory systems, third-party integrations which take longer to get right up front than to unpick later.
Discovery is also when we agree on the content plan: who’s writing what, and by when. This single conversation prevents more delays than any other step in the process.
Phase 2: Wireframes and structure (3–10 days)
Wireframes map out the layout and user journey before any visual design happens where navigation sits, how a homepage guides someone toward a conversion, how a product listing flows into checkout. Getting sign-off here matters: changes to structure are cheap at the wireframe stage and expensive once a page is fully designed and built.
We ask for one round of feedback at this stage, ideally from a single decision-maker rather than a committee, since conflicting feedback from multiple stakeholders is a common source of rework.
Phase 3: Design (1–3 weeks)
This is where the site gets its visual identity colour, typography, imagery, and page-by-page design based on the approved wireframes. Simple sites might need only a homepage and one or two template designs; e-commerce and custom builds need designs for every unique page type (product, category, cart, account, etc.).
Most delays here come from open-ended feedback (“make it pop,” “not sure, just something different”). Specific, comparative feedback reference sites, particular elements you like or dislike moves this phase much faster than general impressions.
Phase 4: Development and content integration (1–6 weeks)
Development is where the design becomes a working site: front-end build, back-end functionality, forms, integrations, and critically populating it with real content. This is usually the longest phase, and it’s also where projects most often stall, because development can only move as fast as content arrives.
If copy, product data, or images aren’t ready when development starts, teams typically build with placeholder content and swap it in later which works, but only if the real content shows up before launch, not after.
Phase 5: Revisions and testing (3–10 days)
Once the site is built, it goes through functional testing (forms, checkout, links, responsiveness across devices) and a client review round. Budget for at least one full round of revisions here rushing this phase is how broken forms and layout bugs make it to launch.
Phase 6: Staging and launch (2–5 days)
Before going live, the site is deployed to a staging environment for final checks: DNS and domain configuration, SSL certificate, analytics and tracking setup, redirects from any old URLs, and a final cross-browser check. A short launch checklist here prevents the most common post-launch fire drills: broken redirects, missing analytics, and forgotten SSL setup.
What causes delays (spoiler: client content)
Across projects, the single biggest driver of missed timelines isn’t design revisions or technical complexity; it’s waiting on the client to supply content: copy, product photos, logos, legal pages, testimonials. A development phase scoped for two weeks can easily run to five or six if content arrives in fragments over several weeks instead of all at once.
Other common causes, roughly in order of impact:
- Delayed or unclear feedback. A single decision-maker giving specific feedback within 48 hours keeps momentum; feedback split across several stakeholders, or feedback that takes a week to arrive, adds days at every stage.
- Scope changes mid-build. Adding a new feature or page type after development has started usually pushes the whole timeline back, not just the new piece.
- Third-party dependencies. Payment gateway approvals, domain transfers, or waiting on another agency (e.g. for brand assets) sit outside our control but still affect the date.
- Unclear sign-off process. Projects move fastest when it’s clear from day one who has final approval at each stage.
In one recent e-commerce build from our portfolio, the project ran a full 10 weeks from kickoff to launch right in line with the range above largely because content and product data were ready on schedule at each phase. That’s the difference between a 6-week and a 12-week e-commerce timeline: not the build itself, but how quickly everything around it moves.
Have a launch date in mind?
If you’re working backward from a fixed deadline, a product launch, an event, a rebrand tell us the date early. We can usually confirm feasibility, and flag any content or decisions you’ll need to prioritise, within one business day.
Have a deadline? Tell us we’ll confirm feasibility in one business day.
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FAQs
Can a website be built in a week? A very simple single-page or small brochure site can be built in a week if content and design direction are ready on day one. Anything with custom design, multiple page types, or e-commerce functionality realistically needs more time a one-week timeline usually means cutting corners somewhere.
What slows projects down the most? By far the most common cause is waiting on the client to provide content copy, images, product data followed by delayed or conflicting feedback and mid-project scope changes.
When should I start before a launch date? Work backward from your launch date and add a buffer: for a simple site, start at least 4–6 weeks out; for a standard business site, 8–10 weeks; for e-commerce, 3–4 months. Starting earlier also gives more room to absorb the content delays that affect almost every project.
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