Average time to build a website in 2023

A website development timeline consists of several stages. The time spent on each phase is proportional to its purpose and complexity. Let’s look at each step and calculate how long it will take.

 1. Research and planning (80+ hours)

 The early stages are the cornerstone of any project’s success. Designers and developers must understand customer needs, goals, and target groups as early as possible. The project team can estimate web development time reasonably accurately at this stage if the following conditions are met:

 1) User stories are organized into a Prioritized Requirement List (PRL).

 2) A high-quality wireframe that closely resembles the final design and flow

 3) Describes performance requirements

 4) MVP scopes (milestones and timelines) defined

 Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Typically, starting with research and reviewing project requirements, technical specifications, and design would be best. Clients may need to fill out briefings and answer questions about vision and goals, key design elements and preferences, company value proposition, sales process, and more.

 Further details can be discussed by phone or video conference. Teams typically create sitemaps to identify the overall content structure. Once the client approves, the team can decide on the required technology and wireframe it. Usually, two project spec reviews and a main page wireframe are necessary.

 Note that this phase is very communication intensive.

 Several calls are made to clarify details and determine the next steps. The responsiveness and active involvement of the product owner are essential for the team to work smoothly and have a clear product vision in mind. Defines the overall seamlessness of the project flow. At this phase’s end, the website team should have sufficient documentation to begin the design process. Finally, the group sets project milestones and timelines.

 The timeframe for this phase starts at 80 hours. Multiple revisions take longer.

 2. Content Creation (80+ hours)

 A successful website needs actionable and engaging content. It is not limited to visual, video, and audio content, text, and content that may have been migrated from an existing website. Important messages, calls to action, page titles, headlines, and keywords should be in place to optimize search engine performance.

 For large projects, sourcing content can be a tedious and sometimes the most time-consuming aspect of building a website. Moreover, it is often decisive and overlaps with other phases. Good content planning speeds up web development and ultimately improves the presence and usability of your website.

 After planning the website, the project team should start creating content before (or at least during) the design phase. This saves time and protects you from nasty surprises. For example, a designer plans a layout to place further different elements, the team creates an architecture, plans database sizes, query formats, etc.

 QA engineers create test cases based on the efforts of designers and teams.

 Content accuracy is essential. Omissions lead to overtime and budget overruns. The timetable for this phase varies greatly and is independent of the number of websites. Creating content can take over 80 hours, so starting as soon as possible makes sense.

 3. UI/UX Design (48+ hours)

 This phase aims to create a visually appealing and easy-to-use interface for the functionality required by the customer. Designers use information, wireframes, and content from previous stages to produce a pixel-perfect representation of the site’s intended look and navigation. Mockups typically include landing/homepage designs, internal pages, and mobile views. Your strategy should match your company’s image and business needs, from color palettes to fonts. The mockup is presented to the customer, improved upon feedback, and finally approved.

 Businesses need to be very careful when it comes to their online presence. There is little room for error in a competitive environment, especially with e-commerce websites.

 Once the discovery phase is successful, UX/UI design is rapid. However, in some cases, this procedure may take a few more days or even a week, depending on the corrections required. The design phase can take approximately 48 hours.

 4. Web Development / Programming (16+ hours)

 With your design and content ready, you can start front-end development if your website requires complex queries, integration with third-party services, non-standard data processing tasks, etc. The backend development time will be significantly longer. Testing throughout the phases should ensure product quality.

 Coding, verification, and cross-platform and cross-browser testing are a big part of the timeline for the entire website. You rely heavily on your customers as you need to communicate with your team, provide regular feedback, and request changes. Depending on the scope of work, the technologies used, and changing requirements, coding a web developer can take him 16 hours or more.

5. Beta testing and fixing (8+ hours)

 A complete and fully functional product must go through a final testing stage before it can be put on the market. Teams must ensure that products comply with approved designs and specifications. They run a series of tests and review the code.

 Typos, slow page loads, and unloading elements are the easiest to spot. Users and investors provide feedback on design, functionality, or content improvements. The team should ensure it functions correctly across multiple web browsers, devices, and screen sizes and perform search engine optimizations as needed. Final approval from everyone involved in the project is required before launching the website. Incomplete content is the number one cause of slow time to market.

 The change phase can last 8 hours or as long as the client wants to complete the website. Once the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is up and running, the client can monetize and improve her website based on end-user feedback. 

6. Official launch (8+ hours)

 Once all the beta testing parameters are met, publish your website. Unless your site is complex and has many different apps and components, this can be done in a day or two. After launch, your website may need to be tweaked or reworked to look and function properly.