How long does it take to build a website? Real timelines, step by step
Four weeks for a simple custom website, six on average all included, up to ten for a multilingual Shopify store. Here are the real timelines of a website project, step by step, and what makes them slip.
The short answer
Plan on six weeks on average to build a professional website, everything included: brief, design, build, launch. A simple custom website ships in four weeks; a multilingual Shopify store with a B2B area can take up to ten weeks. Typical agency timelines on the market run from 2 to 6 months. The number one factor isn't technical: it's your content and how fast you sign things off.
How long does it take to build a custom website?
Plan on four weeks for a simple custom website: five to eight pages, a custom design, content ready at kickoff. Market ranges run from 3 to 6 weeks for a standard agency-built website. They stretch to 2-6 months when the project includes a full visual identity, a structured blog or a multilingual version.
What drives the timeline isn't the number of pages: it's the number of distinct layouts to design. Ten pages sharing three layouts get built faster than five pages that are all unique. The other decisive variable is your content: copy, photos and testimonials gathered upfront save one to two weeks.
Timelines follow the same logic as budget: more layouts, more features, more time. To put the two side by side, price ranges are detailed in how much does a website cost.
How long does it take to build a Shopify store?
It all depends on the level of ambition. A bare-bones store on a standard theme, with no customization, goes up in 1-3 days: enough to test an idea, not to carry a brand. A serious store on an adjusted theme takes 2-4 weeks according to market ranges. A deeply customized theme climbs to 8-10 weeks.
At Sonho, a custom Shopify store goes up to ten weeks when it combines several languages, a B2B area and specific purchase flows. It's not the screens that take the time: it's the product pages to structure, the shipping and payment rules to configure, and the data to migrate from the old platform.
If you're migrating from WooCommerce, Wix or another Shopify store, add the time to port the catalog and set up redirects. It's invisible to your customers, but it's what protects your existing search rankings.
What are the stages of a website project, and how long does each take?
A website project breaks down into four phases. Here is our actual process, with what each phase delivers and who does what: that breakdown is what lets you know exactly where you stand at any point.
| Stage | Duration | Deliverable | Who does what |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brief | 3-5 days | Validated scope, page structure, fixed-price quote | You describe the business and the goals; the agency structures and prices it |
| Design | 1-2 weeks | Mockups of every page layout | The agency designs; you comment, with unlimited revisions until you're satisfied |
| Build | 3-4 weeks | Working site on a preview link | The agency develops; you follow along live, the link updates with every change |
| Launch and follow-up | One day | Site in production, team trained | The agency connects the domain, checks everything and trains your team |
How do you prepare the project brief for your website?
No need for a forty-page document: two clear pages are enough to start the brief phase without losing a week to back-and-forth questions. A good project brief also lets you compare quotes on the same basis, instead of comparing prices that don't cover the same scope.
Here is what it should contain, in order of importance:
- The list of planned pages, even a rough one: home, services, about, contact, plus anything specific to your business.
- Three to five examples of websites you like, with one sentence on what appeals to you in each: the style, the structure, the tone.
- The state of your content: which copy exists, which photos are usable, what still needs producing and by whom.
- Your constraints: hard deadline, languages, tools to connect (booking, payment, CRM), budget envelope.
What actually delays a website project?
The number one cause, far ahead of everything else: content on the client side. Page copy, photos, product pages, legal notices: across the market, content missing at kickoff costs 5-10 days of delay per batch. A site can be technically finished and sit waiting three weeks for the copy to arrive.
The second cause is slow sign-offs. A mockup that waits ten days for feedback is ten calendar days lost, because the next phase can't start. A single decision-maker on the client side and feedback within 48 hours are enough to keep the schedule on track.
The fix is a written split of responsibilities from the brief onwards: the agency delivers the mockups, the site and the announced deadlines; you deliver the content and the sign-offs by the agreed dates. When each side knows what it owes the other and by when, delays become rare and, above all, visible early, while there's still time to catch up.
How long does a website redesign take?
A redesign takes 6-10 weeks on average according to market ranges. It's often faster than a new build on the content side, since the copy and photos already exist. It's longer on the technical side, though: porting the data, page-by-page redirects, preserving the search rankings you've already earned.
The technology you land on weighs directly on the schedule: staying on the same platform, migrating to Shopify or rebuilding on a hand-coded custom site are very different undertakings. The criteria for deciding are detailed in which technology to choose for a redesign.
A classic trap: using the redesign as an excuse to change everything at once, the design, the copy, the structure and the platform. Every added workstream stretches the timeline and muddies the measurement of what's working. Better a clean redesign, then improvements in stages.
Can you build a website in one week?
Honestly: yes for a single presentation page on an existing base, no for a site meant to bring in clients. One week isn't enough for a considered positioning, well-argued service pages, proofread content and a design that sets you apart. You get a site that's online, not a site that works for you.
If you're in a hurry, the right answer isn't to compress everything: it's to ship in stages. The critical part goes live first, say a solid homepage and a contact page, then the service pages and the rest follow in waves. You're visible fast, without sacrificing the quality of the whole.
That's exactly what we settle on a discovery call: what needs to ship first, what can wait, and a fixed-price quote locked in before we start. If your deadline is tight, let's talk directly: we'll tell you what's doable and what isn't.
Frequently asked questions
- How long does a 5-page website take?
- Plan on four weeks for a five-page site with a custom design and content ready at kickoff: 3-5 days of brief, 1-2 weeks of design, then the build. On an existing template you can get down to 1-2 weeks, but the result will look like the thousands of sites built on the same model. The real variable isn't the page count: it's the state of your content.
- How long does it take to put a finished site online?
- One day. The switch covers connecting the domain name, the security certificate, final checks and training your team. Domain propagation can take anywhere from a few hours to 48 hours depending on your domain registrar. For a redesign, add the redirects from the old URLs, prepared ahead of time so the switch stays a formality.
- How long before you're visible on Google?
- Page indexing takes a few days to a few weeks after launch. Meaningful rankings on your target queries arrive more like 3-6 months in, the time it takes Google to assess the site and for the content to do its work. Don't wait for SEO to launch: a site that goes online early builds up history, and you can generate your first leads through your network and existing profiles in the meantime.
- Can a website project be sped up?
- Yes, and the main lever is on your side: content gathered before kickoff, a single decision-maker on the client side and sign-offs within 48 hours can save two weeks on a six-week project. On the agency side, shipping in stages puts the critical part online first, with the rest following in waves. Compressing the phases themselves, on the other hand, gets paid back in rework after launch.
- What happens if my content isn't ready?
- The project starts anyway: the brief and the design move forward with placeholder content sized to the expected final length. But the launch will wait for your final copy and photos. Across the market, each missing batch of content costs 5-10 days of delay. If writing is what's blocking you, say so at the brief stage: it can be handled within the project, as a priced option in the quote.
