How long does it take to build a website? Timelines by type and phase, from published schedules

The short answer

A professionally built marketing website usually takes 10 to 16 weeks from kickoff to launch, and a larger or more custom one four to six months, judging by the schedules agencies and platforms publish. A landing page on a builder can go live in days; moving a simple online store to Shopify takes 6 to 8 weeks and an enterprise replatform 6 to 12 months; a web app's first version, 8 to 12 weeks with a small team.

The build itself is rarely what sets the date. The published schedules keep naming the same delays: content that arrives late and slow approvals, with unscoped integrations and legal review close behind. A project that starts with final copy and one decision-maker avoids most of them.

What the published timelines say

We read the timelines that platforms and agencies publish on their own sites, on 17 October 2026. They measure different things (some count hiring the developer, some start at kickoff), so the table notes what each includes.

The spread is wide because the projects are. Two things narrow it: the type of site, and how much of the content and decision-making is ready before the build starts.

How long each type of site takes

Some notes on the rows:

• Landing pages. Wix says landing pages and one-page sites "can sometimes take one to two days" on its builder. Studios that publish delivery times quote more: in Colombia, Macgráficas lists 5 to 8 business days and Cangrejo Digital 1 to 3 weeks; in Mexico, Newemage lists 1 to 2 weeks for its basic package. The difference is the copy, the design and the tracking, not the page count. Our guide to landing page cost covers what each level includes.
• Small sites. Cangrejo Digital, updated 29 September 2026, gives 2 to 4 weeks for a 5 to 8 page site and 4 to 8 weeks for a corporate site, and adds one to three weeks if the copy and photography still have to be produced.
• Stores. Shopify's guide to managed migrations, published 19 March 2026, says "simple stores might complete in 6–8 weeks" and "enterprise migrations with complex integrations typically run 12–16 weeks" (Shopify). Its enterprise guide puts a full enterprise replatform at 6 to 12 months and a custom rebuild at 18 to 36 months or more to an initial launch (Shopify).
• Web apps. thoughtbot, a product design and development consultancy, lists "Idea to Version 1" with three people over 8 to 12 weeks as a typical project in its public playbook, and writes that an MVP used to take "three or four months" before AI tools compressed prototyping (thoughtbot). Our guide to web app development cost covers scope and budget.

How long each phase takes

Three published schedules break the work into phases. They overlap in practice: content usually runs alongside design, and launch preparation alongside the build.

Huemor's process is longer at most steps: 4 weeks of discovery, 8 to 12 weeks of creative work, 8 to 12 weeks of development and 2 to 4 weeks of pre-launch checks. The difference is scope: research, prototypes and content strategy are part of its process. When you compare quotes, compare the phases, not the end date.

What delays website projects most

The published schedules agree on the causes, and none of them is code.

1. Content. iDesign calls content that doesn't arrive on time "the single most common cause of timeline slippage." Wix: "Most website projects run long for reasons that have nothing to do with the tools. The biggest one is content." Copy, photography, product data, case studies and translations each need an owner and a date.
2. Approvals. Each review that takes a week to come back adds a week. Extra reviewers add rounds: Wix notes that one reviewer moves faster than three people commenting in separate rounds. HubSpot warns that development "could stretch to three or even four" months if you keep adding changes.
3. Integrations. CRM, booking, payments, inventory and single sign-on are engineering work, and their access, documentation and test accounts come from third parties. Shopify's managed-migration guide budgets one to two weeks of discovery just to map a store's data, integrations and technology stack.
4. Legal and compliance. Privacy policy, terms, cookie consent and accessibility statements need someone with authority to sign them off. Book that review in the first weeks, not the last.
5. Fixed calendar waits. Some steps can't be rushed, so start them early:

How to speed it up without cutting corners

• Have the content before design starts. Final copy for the main pages, real photos, the product or service list. Design approved against placeholder text gets redesigned.
• Name one decision-maker, and agree turnaround times. Two business days per review keeps a 12-week plan at 12 weeks. Webflow's six-week example credits "decisive ownership" with removing "the usual delays."
• Use fewer unique layouts. Thirty pages built from four templates ship faster than ten pages that each need their own design.
• Launch in phases. Put the pages that sell on the first release; the blog archive, the resource center and the second language can follow.
• Choose standard integrations first. A form that emails your team and writes to your CRM through a native connector ships in days; a custom sync with an internal system takes weeks.
• Start the fixed waits on day one. Registrar access, DNS, payment-provider accounts, legal review.

Speed has limits worth respecting. If a fast schedule means skipping the analytics baseline, redirects from the old site or testing on phones, it costs more later. If you're replacing a site that has search traffic, our website redesign checklist lists what has to happen before launch.

A sample schedule: one marketing site in 12 weeks

This is an example, not a quote: a 15-page marketing site with a CMS, a blog, a contact form connected to a CRM, and an existing site to replace. It assumes the content owners deliver on the dates below and each review comes back within two business days. It sits at the shorter end of iDesign's 10 to 16 weeks.

Weeks 3 to 6 are where schedules slip. If week 5's copy arrives in week 8, launch moves by three weeks too.

Before you ask for a schedule

Write down the page list, who writes the content, the integrations and the date you need, and send the same brief to each studio so their timelines are comparable. Our website brief and RFP builder does that in a few minutes, and the website cost estimator gives a published-price range for the same scope. When the proposals come back, our guide to comparing design studios covers what to check beyond the date, and how much a website costs in the US puts the quotes in context. If you'd like Dardo to plan and build it, see web design, web development or, for an existing site, website redesign.