How long does a website actually take?
Most websites are late, and most of the delay has nothing to do with writing code. Here is where the days really go, which parts depend on you rather than the developer, and how to keep a project from drifting.
Last updated 3 August 2026 · about 6 minutes
The short answer
A single landing page takes three to five days. A multi-page business site you can edit yourself takes one to two weeks. A larger build with custom design and integrations takes two to four weeks. Those are working timelines for a studio that already has your content — add anywhere from a few days to several weeks if the text and photos do not exist yet, which is the single most common reason a website is late.
Where the time actually goes
People picture the build as one long stretch of coding. In practice a website is four distinct phases, and only one of them looks like programming.
- Deciding what the site has to do. Which pages exist, what each one is for, and what you want a visitor to do. This is quick when someone has thought about it and slow when nobody has. It is also the phase where a change costs nothing — the same change during the build costs days.
- Design. Turning that structure into something specific: layout, type, colour, how it behaves on a phone. Roughly a third of the total on most projects.
- Build. Making it real, on every screen size, with the forms wired up and the images compressed. Usually the most predictable phase, because it is the one with the fewest opinions in it.
- Testing and launch. Every page on every common browser and screen, forms actually delivering to a real inbox, analytics recording, domain pointed, HTTPS working. It is the least visible phase and the first one cut when a project is running late — which is why so many sites launch with a contact form that quietly fails.
Typical timelines
Here is what we quote, and what each one covers. These are the delivery dates we commit to in writing before starting — not estimates that drift.
| Type of site | Delivery |
|---|---|
Basic A sharp one-page site that tells people who you are and how to reach you. | 3–5 days |
Standard For businesses that need to update their own content without calling a developer. | 1–2 weeks |
Premium Business Website The full build — custom motion, a proper admin panel, and the integrations that save you time. | 2–4 weeks |
A web app or a SaaS product is a different question entirely — those run in months rather than weeks, and the honest answer depends on what it does. If that is closer to what you need, the guide on choosing between a website, a web app and a SaaS platform is the better starting point.
Why projects slip
In our experience almost every overrun traces back to one of four things, and three of them sit on the client’s side of the table. That is not a complaint — it is useful, because it means the schedule is largely within your control.
- Content that does not exist yet. The most common by a wide margin. A site cannot be finished around placeholder text, because real copy changes the layout. If you have not written the About page, the build stops at the About page.
- Slow feedback. A review that takes a week turns a ten-day project into a three-week one. Nothing is happening during that week, and the studio has usually moved on to other work in the meantime.
- Decisions with no owner. When four people have to agree on the homepage headline, the homepage waits. Name one person who can say yes.
- Scope that grows quietly. "Could we also add a blog?" is a reasonable question and a genuinely new piece of work. Adding it is fine; pretending it is free is what breaks the date.
How to make yours land on time
- Write your text first, even badly. A rough draft of every page beats a perfect draft of one.
- Gather your photos, logo files and brand colours into a single folder.
- List the pages you actually need. Most businesses need fewer than they think.
- Decide who gives feedback, and agree they can do it within two working days.
- Work out what a visitor should do on the site — call, book, buy, enquire — before anyone designs anything.
- Have access to your domain registrar ready. Chasing a login you set up four years ago is a classic launch-day delay.
Do those six things and a two-week site really does take two weeks. Skip them and the same site takes six, with most of the extra month spent waiting rather than working.
What about rush jobs?
Some things genuinely can be compressed. A single landing page for an event next week is realistic if the copy is ready and the scope stays fixed. What cannot be compressed is testing, and a launch that skips it tends to cost more time after release than it saved before.
Be suspicious of anyone who agrees to a hard deadline without asking a single question about content. They are not being confident — they have not thought about the part that makes websites late.
Need a date you can plan around?
Tell us what the site needs to do and we will send back a fixed price and a fixed delivery date, agreed before any work starts.