The building part is the most predictable of all. Projects don't run late because of that — they run late waiting for things.
Rough timescales
- 01One-page landing: one to two weeks.
- 02Business site with several sections: three to six weeks.
- 03Online shop: six to ten weeks, depending on the catalogue.
- 04Custom tool: two months and up.
They count from the moment all the material is ready, not from the day the quote is signed. It's an important distinction, and most misunderstandings come from it.
Why they actually run late
In my experience it's nearly always one of these three, and none of them has anything to do with code.
- 01The copy. It gets left to the end, and writing about your own business is harder than it looks.
- 02The photos. Either there are none, or they're phone shots in bad light, and they're needed to lay pages out.
- 03The replies. A question that takes five days to answer is five days of nothing moving.
How to speed it up from your side
Have the copy and the photos ready before starting, even if they're provisional, and set aside a fixed slot each week to review what you're shown. With that alone, most projects land on the date they were meant to.