How to Host a Website on AWS

Hosting your website on AWS is fast, secure, and cost-effective, especially if you’re hosting a static website. AWS also offers services like Amazon S3 to host your site files and Amazon Route 53 for domain management, which makes things even more convenient. 

This step-by-step guide will show you how you can deploy a static website in minutes on AWS.

Step-by-step guide to hosting a website on AWS

Step 1. Create an AWS Account

If you don’t already have one, sign up for an account at aws.amazon.com. If you’re just starting out and don’t want to spend as less as possible, you can opt for the free tier. The free tier gives you access to Amazon S3 with limited usage, which is ideal for small websites.

Step 2. Create an S3 Bucket

Once you’ve created the account, you need to go to the S3 service tab from your AWS Management Console and click on Create Bucket. Here, enter a unique name and choose the correct AWS region. 

You need to uncheck Block all public access to make the site public and acknowledge the warning and create the bucket.

Step 3. Enable static website hosting

Now, click your newly created bucket and go to the Properties tab. Here, scroll to Static website hosting, click Edit and then select Enable.

For the Index document field, enter index.html. Optionally, enter error.html for error handling and then save the changes.

Step 4. Upload website files

Now, go to the Objects tab of your bucket and click on Upload and then on Add files. Here, select your HTML, CSS, images, etc. and upload all the files.

Step 5. Make files public

Once the files are uploaded, select all files, click on Actions and then on Make public and acknowledge the confirmation.

Step 6. Access your website

Go back to the Properties tab and scroll down to Static website hosting. From here, copy the Bucket website endpoint URL and open it in your browser to view your hosted site.

You’ll be able to see that your website is now hosted.