Website Project Timeline: How Long It Actually Takes

en 2026-09-15 6 min read

A business website takes 3 to 6 weeks and costs EUR 1.500 to EUR 3.500. A single-page landing takes 1 to 2 weeks at EUR 600 to EUR 900, a mini-site takes 2 to 3 weeks at EUR 900 to EUR 1.500, and an advanced site or web app takes 6 to 12 weeks at EUR 3.500 to EUR 7.500.

Those are calendar weeks to a live site, not hours added up on a timesheet, and they start after approval, the first payment and the input we need. The gap between the bottom and the top of each range comes from how quickly decisions and content come back, which is the part of the project you hold rather than the part we do.

The steps and the weeks

All prices exclude VAT.

Step 05 starts at EUR 7.500 and gets its timeline once discovery is finished. Scope, auth, billing, an admin area and a deployment path cannot be estimated before somebody has written down what the product does, and a date given before that is a guess with a decimal point in it.

What happens, in order

1. Scoping. We write down what the site has to do, page by page, and attach a fixed price to it. Nothing gets built against a verbal brief.
2. Design. The pages that carry the work are designed first, and the remaining pages follow the pattern they set. You review real layouts rather than a moodboard.
3. Build. Design and engineering happen in the same studio, so the build starts from the design instead of from an interpretation of it.
4. Content. Text and images go into the real site, where you can read them in place. This is the phase where a project either keeps moving or stops.
5. Review and launch. Responsive checks, forms tested end to end, analytics and Search Console connected, then the domain is pointed at the new site.
6. The week after. Small fixes surface once real visitors arrive. Every build includes 14 days of support on launch defects, and Care, at EUR 100 to EUR 300 per month, is where updates and small corrections live.

Where delay actually comes from

The causes of delay are predictable. Before you agree a launch date with anyone, read the right-hand column of this table.

An agency can commit to design and build. It cannot commit to the week your photographer delivers, or to the day a payment provider finishes checking your company details. A project moves at its quickest when the content exists before the build starts and one person is allowed to approve without calling another meeting.

What moves the weeks and the number together

• How much already exists. A brand, photography, a live domain and copy you are happy with take work out of the front of the project. Starting from nothing is fine, it simply pushes you toward the top of the range.
• Accounts and payments. A login, a dashboard or a checkout moves the project to step 04 at EUR 3.500 to EUR 7.500 and 6 to 12 weeks, because provider accounts, stored data and failure states each need building and then testing.
• Languages. Every extra language is another pass over every page, plus review by somebody who actually speaks it.
• What happens after launch. Care and SEO growth are monthly and change nothing about the build weeks. SEO foundation is a one-off at EUR 450 to EUR 750 and is best done around launch, while the structure is still easy to change.

When a shorter timeline is the right call

If you have an event, a campaign or an offer with a date attached, step 01 at EUR 600 to EUR 900 and 1 to 2 weeks will be live while a larger project is still in design. One page, a form and analytics is a complete thing rather than a compromise, as long as there is one message to carry.

If the content does not exist and nobody has time to write it, buying step 03 at EUR 1.500 to EUR 3.500 buys a 4 to 7 page site with nothing in it. Launch smaller and grow the site from something real. Adding pages to a working site is ordinary work: an extra simple page is an add-on at EUR 150 to EUR 250. Filling an empty site you have already paid for is a task with no deadline attached to it.

Questions buyers ask us

When does the timeline start?

Planning starts after approval, the first payment and the input we need, and late input moves it. A week range means nothing before scoping, because until then nobody knows how many pages there are. If you need the site live by a particular date, say so during scoping and we will tell you which step fits it.

Can you go faster than the range?

Sometimes, and the lever is not on our side. The ranges assume review time, content arriving and changes coming back. Take the waiting out and a project lands at the bottom of its range. Nothing shortens the build itself except cutting scope, which we would rather discuss openly than discover at the end.

Why does an advanced site take 6 to 12 weeks?

Because step 04 covers login, dashboard, API, CRM, payments and chatbot work, and each of those brings an external account, a test path and a failure state that has to behave properly when something goes wrong. A page can be slightly wrong and still look fine. A checkout cannot.

We are adding a shop to an existing site. Which step is that?

On an existing site it is an add-on, not a step: payments and subscriptions at EUR 600 to EUR 1.500, and the quote confirms the scope. A new build with a shop is step 04, EUR 3.500 to EUR 7.500, 6 to 12 weeks, because the work is in the accounts and the data rather than in the page count. The whole ladder is on packages, and the stack we build it on is on the Next.js development page.

How long until SEO does something?

SEO foundation is a one-off at EUR 450 to EUR 750 and includes a plan covering the next 3 to 6 months. SEO growth is EUR 500 to EUR 800 per month for technical and on-page work, service and location pages, internal links and reporting. We do not put a date on a ranking, and an agency that does is guessing on your behalf.

If you have a date in mind, bring it to scoping and we will tell you which step fits it. Ask for a fixed quote.