How long does a website take to build?
The first preview of a Varsuite website arrives within 72 hours of your brief, and a £100 deposit is all it takes to start. How long until go-live then depends mostly on feedback: each round of changes comes back to you for approval, and nothing is published until you sign it off. A comparable agency build typically runs weeks to months.
Last reviewed: 2 August 2026
- First preview within 72 hours of your brief. AI agents draft the site in hours and our team reviews, refines and tests it before you see anything.
- Go-live speed after the preview is set by feedback rounds. You review a watermarked preview or staging version, and nothing goes live without your approval.
- Under our terms, work is deemed accepted if you do not approve it or raise written objections within 10 business days of a preview being shared.
- Timing estimates are given in good faith, not guaranteed. Timelines move where scope changes or where we are waiting on content, access or feedback from you.
- Traditional agency builds typically take weeks to months, because most of the elapsed time is queueing for people: meetings, design rounds and a development slot.
How can a first preview arrive in 72 hours?
Because the drafting is not done by the hour. Our agents draft the layouts, copy and code in hours from your brief, and our team then directs, reviews and refines the result before you ever see it. Every build is exercised by test agents and signed off by a person before it reaches you, so what arrives inside 72 hours is a reviewed preview, not a raw generation.
That is the whole difference in elapsed time. The work an agency spreads across a diary of meetings and design rounds happens here in a compressed loop between agents and people. What a build includes is set out on our websites service.
What decides how long go-live takes after the preview?
Mostly you, and we mean that neutrally. Before anything goes live we share a watermarked preview or a staging version for you to review. You tell us what to change, we apply it and return it, and the site is published when you approve it. A same-week approval means a same-week launch; a preview that sits in an inbox for a fortnight adds a fortnight.
Two terms are worth knowing before you start. If you do not approve or raise specific written objections within 10 business days of us sharing a preview, the work is deemed accepted. And where a delay is caused by late, inaccurate or missing input from you, or access we have asked for and not received, timelines shift accordingly. Having your content, images and any account access ready at the start is the single biggest thing you can do to keep the build fast.
How does that compare with a typical agency timeline?
A traditional agency build usually runs weeks to months for a brochure site, and longer for anything complex. That is not because anyone is idle: the elapsed time is structural. Discovery workshops get scheduled, wireframes wait for a design review, design waits for a development slot, and every revision round adds a cycle through the same diary.
Some of that structure buys real things, workshops and research included, and a large organisation may want them. But if what you need is a well-built brochure site, most of that calendar time is queueing rather than craft, and it is the part our model removes. The £500 build and £100 a month that sit behind our timeline are on our pricing page.
What can still slow a build down?
Scope changes, mainly. If you ask for something beyond the agreed scope, or your requirements change, we re-scope and give you a revised quote before carrying the work out, and that adds time honestly rather than silently. Waiting on materials does the same: content we have asked for, access to an account, a decision that needs a second director.
We should also be straight about the status of the 72 hours itself. It is the standard we publish and work to, and our terms are equally clear that estimates of timing are given in good faith and are not guarantees. If your deadline is fixed, tell us before we start and we will tell you honestly whether it is achievable.
Is the 72-hour preview a contractual guarantee?
No, and we would rather say so here than in the small print. It is the published standard we work to, and our terms state that estimates of timing are given in good faith and are not guarantees. In practice the first preview is the fastest part of the process; the variable part is the feedback loop after it.
How many revision rounds do I get during the build?
We do not publish a fixed count, so we will not invent one here. You review each preview and we refine it, and the balance is only due when you approve the finished site. After launch, changes carry on under the monthly plan: unlimited content and design changes within fair and reasonable use, covered in our answer on unlimited changes.
When do I actually pay?
A £100 deposit secures the build. The balance, £400 for a brochure site or £900 for an online store, is due when you approve the finished site, and monthly fees are billed in advance from there. All fees are before VAT.
What do you need from me to start?
A brief, the content and materials you own or have the right to use, and timely access, feedback and approvals as the build runs. Under our terms those are your responsibilities, and in practice they are also the throttle on the timeline: the faster the feedback, the shorter the build.
Get The Signal
Practical notes on AI, websites and automation for UK businesses. One useful email at a time, unsubscribe whenever.
Still want to ask it in person?
Tell us what you are building and we will give you a straight answer, and a plan, within 72 hours.