How long does it take to build a website?
The honest answer is that production time and calendar time are two different numbers, and almost everyone quotes the second while thinking about the first. Here is where the weeks actually go.
By project type
Production time versus what you will be quoted.
| Project | Production time | Typically quoted | Markora |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single landing page | 2–4 days | 1–2 weeks | ✓ 3–5 days |
| Brochure site, 5–8 pages | 5–10 days | 4–6 weeks | ✓ 7 days |
| Brand + website | 8–12 days | 6–10 weeks | ✓ 10 days |
| Small e-commerce | 2–3 weeks | 6–12 weeks | 7–10 days |
| Large e-commerce | 4–8 weeks | 3–6 months | Quoted |
| Custom application | Months | Months | Not our job |
Where the calendar time actually goes
Four categories, only one of which is building.
Waiting for content. The largest single cause, by a distance. Photography that has not been taken, copy that is with someone senior, product data that lives in a spreadsheet nobody owns. A design team can do nothing about any of it.
Waiting for approvals. Every additional decision-maker adds days, not hours, because the delay is scheduling rather than opinion. Three approvers on a five-page site can add two weeks by itself.
Queue time. Your project is one of several. Most agency timelines include slots where nothing happens on your build at all — which is why the quoted range is a range.
Actual production. Usually the smallest number in the list, and the only one anybody talks about in the pitch.
What makes seven days possible
Three conditions. Remove one and it is not.
The scope is fixed before the start. Written down, agreed, and not renegotiated at day four. Scope creep is not a moral failing, it is just incompatible with a fixed date.
The same people write and design. Copy is not a separate phase handed over a wall. A layout designed around real words behaves differently from one designed around placeholder text, and doing both at once removes an entire round trip.
One decision-maker, working async. Progress lands every 48 hours with a walkthrough; you respond when it suits you. No standing calls, no committee, no scheduling.
That is the entire trick. It is not that the work is done faster — it is that almost none of the waiting exists. Our web design process sets out the day-by-day version.
How to protect your own timeline
Four things that are entirely in your control.
Book the photography first. Before you engage a designer. It is the longest lead item and it is always the thing that slips.
Name one decision-maker. Someone who can approve without convening anyone. This alone routinely saves two weeks.
Write down what the site must do — the one action a visitor should take. Everything else is negotiable and the argument gets short.
Ask for the scope in writing before you pay. A supplier who cannot write it down cannot commit to a date for it either.
FAQ
Related questions.
How long does it take to build a website?
Why do agencies quote 6–8 weeks?
What causes the delays?
Can a good website be built in a week?
Seven days, from a fixed date agreed before you pay.
Send your current site or a short description of the business. You will get a fixed price and a fixed launch date in writing, within one business day.
Get a fixed price → See the price list