Timelines are the second question every client asks and the one most often answered vaguely. Here are the ranges we actually quote, and — more useful — what makes a project miss them.
Realistic ranges
- Business website, 5–10 pages2–4 weeks.
- Content-heavy site with blog and location pages4–6 weeks.
- E-commerce store on a platform4–8 weeks.
- Custom e-commerce or B2B portal10–16 weeks.
- Mobile app with a backend8–16 weeks, plus 1–2 weeks of store review.
- ERP or multi-module custom software16 weeks and up, delivered in phases.
The four things that cause slippage
- Content that never arrivesThe single most common cause, and it is almost always the client's side. Product photos, descriptions, staff bios, legal text. Start collecting on day one, not at the end.
- Scope that grew without moving the dateEvery addition is fine; the problem is adding without re-quoting. A good supplier tells you what a change costs in days as well as rupees, at the moment you ask for it.
- A third party nobody controlsA payment gateway approval, an app-store review, an API your ERP vendor has to expose. These wait on somebody outside the project and must be started early.
- Approvals with no ownerA design waiting on four people who each want to think about it is a design waiting. Name one decision-maker before kickoff and the whole thing moves faster.
Where the weeks actually go
A timeline is easier to hold a supplier to when you know what is meant to be happening inside it. On a typical eight-week website the split is roughly this, and it is worth noticing how little of it is the part people picture.
- Week 1 — scoping and structureSitemap, page inventory, what each page has to do, and the list of integrations. No design yet. Getting this wrong is the only mistake that cannot be absorbed later.
- Weeks 2-3 — designWireframes first, then the visual design of each distinct page type. You approve here, because this is where changes cost minutes rather than days.
- Weeks 4-6 — buildThe longest stretch and the quietest. This is why the weekly demo matters: it is the only window you have into it.
- Week 7 — content and QAReal copy and images replace placeholders, and the site is tested on real devices. Projects slip here more than anywhere else, almost always waiting on content.
- Week 8 — launch and handoverDeployment, domain and SSL, analytics and Search Console, redirects from the old site, and training your team on the admin.
Two quotes saying eight weeks can mean different things
One may mean eight weeks of work starting when you sign. The other may mean eight weeks of elapsed time that assumes your content, approvals and third-party access all arrive on cue — and quietly restarts the clock when they do not.
Ask which one you are being given, and ask what the supplier needs from you and by when. A company that can answer the second question in specifics has planned the project; a company that cannot has estimated it.
Ask one more thing: what happens to the date if you take a week to approve the designs. The honest answer is that it moves by a week, and hearing it said plainly up front is far better than discovering it in week six.
How to see it coming in week two
Insist on a working demo link every week from week two, not a status email. If there is nothing to open by the second week, the project is already behind — you just have not been told yet. The demo is not for you to admire; it is the earliest cheap moment to say "that is not what I meant".
Watch for three specific signals. The demo slips a week because the team is mid-refactor. Questions to you go unanswered for days, then arrive in a batch. The same feature is described as nearly done in two consecutive weeks. Any one of those is worth a direct conversation immediately, not at the next milestone.
Frequently asked questions
Can you build it faster if I pay more?
Sometimes, and less often than people hope. Adding people to a project that is already running usually slows it for a fortnight before it speeds up. What genuinely compresses a timeline is cutting scope — shipping a smaller v1 and adding to it — and having your content and approvals ready.
What happens if you miss the date?
You get told before it happens, which is the part that matters. Our proposals carry a fixed scope and a named date; if we misjudged the estimate, absorbing it is our problem, not a change request headed your way. If you changed the scope, we re-quote in days and rupees at the time you ask.
How much of my time will the project need?
About an hour a week: reviewing the demo, answering questions and approving the things that need approving. More in week one while the scope is being settled, and more again around launch. Projects where the client disappears for a month are the ones that end badly, because six weeks of work gets built on an assumption nobody checked.
Can we start before the content is ready?
Yes, and it is normal to — design and build proceed against placeholder text. What you cannot do is launch without it, so the risk is that content becomes the critical path at week seven. The fix is unglamorous: agree who is writing what in week one and give it a date of its own.
Want this applied to your project?
Send us what you have — even a rough note. You'll get a written scope, a fixed quote and a delivery date within one business day, with no obligation.
