How Long Does It Take to Build a Website

The development time of a website depends on its type and scope оf work, the complexity of functionality, content, and the amount of non-typical tasks. The timing is also affected by the client’s preparedness and timely feedback.

The creation of websites of any type and complexity can take from 1 week to several months. Lead time of development of standard types of sites with individual design are as follows:

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Landing — from 1–2 weeks

Usually, this is a small corporate website of the company, its “face”. Landings in most cases are used as selling pages of a particular service or product. They contain some information about the company, contacts, and also have limited functionality, so they can be developed quite quickly.

Website — from 4–8 weeks

A website has more complex functionality and contains various add-ons and tools. Such a resource often requires testing, which also affects the timing.

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Online shop — from 8–16 weeks

The development of an online shop containing additional functionality with different page layouts takes at least 8 weeks, and in some cases requires up to 6–12 months of work.

In the case of force majeure, it’s possible to make a resource faster, but there is a risk that this will affect quality. A team of designers and developers needs time to delve into all the details of the project and create a quality product.

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Timeline of website development

The development timeline is directly related to the phases and stages of development.

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Stages of development (through the example of a landing)

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Stage 1

This is filling out a brief, collecting and preparing information about the goals and objectives of the website, as well as conducting marketing research, if the client hasn’t done it on their own. The collection and discussion of requirements also depend on the speed of approval and can take an average of 3 to 7 days.

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Stage 2

On the basis of the marketing analysis, requirements, and wishes of the client, a Technical Task is drawn up. In the Technical Task, the basic requirements are being worked out, the technical nuances of the resource, the principle of its development, and other details are indicated. This work takes about 3–5 days if the feedback is good. We need 24 hours to estimate the design after receiving all the details of the project.

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Stage 3

Design development. Basing on the Technical Task, our designers create 2–3 full-fledged options for the design layout. This takes an average of 5 to 7 days. The term may increase until one of the layouts will be approved by the client.

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Stage 4

Making a page layout. The layout designer creates the HTML template for the site based on the layout provided by the web designer. They make the layout dynamic, create an adaptive version or another type of layout, implement the website in the CMS, makes the site cross-browser. For this stage, it will take up to 3 to 10 days. If a big project with non-standard functionality is created, additional development of functions will be required. It will take a few additional days.

At the programming stage, there is usually no interaction with the client, so it usually doesn’t take plenty of time. Making of layout takes an average from about 5 days to 2 weeks, depending on the chosen technology (HTML, CSS, JS, or such platforms as WordPress or WebFlow) and the complexity of the project.

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Stage 5

Testing. The tester checks the quality of the project in order to detect errors. If errors are found, the specialist fills out the report and delivers it to the project manager. The latter, in their turn, distributes the work amongst the team. All work may take from 2 days to 2 weeks.

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Stage 6

Launch. The launch of a website can take from 1 day to 2 weeks.

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What affects the duration of website development?

The duration of the website development doesn’t have standards and depends on many factors. For example, points of connection between the client and the contractor, i.e., key points that need to be discussed, are an important factor. The faster the parties come to an agreement, the faster the project will develop. The development speed is also affected by:

• Website topic

The appearance of the website largely depends on its topic. If it’s pretty narrow and specific, then it requires a longer study by specialists.

• Website volume

Development of a landing page and a portal with several thousand pages require a different investment of time.

• Technical Task for design

The time of design development is affected by the complexity of the elements, their drawing, processing, and editing, the number of layouts for rendering pages, the number of design versions. Our team provides clients with 2–3 full-fledged versions to choose from. It also takes time to discuss and agree them with the client.

• Layout

At this stage, interaction with the client almost isn’t required. If the layout and connection of the content management system is done under your own or well-known CMS, then this stage passes quickly and usually takes no more than two weeks.

• Management system setup

Connection of additional modules, extensions, plug-ins in accordance with the required functionality of the website also increases development time. The need to make changes to the source code of the engine will increase the duration of the project completion.

• Additional works

This includes filling the website with content (if the client doesn’t do it on their own), setting the site’s traffic counter, registering it in search engines, and other services that require time.

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How to speed up the creation of a website?

1. Find a company of professional specialists.

Building a website on the basis of a template doesn’t require much time, but the capabilities of such a site are limited by the weak functionality of the template. Hosting will be determined in advance without the possibility of moving to another place. A template website uses a third-level domain, so the resource will be limited in the promotion and will never reach the top. Its settings cannot be changed due to code restrictions. Let alone the design that can’t be compared with an individual one and doesn’t make your offer unique, which means it won’t attract users.

Trying to improve the website made with the help of a constructor, people end up spending a lot more time, not to mention money and nerves. Therefore, it’s impossible to say that a template site will save you time. In the long run, you will spend much more time on it than if you entrust the creation of the website to professionals.

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2. Clearly describe your requirements and wishes in the Technical Task.

The clearer you formulate your task and the more materials you can provide, the faster the developers will do exactly what you need. The Technical Task is your insurance against unnecessary alterations. The Technical Task will also allow you to control the stages of work and demand their timely completion.

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3. Provide prompt feedback on your part.

This is the most important point. Effective interaction between the client and the developer significantly affects the work completion time. Working in tandem at critical moments can significantly cut down the time investment. During the communication, both sides come to an understanding, and this speeds up the process.

Unfortunately, not all clients who want to get a finished website or application as soon as possible understand that work and time investments on their part are needed too. It should be borne in mind that you’ll need time for discussions and contacts, for collecting and providing the necessary information, for reviewing and approval of key points of project creation. Therefore, the best you can do to speed up development is to be in constant touch with designers and developers.

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