How Long Does It Take to Build a Website? Real Timelines for 2026

A small business website usually takes about 2 weeks to build once the content is ready. A custom-designed site takes 3 to 5 weeks, an online store 3 to 10 weeks, and a web application 8 to 14 weeks or more. The build itself is rarely what slows a project down. Content, feedback and approvals are. This guide breaks down real timelines, shows a week-by-week schedule and explains how to launch sooner.

Website timelines at a glance

Project	Typical timeline
Landing page	5 to 7 days
Small business website (up to 5 pages)	About 2 weeks
Custom-designed business website (up to 12 pages)	3 to 5 weeks
Larger site with bookings, memberships or languages (up to 25 pages)	4 to 7 weeks
Next.js website with a headless CMS (up to 8 pages)	3 to 5 weeks
Starter online store (up to 30 products)	About 3 weeks
Custom-designed store (up to 150 products)	4 to 6 weeks
Store with subscriptions, B2B pricing or integrations	6 to 10 weeks
Web application MVP, portal or internal tool	8 to 14 weeks

The stages of a website project

1. Discovery and planning (2 to 5 days). Goals, pages, features, content and success measures are agreed in a short written brief.
2. Design (1 to 2 weeks for custom work). Key pages are designed and approved before development starts. Template-based sites skip most of this stage.
3. Build (1 to 4 weeks). The site is developed on a private preview link you can click through.
4. Content (runs alongside). Text, images and products are added. This is the most common cause of delay.
5. Testing (2 to 5 days). Forms, speed, mobile layouts, browsers and redirects are checked.
6. Launch and handover (1 to 2 days). The site goes live, is checked again and your team is trained.

A week-by-week example: 12-page custom website

Here is a realistic schedule for a custom-designed business website, the kind that takes 3 to 5 weeks when content and feedback arrive on time:

Week	What happens	What you do
Week 1	Kickoff call, written brief, sitemap and home page design	Share goals, examples you like and existing content
Week 2	Remaining key page designs; content collection	Approve designs and send final text and images
Week 3	Build on a private preview site	Click through and send one round of feedback
Week 4	Content added, speed and mobile checks, forms tested	Final review and sign-off
Week 5 (if needed)	Fixes, redirects from an old site, launch and training	Approve go-live

From our projects: On our projects, the build rarely causes delays. The most common hold-up is waiting for final text and images, so we ask for content early and can write it for you at $49 per page.

How long do other projects take?

Website redesigns and migrations

A redesign usually takes as long as a new site, sometimes longer, because existing pages must be mapped and redirected. Moving a WordPress site to a new host takes 1 to 3 days. Moving to WordPress from another platform takes 2 to 4 weeks for up to 30 pages, and large sites or stores take 4 to 8 weeks. Our WordPress migration page explains each option.

Online stores

Store timelines depend mostly on product data. Fifty simple products with clean photos are quick to load. A thousand products with sizes, colours and variants take much longer, even with bulk imports. See our ecommerce website cost guide for how catalogue size affects budget too.

Web applications

Portals, dashboards and internal tools take 8 to 14 weeks for a first release, because user roles, data and integrations all need building and testing. Our web app development cost guide covers scope and budget in detail.

What to prepare before the project starts

A short preparation list saves more time than any shortcut in the build. Before kickoff, gather:

Item	Why it matters
Page list and sitemap	Fixes the scope, so the quote and timeline stay accurate
Final text for each page	Content is the most common cause of delay
Logo, brand colours and fonts	Design can start on day one instead of waiting for files
Photos, or a decision to use licensed stock	Images shape layouts, so they are needed before design is signed off
Logins for domain, hosting and email	Launch can’t happen without DNS and hosting access
Two or three sites you like, and why	Gives the designer a clear direction and cuts revision rounds
One named decision-maker	Feedback arrives once, in one place, instead of in conflicting pieces

If some of this isn’t ready, say so at the start. A realistic plan built around missing content is far better than a fast plan that stalls in week two.

What makes a website take longer?

• Content that isn’t ready when the build starts.
• Several people approving designs, with feedback arriving at different times.
• Custom features such as bookings, memberships, calculators or integrations.
• Waiting for logins to hosting, domains or third-party tools.
• Moving a large existing site, which needs a URL map and redirects to protect rankings.
• Changing the scope halfway through the project.

How to get your website live faster

1. Write or collect your page content before the project starts.
2. Name one person who gives feedback and approves each stage.
3. Gather logins for your domain, hosting and tools in advance.
4. Launch with the pages you need now and add the rest later.
5. Use proven layouts for less important pages and save custom design for key pages.
6. Agree the scope in writing, so new ideas go into a phase two list.

Don’t skip testing to save a week

What the research says: Google uses the mobile version of a site’s content, crawled with its smartphone agent, for indexing and ranking. A site that looks fine on desktop but breaks on phones can hurt you in search. (Source: Google Search Central.)

A few days of testing on real phones, checking forms and speed, and confirming redirects is far cheaper than fixing problems after launch. If you are also budgeting, our guides to WordPress website costs and small business website costs explain what drives the price.

Get a timeline for your project

Every project is different. Tell us what you need and we reply within one business day with questions or a written quote and a realistic timeline.