The verdict in three sentences
A serious B2B institutional rebuild of 30-60 pages with a CMS takes 10 to 18 weeks in 2026, for a budget of 25,000 to 70,000 EUR excl. VAT. Development is not the bottleneck: content migration and the multi-level approval workflow are what stretch the schedule. A realistic plan with a content freeze and dated approval milestones avoids the 4-8 week overruns that are most common.
The phase-by-phase timeline
| Phase | Duration | Key deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| Scoping / workshops | 2-3 wks | Sitemap, specs, brief |
| UX/UI design | 3-4 wks | Approved Figma mockups, design system |
| Development | 4-8 wks | Next.js front + Sanity CMS integrated |
| Content migration | 2-3 wks | 30-60 pages entered and proofed |
| UAT + go-live | 2 wks | Testing, fixes, production |
| Total | 10-18 wks | Live site |
Phases overlap partly (dev starts while design finishes), but content migration stays sequential: it can only start once the CMS is structured.
Approval milestones and governance
On an institutional site, every page goes through a multi-level approval workflow (writer → comms lead → management/legal). This is the top delay factor.
| Milestone | Who approves | Typical delay |
|---|---|---|
| Sitemap | Steering committee | 3-5 days |
| Design mockups | Comms + management | 5-10 days |
| Content per department | Business + legal | 2-3 wks cumulative |
| Functional UAT | Client project lead | 1 wk |
| Go / no-go go-live | Executive management | 2-3 days |
A content freeze (stopping edits on the old site) is essential during migration, otherwise you migrate a moving target.
Resources involved and delay factors
| Resource | Load | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Project manager (PM) | 20-30% time | Steering, weekly reviews |
| UX/UI designer | 3-4 wks full | Mockups, design system |
| Front dev + integrator | 4-8 wks full | Next.js + Sanity |
| Writer / proofreader | 2-3 wks | Migration and proofing |
| Client side: content owner | 15-20% time | Provide and approve |
Factors that stretch the timeline: content not ready on the client side (+2-4 wks), ERP/CRM integrations (+2-3 wks), multilingual (+1-2 wks per language), slow legal approvals (+1-3 wks), sitemap redesign mid-project (+2-4 wks).
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Mini case study
Helen, communications director of a B2B group in Dublin (industrial distribution, 4 subsidiaries), plans a 45-page rebuild with Sanity CMS and a press room.
- Scoping: 3 wks — Design: 4 wks — Dev: 6 wks — Migration: 3 wks — UAT: 2 wks
- With overlaps: 14 calendar weeks, budget 52,000 EUR excl. VAT
- By appointing a content owner at 20% and freezing the old site from week 8, she avoids a 4-week overrun.
Result: go-live hit the date announced to the board, which gated an autumn sales campaign. Meeting the schedule mattered as much as the site itself.
FAQ
Can we go faster than 10 weeks? For 30-60 pages with governance, hardly. An 8-10 page brochure site, yes, in 4-6 weeks. Page count and number of approvers drive the timeline.
What blows up the schedule most? Content not ready on the client side. It is cause number one, ahead of technical integrations. Preparing copy early saves 2-4 weeks.
Is a content freeze mandatory? Strongly recommended during migration. Editing the old site in parallel forces you to re-migrate pages, i.e. +1-2 weeks lost.
How many client-side people are needed? At minimum a content owner at 15-20% of their time and a responsive approval committee. Without that, no plan holds.
Does multilingual add much? Yes: count +1 to 2 weeks per language for translation, integration and linguistic QA.
Let's scope your project. Send us your page count, integrations and date constraints, and we build a dated back-schedule with approval milestones. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
