How long a website takes
«Two weeks» and «two months» can both be honest answers to the same question, because behind them sit different scopes and different levels of readiness. A timeline is work plus waiting, and the waiting is usually the long part.
I answer within one working day, in writing. I never call.
Deadlines are broken by waiting, not by code
Building a page takes hours. Waiting for texts, photographs, access to the domain, an answer from the person who signs off and a review on someone else's side takes weeks. So the question «how long does development take» is answered better as «how long does all of it take together». A contractor controls their part and almost none of yours: they can refuse to start without materials, but they cannot invent them. Hence the rule: a date comes together with the list of what has to be ready at the start, and what happens if it is not.
What the timeline depends on
How many screens are genuinely different
Count screens that differ, not pages. A catalogue of two hundred products is one product screen and one list screen. Five unique screens take longer than forty identical ones.
Whether texts and photographs exist
The most common delay. Without text a page cannot be finished: placeholder copy gets rewritten together with the layout anyway. If the materials are missing, it is more honest to book time for collecting them than to move the date quietly.
How many people sign off
One decision-maker means days. Three who look in turn means weeks. This is not about bureaucracy, it is about the calendar: every round of changes costs as much as the slowest reply inside it.
Whether other systems are involved
Payments, stock, CRM, delivery. Here the date is set by the other side: documentation, test access, a review before switching on. Their windows are found out in advance and booked as they are.
When the changes happen
A change on the mockup costs an hour. The same change after the build costs a day. After launch it costs a day plus rechecking everything around it. Looking carefully early is cheaper than approving quickly and redoing late.
Reviews on the services' side
A payment provider checks documents, app stores check the build, domain and mail records spread across the internet for up to two days. These windows do not compress, they are only booked early.
What moves over from the old site
Catalogue, articles, page addresses. Moving the data and redirecting the old addresses is separate work, usually remembered on the last day, with the old site already switched off.
Four ways to move the date
- Waiting for every material before starting. While the text for the eighth screen is being written, the first one is not live either. Launching a part and adding to it is cheaper.
- Sign-off with no criterion. «Something is off» is not a change, it is another round. A written definition of done saves more weeks than any contractor's speed.
- «While we are at it, let us add…». Every «while we are at it» mid-project is a new task with a new date, not a free detail.
- Redesign and migration on the same day. Changing the look, the addresses and the hosting at once means guessing afterwards which of the three cost you the enquiries.
How to estimate it yourself
Write out the screens that genuinely differ: home, catalogue, product, article, contacts. Mark the ones you already have text and photographs for. In a separate list, write down the third parties: payments, delivery, stock, domain, mail. Then answer honestly how many people will review the work and how fast they usually reply. The screens without materials and the third parties are your real timeline; the contractor's own work is usually shorter than it. In this scheme I keep one promise: a first working link within two weeks, after which the site grows in front of you instead of appearing once at the end.
Get a date and a priceQuestions people ask
Can you give a date before the quote?
An exact date, no: it depends on the scope and on how ready your materials are. What moves it I can tell you straight away, and that list already shows whether you are looking at two weeks or two months.
Would more people make it faster?
Usually not. A new person has to be shown the project, and whoever is showing is not building meanwhile. Speed comes from cutting scope and answering fast, not from adding hands.
What is a «first working link»?
An address you can open on a phone and show to someone: not a mockup and not a picture, but a live page with a working form. After that it is extended, not replaced.
I needed the site last week. What now?
Cut the scope, not the timeline. One screen that works and collects enquiries is worth more than eight that arrive in a month.
What if the delay is on my side?
You hear about it at once, with a new date, instead of me waiting quietly. Going silent for more than 48 hours without warning costs me a free week of work, and that promise holds here too.
Get a date and a figure for your scope
One figure and one timeline for the whole scope within two working days. First working link within two weeks. I answer in writing and I do not call.
Get a date and a price