"How long will it take?" is the second question on every discovery call, right after "how much will it cost." The honest answer is "it depends", but that's not useful. Here are the actual timelines, broken down by project type, with an honest note on what drives delays.
MVP Web, 10–14 days
What it is: a focused homepage plus a contact or booking page. Built on the same stack as our full Marketing sites, so upgrading later is an extension not a rebuild.
Typical timeline:
- Days 1–2: Discovery call + brief confirmation
- Days 3–5: Figma designs, homepage hero, key sections, contact page
- Day 6: Design approval (one revision round)
- Days 7–11: Build, hand-coded on Astro, mobile-responsive, analytics + basic SEO wired
- Days 12–13: Client review + final tweaks
- Day 14: Live
Price: £1,800 / $2,300 / LKR 155,000. Same-week calls, async daily updates.
When to choose it: you need to be online fast, a pitch next week, a launch deadline, a time-sensitive ad campaign. Also the right call if you're validating a business idea and don't want to drop £6k on something that might not work.
Landing, 2–3 weeks
What it is: one long, conversion-focused page selling one thing. Perfect for a product launch, a paid-ad landing page, or a service business that needs a credible online front.
Typical timeline:
- Week 1: Discovery + content architecture + wireframes
- Week 2: Figma designs (interactive click-through prototype) + approval
- Week 3: Build + review + go live
Price: £3,500 / $4,500 / LKR 285,000.
When to choose it: you're launching a new product, running paid traffic, or testing a new market segment. One page, one conversion goal, no scope creep.
Marketing site, 6–8 weeks
What it is: a full business website, home, services, about, case studies, blog, contact. Headless CMS so your team can edit without a developer.
Typical timeline:
- Weeks 1–2: Discovery + information architecture + content plan
- Weeks 3–4: Figma designs (all pages, fully clickable)
- Week 5: Design approval + revisions
- Weeks 6–7: Build + CMS setup
- Week 8: QA + launch
Price: £6,500 / $8,500 / LKR 525,000.
When to choose it: you've outgrown a one-page site. You need a proper marketing asset that shows depth, case studies, services, blog, the whole picture.
Platform, 10+ weeks
What it is: custom apps, marketplaces, e-commerce, member portals. Scoped individually because "platform" means different things to different projects.
Typical timeline:
- Weeks 1–2: Discovery, requirements, user flows, third-party integrations
- Weeks 3–5: Design, full user flows, admin interfaces, edge cases
- Weeks 6–9: Build, custom logic, integrations, auth, payment flows
- Week 10+: QA, security review, staged rollout
Price: £12,000+ / $15,000+ / LKR 985,000+, scoped on the call, no AI estimate.
When to choose it: you need functionality that off-the-shelf platforms don't provide. Custom user flows, payment logic, third-party API orchestration, data dashboards.
What delays projects (usually not the build)
In 100+ projects since 2018, the delays break down roughly:
- 40%, client content late. Copy not written, photos not selected, testimonials not collected. The build can be ready and waiting a week for content.
- 25%, slow approval cycles. Internal sign-off going through three stakeholders takes 10 days instead of 2.
- 20%, scope creep. "Can we also add a booking system?" mid-build, now it's a different project.
- 10%, technical edge cases. Third-party API that doesn't document the auth flow; a payment gateway with undocumented limits.
- 5%, us. Illness, unexpected complexity we under-scoped, a senior person diverted to a production incident.
What speeds projects up
Four specific things that consistently shave weeks off the timeline:
- Content ready at kickoff. Have the copy drafted (or at least outlined) and a folder of photos before week 1. This alone cuts 1–2 weeks off any timeline.
- Single decision-maker on your side. One person signing off on designs is 5× faster than a committee of four.
- Daily async updates vs weekly meetings. A 5-minute Slack update every day surfaces blockers faster than a 45-minute weekly call.
- Fixed scope, zero mid-project additions. Write down every feature before design starts. New ideas go on a "phase 2" list, discussed after launch.
The "I need it in a week" conversation
Every agency gets this call. Here's what's honestly possible:
- A working site live in 7 days, yes, via MVP Web, if content is ready on day 1 and approvals happen same-day
- A full marketing site in 7 days, no. We decline projects that try to force this, the result would be a worse version of the Marketing tier, not a faster one
- Accelerated Marketing site in 4 weeks, sometimes possible with fast-track pricing (+20%), prioritised queue, daily approvals. We hold one slot per month for this
Honesty matters more than velocity here. If we say we can't ship a full site in a week, it's because the output would embarrass us, not because we're protecting a calendar.
How async + timezone actually speeds delivery
Common misconception: "if the team is remote / in different timezones, the project takes longer."
The opposite is usually true. Our typical Monday:
- 6am UK, our senior designer (SL timezone) has finished a revision round, posts to Slack
- 8am UK. UK client reviews at breakfast, sends feedback
- 9am UK. UK-based engineer starts the next build step based on Friday's approved design
- 3pm UK, design review call (Zoom)
- 5pm UK, designer (SL time = 9:30pm) picks up tomorrow's work while client sleeps
Effective result: the project works 12–14 hours per day instead of 8. Most things that take 2 days in a single-timezone agency take 1 day here.
The rule: timezone overlap matters for meetings. Async work happens outside overlap hours, and it's usually where progress compounds.
Quick pick-your-timeline
- "I need something live next week" → MVP Web (10–14 days)
- "I've got a product launch next month" → Landing (2–3 weeks)
- "My existing site embarrasses me and we want to be serious" → Marketing (6–8 weeks)
- "We need custom logic / a portal / commerce / integrations" → Platform (10+ weeks)
Want to know the realistic timeline for your specific project?
Book a free 30-minute strategy call, we'll scope it honestly and give you a week-by-week plan, not a vague "6–8 weeks" hand-wave. Reply within 1 business day.
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