How long does it take to build a website? Typical timelines

Each project type has its own typical timeline: about 4 weeks for a brand website, about 5 weeks for an eCommerce website and about 6 weeks for a custom CRM. What changes it is scope – the number of pages, products and integrations – and how quickly content and feedback come back.

Each of our web development packages has a defined scope, and that scope is what makes the timeline predictable. If your project goes beyond a package – more pages, a larger catalogue or extra integrations – we say so in the quote and confirm the timeline before work starts. Here is how long a website takes to build with each package, and what is included that affects the time:

• Brand website: about 4 weeks. Up to 8 pages, 2 revision rounds for design and content, and copywriting of up to 2,000 words.
• eCommerce website: about 5 weeks. Integration with 1 supplier or upload of up to 50 products, payment and delivery set-up, and copywriting of up to 2,000 words.
• Custom CRM: about 6 weeks. Leads, sales pipeline, invoicing and automated workflows, configured around the way your team works.

Every brand and eCommerce website from Sparcley goes through five stages: discovery, wireframes and design, development, testing, and approval, launch and handover. A brand website and an online shop differ in how much work sits inside each stage, not in the order of the stages, and each stage ends with something you can see and review.

Payments are tied to the same stages, so you pay as the work moves forward rather than all at once:

1. 01Agree the scope: in discovery we look at your business, your customers, your current site if you have one, and what the new website must do, then agree the pages, features, integrations and content.
2. 02Design the page layouts first and then the visual design; the brand website package includes 2 revision rounds for design and content, so you can shape the result before development starts.
3. 03Build the approved design into a working website with a content management system, forms and analytics and, for an online shop, products, payments and delivery; the first 30% is paid when development begins.
4. 04Test pages, forms and, for an online shop, the checkout on mobile, tablet and desktop before you see the finished site – Google uses the mobile version of a page for indexing and ranking; the next 40% is paid when development is complete and testing starts.
5. 05Approve, launch and hand over the website: the final 30% is paid on approval and handover, brand and eCommerce websites include a 12-month guarantee and 3 months of hosting free, and handover is the right moment to check who holds your domain, hosting and code.

A brand website takes about 4 weeks for up to 8 pages. This is the package designed for small businesses: a professional site that explains what you do, shows your work and turns visitors into enquiries. A brand website from Sparcley costs from £1,900.

The package includes a responsive design, a content management system, an enquiry form, a blog, analytics and technical SEO, as well as copywriting of up to 2,000 words. How long it takes to build a website on WordPress or from scratch with a custom stack comes down to the same scope questions; the platform on its own rarely decides it. We recommend the platform during discovery and confirm the timeline in the quote.

One example of this kind of project is a bilingual WordPress website we designed and developed for an athletics school in Lithuania; the case study is linked below.

The 4-week timeline assumes the project stays within the package and content arrives on time. These are the things that usually extend it:

• More than 8 pages, or several page types that each need their own layout.
• Features beyond a standard business site, such as online booking, member areas or custom calculators.
• Copy beyond the 2,000 words included, or photography that still has to be arranged.
• Changes that go beyond the 2 revision rounds for design and content.

An eCommerce website takes about 5 weeks, including integration with 1 supplier or upload of up to 50 products. An eCommerce website from Sparcley costs from £4,900.

An online shop takes longer than a brand website because it needs parts a brochure site does not: product categories and filters, search, payment and delivery set-up, customer accounts and a checkout that has to work on every device. Two examples are an eCommerce website for a skincare brand and an online store for a luxury watch manufacturer, both linked below.

How long it takes to build an eCommerce website beyond that depends mostly on your products and the systems around them. Larger catalogues add time, and we confirm it in the quote. The usual factors are:

• Catalogue size: more than 50 products to upload, or more than 1 supplier feed to integrate.
• Product data quality: missing photos, inconsistent names, and variants or attributes that need cleaning before import.
• Integrations with the systems you already run, such as accounting, stock management or shopping feeds.
• Migration from an existing shop: products, customers, orders and redirects from the old URLs.
• Custom features such as made-to-measure price calculators or product configurators.

A custom CRM from Sparcley takes about 6 weeks. Custom CRM systems start from £4,980.

How long it takes to build a CRM depends less on the number of screens and more on your processes. A CRM brings leads, the sales pipeline, invoicing, tasks and automated follow-ups into one place, so the build starts with understanding how your team sells and serves customers. The timeline is shaped by:

• How clearly your processes are described: who handles a lead, what each pipeline stage means, and which documents you send and when.
• Data migration: how many existing records need to move from spreadsheets or an old system, and how clean they are.
• Integrations with the tools you already use, such as your website, email or online shop. If you are planning a website and a CRM together, our article on the small business marketing stack shows how the two fit: the enquiries a website generates need somewhere to go.
• Team training and adoption: the CRM is only finished when your team can use it with confidence.

Most website projects slow down because of late content, extra feedback rounds, scope changes or missing access – not because of the code. A website build timeline depends on an input from you at every stage, and these are the usual causes of delay. They are far easier to prevent than to fix halfway through a project:

• Late content: page texts, photos, team details or product information arriving after development has started.
• Feedback beyond the revision rounds included in your package: new rounds of changes after the design has been approved.
• Scope changes: new pages, features or integrations added mid-project, which means re-planning rather than simply adding hours.
• Missing access: domain registrar, hosting, email, payment provider or analytics accounts that nobody on your team can log in to.
• Messy product data: spreadsheets with missing prices, photos or stock levels that have to be fixed before import.
• Slow decisions: several people approving each step, with comments that contradict each other.

You can get your website live sooner by having the inputs ready before the project starts. Each of them can hold up a stage if it arrives late, so gathering them early is the simplest way to keep a build on schedule.

Send us your brief and we will reply within one business day with questions or a quote, including the timeline for your project. Before you get in touch:

1. 01Write a short brief: what the website must do, who it is for, and two or three websites you like, with the reasons why.
2. 02Choose one decision-maker who can approve design and content without waiting for a committee.
3. 03Gather your logo and brand assets, such as colours, fonts and photos, in the best quality you have.
4. 04Prepare texts, or at least a short summary for each page; copywriting of up to 2,000 words is included in brand and eCommerce websites.
5. 05Put product data for an online shop – names, prices, photos, variants and stock – in one spreadsheet or supplier feed.
6. 06Arrange access to your domain, hosting, email and payment accounts, or name the person who holds it.