"When will it be ready?" is the second most common question after price. And the answer depends just as much on scope. But unlike budget, a timeline can be estimated stage by stage. Let's break down what makes up the time.
Stages and their share of the timeline
A typical project goes through discovery (1–2 weeks), design (1–3 weeks), development (the bulk), testing and release. Stages partly overlap: design starts during discovery, testing during development. So the total isn't a simple sum.
How long typical projects take
- MVP — 4–10 weeks
- A mid-size app with integrations — 3–5 months
- A complex / high-load product — six months and onward in iterations
What affects the timeline most
Clarity of requirements (a vague spec stretches everything), the number of external integrations, the complexity of business logic, how ready your content and access are, and how fast decisions get made. Often it's not the dev team that slows a project down but waiting for answers and approvals.
How to speed up without losing quality
- Start with discovery — it removes the rework that eats weeks
- Cut to an MVP and iterate instead of "all at once"
- Appoint one person on your side empowered to decide
- Prepare content and access in advance, in parallel with development
At IntoClouds we lock the timeline and budget after a short discovery and run the project transparently, so you see progress every week. Want a timeline estimate for your case? Drop us a line.