How long does it take to build a website?

A vital, yet sometimes underestimated, part of a business launch is the website; its quality and contents are key to driving qualified leads and growth for your B2B business. On the other hand, a blank domain with an amateurish webpage built in a drag-and-drop constructor can be ignored by the search engines’ indexing crawlers and thus bring zero customers. While leaders aim to save time on custom website development, in reality, it can take only a few weeks to go live online.

So, how long does it take to build a website that actually converts visitors to leads? From 1-2 months for a basic brochure site and up to 6 months for a feature-packed web app. The website complexity, team expertise, and your readiness impact the timeline.

In this article, we share SolveIt’s expertise in website development, which we have gathered by building landing pages of different types for businesses across multiple niches. Read our insights below to learn about the factors that impact timelines and how to speed things up without cutting corners.

How long does it take to create a website: timelines

Sites are not born equal. A brochure webpage is built for speed to attract as many leads as possible in the shortest time. It conveys the service or product basics that are relevant for a customer. On the other side, large e-commerce projects demand precision, scalability, a diversified toolset, and content, which can be only achieved with a well-structured, complex website.

If you start small or are simply testing the grounds, a simple or medium website is the right choice for you because they provide all of the features that are necessary to drive leads and test for your hypothesis. E-commerce platforms, large and medium B2B businesses that aim to grow are recommended to build complex websites to enable scalability with custom algorithms, user authentication, and multiple integrations.

Here’s a breakdown of website types based on custom development from scratch.

Simple website

This is the best option for solo consultants or early-stage startups who need a basic website with up to 10 static pages, a contact form, a blog feed, and light animations. Simple websites have minimal logic, which allows for not much backend, stock creatives, and UI kits from stores. Save 2 weeks for design, 3 weeks for development, and a week for testing and release.

Example: A portfolio, a brand website for solo consultants, a startup homepage with lead capture.

Timeline: 1-2 months

Medium website

Perfect solution for mid-tier B2B companies: case studies, testimonial sliders, lead magnets, dynamic elements, and light CMS integrations. E.g., a company's product page with pricing calculators or a consulting firm's resource library. Interactive pages demand a thoughtful backend, with extra time for responsive design tweaks and content checks.

Example: A corporate website with service showcases, a light app with 20+ pages, with basic CMS, blogs or directories.

Timeline: 1-3 months

Complex website

The one and only solution for large e-commerce platforms, SEO-optimized marketplaces, and web apps that require user authentication, payments, and AI matching. Integrations, custom logic, and security testing significantly impact the timeline. If you’re unsure whether you need an app or a website, read more about web application vs website differences.

Example: A subscription platform, an admin panel, a property swap platform.

Timeline: 3-6+ months

Most common factors that influence website development timeline

Now, let’s get down to how long it takes to build a website and what you can do to push the process. We’ve compiled a list of factors that extend or shorten the timeline, based on more than 100 projects that SolveIt has successfully released in the past years.

Website complexity

The more pages, features, or logic your website needs, the longer is the build. A simple static website with minimum elements and short forms can take as little as two weeks. User authentication and analytics double the time. Pro tip: Think of what you aim to reach and what you will need for this. Collect your ideas and scope them via the discovery phase to nail this early.

Precision of requirements

Clear specifications help estimate how long it takes to build a website. A precise instruction like “Figma mockups with pixel-perfect handover” can reduce revisions by half. At the same time, a comment like “Just make it fancy” extends the timeline drastically because no one but you knows what that actually means.

Check other websites, try them. Think for yourself what solutions you want for your website. Research the tools and technology that address the metrics you need. Plan the entire path, or funnel, that your customer will experience on your website to get value for themselves and bring profit for you.

Collect the requirements in a single list. Make sure that you specify which actions or reactions are expected on the website with what features. Put all necessary tools in your requirements list, this will cut the integration timeline.

Tech stack

Modern stacks like React speed iterations. In fact, it halves developer time and handles components efficiently. Nowadays, choosing PHP or similar ‘oldschool’ tech for new websites is a risky decision that can lead to limited usability – they are simply not adapted for modern tech. This means limited integrations, longer development time, higher failure risk. Still unsure? 

Experience of development team

Is it that important for the timeline? Put simply, yes. Inexperienced developers spend days on simple errors, which could be debugged in a couple of hours by seniors. Meanwhile, senior developers in agencies with more than 100 projects (like SolveIt) foresee challenges, mitigate the risks, and release MVPs in a couple of weeks. Complex solutions require extensive expertise on backend and integrations from the development team.

Third-party integrations

One of the website essentials is the API integration. Whenever you expect a customer to subscribe, pay, watch something, or leave to another platform, it requires an API connected to your website. Custom APIs like Stripe, Hubspot, or payment tools add up to testing for a couple of weeks on average.

Define the path that your customer will go to land on your website, foresee the actions that they will perform on the website, and determine how they will pay, what they will see, where they will be redirected, and how you will track them. Each of these steps requires an API integration, so it’s better to plan your on-site engagement in advance.

Content readiness

Content is key to website development. Ideally, you should have the copy, images, and videos prepared before the work to minimize adjustments.

Start with goals and objectives. Surf online, examine similar sites. Plan the website structure. Create the copy by yourself or give it to outsource creators – outsourcing bootstraps the content creation multiple times. A professional content manager foresees the copy type and size, and the visuals volume and size, saving you weeks of time and thus shortening the website development timeline.

How long does it take to build a website: process

A custom web development pipeline consists of 7 phases, some of them can go in parallel, while others wait for the previous ones to complete. For example, you set up the domain during the discovery phase or write the copy in parallel with the website design and development.

How long does it take to make a website? Say, 8-24 weeks in total. Duration can vary by 20% based on the scope.

• Planning & Discovery Phase. App ideation and validation, competitor research, audits, user personas, and tech roadmaps are mandatory here. Research every bit of information that influences your business growth. Discovery phase is crucial for the entire project, a missing validation can bring a total restart of the project. Timeline: 1-4 weeks.

• Domain & Hosting Setup. Set up your domain (GoDaddy, etc.), cloud hosting (AWS, Vercel, etc.), and SSL. This stage goes fast if you plan it in advance. However, the timeline increases if DNS faces issues. Timeline: 1-3 days.

• Website Design. Your website design transforms from wireframes into high-end mockups. For reference, see SolveIt’s wireframe examples for mobile/web and low-fi blueprints. We recommend using Figma for UI/UX iterations since the absolute majority of developers are familiar with this tool. How long does it take to design a website? 4 weeks on average for responsive mockups, or 2 weeks for simple websites and 6 weeks for complex ones. Explore our UI/UX design services. Timeline: 2-6 weeks.

• Website Development (how long does it take to build a website). The stage includes frontend (React/Vue), backend (Node.js/Python), and database wiring. How long does it take to develop a website? Days for prototypes; months for platforms. The core coding sprint is fueled by React. Timeline: 4-12 weeks.

• Content Creation & Population. All text is optimized for SEO, and images and videos are created in the span of two weeks. Content creation usually overlaps with the development timeline to save time. Again, it all depends on what input you have for the content and who creates the copy. The more input you prepare beforehand, the faster it goes. Timeline: 1-2 weeks.

• Website Testing (how long does it take to test a website). Unit tests, cross-browser Quality Assurance, load simulations, and security scans take 2-3 weeks on average. Up to 80% of all bugs in the post-launch phase can be caught here. Timeline: 1-4 weeks.

• Website Launch & Post-Launch (how long does it take to launch a website). Deploy, monitor, and tweak. The final push includes DNS propagation, analytics hookup, and A/B tests to optimize the website for the best conversion. Timeline: 1-2 weeks.

In short, how long does it take to launch a website? 1-2 weeks. Ongoing support is required post-launch to fix bugs and scale up. Average time to build a website? 2-4 months for most business needs, with an average of 1-3 months across niches for simple mid-size websites. This polish makes up to 15% of the total production time. How long it takes to make a website hinges on overlaps. Run design/content in parallel to save 20%. For full redesigns, see how to redesign a website or website redesign services. 

How to reduce website development time: practical tips

Website development timeline feels too long? Hack it down by 30-50% without skimping on quality. We've applied these techniques to ship MVPs ahead of schedule and confirm that they work.

Start with a clear requirements list and document every change in a shared task tracker or other tool (Jira, Confluence). This cuts discovery by half.

Choose a modern tech stack. We recommend React for web development because it enables component reuse and hot reloads, reducing frontend time by 40%. Legacy stacks complicate integrations, forcing you to build workarounds.

Don't overcomplicate design. Check out the wireframe examples to bootstrap your MVP. First comes the idea, its blueprints, then wireframes for actual steps. Fancy elements are created at the point where every screen is confirmed. This allows to reduce the design stage to 3 weeks max.

Implement iterative development. Agile sprints of 2-week cycles let you launch core features fast. 2 weeks is just enough for you to plan the development, review the result, and iterate on feedback.

Outsource to experienced teams like SolveIt for speed and quality. At SolveIt, we perform 20% under market timelines, under fixed rates, and without scope failures. 

Prepare content early. Draft a copy during discovery and populate it in parallel with development. Coordinate the content creation with the scope expectations. For a smooth experience, create visual aids in full compliance with the selected website design.

How long does it take to build a website: SolveIt experience 

Here's how long it takes to build a website based on the experience from our portfolio. We share the real B2B wins, custom React-heavy.

E-commerce web platform

A React MVP B2B marketplace for appliances that utilizes a subscription model and an SEO landing page. Full custom development with matching logic, payments, and an admin dashboard. The platform was launched with 2x traffic in month 1.

Timeline: 4-6 months

Rental property exchange platform

A web platform for Sweden apartment swaps with a smart matching algorithm, user authentication, geolocation, and a real-time chat. Zero downtime post-launch. The smart matching algorithm took 8 weeks of development.

Timeline: 4-6 months

Dental startup website redesign

UX/UI audit + React redesign for a subscription dental clinic has boosted its conversions by 35%. From wireframes to live. This case proves iterative redesign crushes timelines.

Timeline: 2 months.

We deliver precise specifications and provide React expertise for predictable timelines and lead-generation results. Your project is likely to go 20% faster with these recommendations and our accumulated experience.

Wrapping up your website timeline

How long does it take to build a website? Website development timeline averages 2-4 months, custom boiling down to smart planning, the right stack, and battle-tested teams. A simple website goes live in 1-2 months; a complex B2B powerhouse needs 4-6 months. Factors like discovery, tech stacks, and expert teams control it.

Always start with the discovery, do it before you initiate the website development process. Plan your content, determine the goal you achieve with every step on-site. Consider integrations for your website and plan the budget. Ready to start? Drop us a line for a free discovery call, and we'll timeline your build in 48 hours.