How Long Does It Take to Build a Website in 2026? (Realistic Timelines)

## The Short Answer

Here is a realistic timeline by website type:

- **Simple business website (5–10 pages):** 2–4 weeks
- **Business website with CMS:** 3–6 weeks
- **E-commerce store:** 4–10 weeks
- **Web application (SaaS, portal, dashboard):** 6–14 weeks
- **Enterprise platform:** 10–24 weeks
- **AI website builder (Wix, Framer AI):** 1–2 days to 1 week

These are real-world timelines from projects I have built — not the optimistic estimates agencies put in proposals to win the deal.

## Why Timelines Vary So Much

Two developers can quote the same project and give timelines that are 3x apart. Here is what actually drives that gap:

### 1. Scope clarity
A project with clear wireframes, written content, and defined requirements moves fast. A project where the client is "figuring it out as we go" adds weeks of back-and-forth. The discovery phase is not overhead — it is what makes the build phase efficient.

### 2. Content readiness
Most website delays are the client's fault, not the developer's. The most common reason a project runs 2–4 weeks over is waiting for content: copy, images, product descriptions, team bios, case studies. If you do not have your content ready before development starts, your timeline extends by exactly as long as it takes you to produce it.

### 3. Design rounds
Every round of design feedback that requests structural changes (not just colour tweaks) adds 3–5 working days. Projects with clear brand guidelines and a decisive decision-maker move faster. Projects with multiple stakeholders who disagree move slower.

### 4. Number of features
Each meaningful feature adds time. User authentication typically adds 1–2 weeks. A payment system adds 1–2 weeks. A custom search and filter system adds 1–2 weeks. Features stack linearly — five features do not take five times the time of one, but they do take meaningfully longer.

### 5. Third-party integrations
Connecting to external APIs (CRMs, payment gateways, booking systems, ERPs) is often where projects stall. Third-party APIs have documentation gaps, rate limits, and unexpected behaviours. Build in buffer time for any integration you cannot control.

## Timeline by Project Phase

Every website goes through the same phases, regardless of size. The time spent in each phase scales with complexity.

### Phase 1: Discovery and Planning (1–2 weeks)

What happens: Requirements gathering, sitemap and navigation design, technical decisions, content inventory.

Why it matters: Skipping this phase is the single biggest cause of blown timelines and budgets. Every hour spent planning saves three hours in development.

What you need to deliver: Clear answers on what the website must do, who it is for, what content exists, and what success looks like.

### Phase 2: Design (1–4 weeks)

What happens: Wireframes, visual design mockups, client review, revisions.

**Standard design:** 1–2 weeks. Uses established patterns, your brand colours and fonts applied to proven layouts.

**Custom design:** 2–3 weeks. Unique layouts for each page, custom graphic elements, multiple revision rounds.

**Premium design:** 3–4 weeks. Bespoke animations, illustrated elements, micro-interactions, and premium typography systems.

Pro tip: Approve design before development begins. Changing the design mid-development is expensive — every design change in development costs roughly 3x what it would have cost during the design phase.

### Phase 3: Development (1–8 weeks)

What happens: Building the frontend (what users see), backend (data, APIs, integrations), CMS setup, and responsive behaviour.

This is where most of the timeline lives. Development time scales directly with the number of pages, features, and integrations.

A simple 5-page static site can be built in 3–5 days by an experienced developer. A web application with user authentication, a database, API integrations, and a custom dashboard can take 6–10 weeks.

### Phase 4: Testing (3–7 days)

What happens: Cross-browser testing (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge), mobile device testing, form and payment flow testing, performance optimisation, and final content review.

Do not skip testing to save time. A payment form that fails on Safari on iPhone will cost you far more than the week you saved by cutting testing short.

### Phase 5: Launch and Post-Launch (1–3 days)

What happens: Deployment to production, DNS propagation, final checks, Google Search Console submission.

DNS propagation takes 24–48 hours — this is not negotiable. If your launch date is fixed, account for this.

## Realistic Timelines by Website Type

### Simple Business Website (2–4 weeks)
5–10 pages: home, about, services, contact, maybe a blog. Standard design. No complex integrations.

**What makes it 2 weeks:** Clear brief, content ready on day one, standard design, decisive client feedback.
**What makes it 4 weeks:** Design revisions, content delays, adding features mid-project.

### Business Website with CMS (3–6 weeks)
Same as above but with a content management system so the client can update pages independently. The CMS setup, template building, and training add 1–2 weeks.

### E-Commerce Store (4–10 weeks)
Product catalogue, cart, checkout, payment processing, order management. The range is wide because it depends heavily on product count, customisation needs, and integrations (inventory systems, shipping APIs, accounting software).

**4 weeks:** 50 products, Stripe integration, standard Shopify or WooCommerce theme customisation.
**10 weeks:** 500+ products, custom design, multiple payment methods, inventory sync, custom checkout flow.

### Web Application (6–14 weeks)
SaaS products, dashboards, portals, platforms. These involve user authentication, databases, APIs, and complex business logic.

**6–8 weeks:** Simple CRUD application, single user role, one core workflow.
**10–14 weeks:** Multiple user roles, complex permissions, third-party integrations, real-time features, admin dashboard.

### Enterprise Platform (10–24 weeks)
Large-scale systems with complex integrations, legacy system connections, multiple teams, and extensive requirements. These projects often need a project manager in addition to developers and designers.

## What Causes Delays (And How to Avoid Them)

**Delayed content:** Start writing your copy and gathering images before the developer starts. If you need a copywriter, hire one at the same time as your developer, not after.

**Approval bottlenecks:** Designate one decision-maker for the project. Every additional stakeholder who needs to approve designs or content adds friction. If five people need to sign off, build four extra weeks into your timeline.

**Scope creep:** "Can we also add..." is the most expensive sentence in web development. Every new feature mid-project disrupts the development sequence and adds time. Define scope clearly upfront and save new ideas for a phase two.

**Unclear feedback:** "I don't like it" is not actionable feedback. "The header feels too heavy — can we reduce the font size and add more whitespace?" is. Specific feedback gets implemented faster and with fewer revision rounds.

**Switching developers mid-project:** If a project gets handed from one developer to another, assume it will take two to four weeks just to get the new developer up to speed. Avoid this situation at all costs.

## Can You Build a Website Faster?

Yes, with trade-offs.

**Have content ready before day one.** This single step saves more time than anything else. Projects where the client delivers all copy and images at kickoff finish 30–40% faster.

**Start with fewer pages.** Launch a 5-page site and add pages over time. You will get real user feedback and know which pages actually matter.

**Use proven components.** Custom design is beautiful but slow. A great designer working within a component library delivers a polished result in half the time of building from scratch.

**Make decisions quickly.** Every day you take to review and approve something is a day added to your timeline. Block time on your calendar for project reviews.

**Trust your developer.** Micromanaging the technical implementation adds time without improving the outcome. Define what you need, review the result, give clear feedback.

## The Connection Between Time and Cost

Timeline and cost are directly linked. A 4-week project costs roughly half of an 8-week project with the same developer at the same rate. When an agency gives you a shorter timeline, they are either more efficient or cutting corners — it is worth understanding which.

For a detailed breakdown of what different timelines actually cost, use the [website cost calculator](/tools/website-cost-calculator) to model your specific project.

## Conclusion

The most common mistake businesses make when planning a website is treating the timeline as the developer's problem. In reality, half the factors that determine how long a website takes to build are in your control: content readiness, decision speed, scope clarity, and feedback quality.

A developer can build the website. Only you can make the decisions that let them build it efficiently.

If your timeline is fixed, work backwards from your launch date, build in 20% buffer for the unexpected, and have all your content ready before the first line of code is written. That combination — more than any other factor — is what separates projects that launch on time from those that do not.