The honest answer is "it depends", which is no use to anyone planning a launch. So here are the timescales we actually work to, what happens in each stage, and the things that make a project late.
The short answer
| Type of site | Typical timescale |
|---|---|
| A small site built on a template | 2 to 4 weeks |
| A custom-designed business website | 6 to 8 weeks |
| A site with custom functionality (bookings, quoting, portals, integrations) | 3 to 4 months |
| A larger web application or platform | 4 months and up, usually built in phases |
Those are the numbers for the work itself. Whether your project hits them depends mostly on things that aren't the build.
Where the time goes
Discovery and scope: 1 to 2 weeks
Working out what the site is for, who it's for, and what it has to do. It ends with a written scope and a fixed price. It's the stage people most want to skip and the one that saves the most time later. A decision changed here costs a conversation. The same decision changed in week seven costs a rebuild.
Structure and content plan: 1 week
Which pages exist, what each one is for, and what goes on it. Settled before anything is designed, because design without content is decoration.
Design: 2 to 3 weeks
Usually a homepage and one or two key templates first, then the rest once the direction is agreed. Two rounds of changes is normal. Six usually means the brief wasn't clear.
Build: 2 to 6 weeks
For a marketing site, this overlaps with design rather than following it. We build in parallel, so problems show up in week two rather than week nine. Custom functionality is where the bigger range comes from.
Content entry, testing and launch: 1 to 2 weeks
Loading the real content, testing on real phones, checking forms and tracking, setting up redirects from the old site, and going live.
What actually makes projects late
In our experience, it's rarely the design or the build. It's almost always one of these:
Content. The words and images for the site. If you're writing them yourself, this is the single biggest risk to your launch date. Start before the project does.
Decisions. Feedback that takes two weeks to come back because three people need to agree. Decide at the start who has the final say.
Scope that grows. "While you're at it, could it also..." Each addition is reasonable on its own. Together they add months. Write them down for phase two.
Third parties. Domain logins nobody can find, a hosting company that takes a week to reply, an integration whose documentation turns out to be wrong.
How to get a site live faster
- Know what the site is for, in one sentence you could measure.
- Have one decision-maker, or agree how disagreements get settled.
- Start the content early, or budget for a copywriter.
- Find your logins for domain, hosting, analytics and Google Business Profile before kick-off.
- Keep a phase-two list and resist adding to phase one.
Does faster cost more?
Sometimes. A fixed deadline, like a trade show or a product launch, is fine if it's known at the start and the scope fits it. What's expensive is a deadline that arrives halfway through a project scoped for a longer one.
If you'd like a realistic timescale for your project, tell us what you're planning. We work with businesses around our studios in Leicester and Huddersfield, and well beyond them. There's also a guide to what a website costs if that's the other half of the question.
