How Long Does It Take to Build a Website?

The short answer: with us, a landing page typically takes 1–2 weeks, a business website 3–6 weeks, a redesign 3–6 weeks, an online store or a web application 6–12 weeks, and the first version of a mobile app 10–16 weeks. Those are typical timelines from the start of work to launch, and the exact timeline for your project is written into the quote before anything begins.

What surprises most people is where the time actually goes. Design and code are rarely what stretches a project. Content that arrives late, feedback that comes in pieces and decisions that wait for a meeting are. Below is what each phase involves, what slows projects down, how to keep yours moving, and how to read offers that promise a website in three days.

Typical timelines by type of project

• Landing page: 1–2 weeks. One page, one message, one call to action.
• Business website: 3–6 weeks. Several page designs, a CMS your team can use, SEO structure and analytics.
• Redesign: 3–6 weeks. A new version of an existing site, with content moved across and old addresses redirected so search rankings are protected.
• Online store: 6–12 weeks. Catalogue, cart, checkout, payments and delivery.
• Web application: 6–12 weeks for a first version, delivered in stages. Logins, roles, data and the workflows behind them.
• Mobile app for iOS and Android: 10–16 weeks for a first version, plus the time Apple and Google take to review it before it appears in their stores.

Where a project lands within its range depends mostly on size and connections: five pages or twenty, fifty products or five hundred, one language or three, and how many outside systems the site has to talk to. Our cost calculator shows a typical timeline next to the starting price for each type and size of project, so you can see the range in advance.

What each phase takes

Every project goes through the same phases. Their length changes with the size of the work; their order does not.

• A short call and a brief. We talk about what the site has to do, who it is for and what you already have: the current site, texts, photos, examples you like.
• A written quote. Scope, final price and timeline in writing, usually within a few days of the call.
• Prototype. The key pages laid out for desktop and mobile as a clickable prototype, so you judge the structure in use rather than from a flat picture.
• Design. The approved look is carried across every page template, including the mobile versions.
• Build. The site is built on a private staging link you can open at any time. The CMS, forms, analytics and SEO structure go in with the code, not after it.
• Content. Texts, photos, prices and documents go into the CMS. This should run alongside the build from the first week, not start when the build ends.
• Testing. Real phones and browsers, forms that actually send, speed, accessibility basics and, for a redesign, every redirect from the old addresses.
• Launch. The domain is pointed to the new site, with SSL, analytics and the sitemap submitted to Google. With the access ready, this takes hours, not days. After launch, 30 days of support are included in our price.

What actually delays projects

In our experience the build is the most predictable part of a project. These are the things that move launch dates:

• Content and photos arrive late. A site can be finished and still wait for the text of the services page or for a photographer. It is the most common reason a finished site sits unpublished.
• Feedback in rounds without an end. Comments arrive over weeks from different people, and each batch reopens decisions that were already closed.
• Integrations. Booking systems, accounting software, a CRM or a warehouse each come with their own documentation, test accounts and surprises. A payment provider also has to approve your merchant account, and that happens on their schedule, not yours or ours.
• Decisions by committee. When five people have to agree on a homepage, it waits for the busiest calendar. A new decision-maker joining halfway through often means a section starts again.
• Access to the domain and hosting. Nobody remembers who registered the domain, or a former supplier registered it in their own name. Recovering access can take longer than building the site.
• Legal texts. A privacy policy, a cookie notice and, for a store, terms of sale and a returns policy. These have to come from you or your lawyer, and they are often left until the week of launch.
• Scope that grows midway. A new section or feature is usually a good idea; it is also new work, and it moves the date.

None of this is anyone’s fault. These parts simply sit outside design and code, so they need planning too.

How to make it faster

• Name one person who decides. Others can give input, but through that person, and their answer is final.
• Start content on day one. Agree on a list of pages and who writes what in the first week. If writing is the bottleneck, have us write it.
• Gather access in the first week: domain registrar, DNS, hosting, analytics, Google Business Profile. Make sure all of it is registered to your company.
• Give feedback in one consolidated list, within an agreed number of working days.
• Start the slow tasks early: the payment provider application, legal texts, photography.
• Launch what matters and plan the rest. A second language, a blog archive or an extra feature can follow in a second phase without holding back the first.

What a realistic launch plan looks like

A realistic plan is tied to content and decisions, not only to dates in a calendar. For a business website in the 3–6 week range, it usually looks like this:

• Before work starts: the call, the written quote, and a list of content and accesses with a name next to each item.
• First stretch: a prototype of the key pages, which you click through and approve.
• Middle: design and build on the staging link, with content going in as it arrives.
• Final week: testing on real devices, legal texts in place, and a last read-through of every page by someone on your side.
• Launch day: the domain switched at a quiet hour, with monitoring, analytics and Search Console set up.
• First 30 days: monitoring and fixes while real visitors use the site.

If the date is fixed, for a trade fair, a campaign or a season, plan backwards from it and reduce the scope rather than the testing. A smaller site that works on launch day is better than a larger one that was never properly checked.

When a “website in three days” offer is a red flag

Not every quick offer is a bad one. A site can be put together in three days, usually on a template or a site builder, with your logo, colours and text. For a one-off event, or to test an idea before investing in it, that can be a sensible choice.

It becomes a problem when it is sold as the same thing as a site built for your business. Before you accept such an offer, ask:

• Who owns the domain, the hosting and the site itself, and can you move it to another provider if you leave?
• Is there an SEO structure: a separate title and description for every page, clean headings, a sitemap and, if you are replacing a site, redirects from the old addresses?
• How fast is it on a mid-range phone, not just on the seller’s laptop?
• What happens at the first real change, such as a new section or a booking form?
• Who prepares the content? Often the three days start only after you have delivered every text and photo, and that is the part that takes weeks anyway.

If the answers are clear and you are comfortable with them, a quick template site can be the right tool. If they are vague, the time saved now is usually spent later.

How we set the timeline

After a short call you receive a written quote with the scope, the final price and the timeline. The price does not change and nothing is added on top. Our starting prices: a landing page from €600, a business website from €1,800, a redesign from €1,500, an online store from €3,000, a web application from €4,500 and a mobile app from €3,000. Everything is on our pricing page, and our guide to what a website costs explains what moves the price.

If you already have a launch date in mind, mention it in your first message. We will tell you honestly whether it is realistic, and what would have to happen for it to work.