How to Host a Website on AWS for Free

Yes, it’s true! You can host a static website on AWS without paying anything. This is done using Amazon S3 and the AWS Free Tier. This method is ideal for personal portfolios, blogs, landing pages, or simple HTML websites.
We’ll walk you through the steps on how you can upload your files, set permissions, and get a live URL for your site — all for free.

How to host a website on AWS for free

Step 1: Sign up for an AWS Free Tier account

Go to aws.amazon.com/free, click Create an AWS account and complete the registration and billing steps. You’ll get 12 months of Free Tier access to S3 and other services

Step 2: Prepare your website files

Create a folder with your website files. This can include all types of images like index.html, style.css, images, etc. You must also make sure that you have an index.html file, as it's required for website hosting.

Step 3: Create an S3 bucket

Log in to the AWS Management Console, search for S3 in the top search bar and click on Create bucket. Now, set a bucket name, uncheck Block all public access, and acknowledge the warning and click on Create bucket.

Step 4: Upload your website files to the S3 bucket

Click on the name of the bucket you created and then click on Upload > Add files to upload all the files (e.g., HTML, CSS, images).

Step 5: Enable static website hosting

Inside your bucket, go to the Properties tab, scroll down to Static website hosting, click Edit and enable it. Here, enter index.html as the index document and save the changes. Note the Bucket website endpoint URL — this is your site’s public link.

Step 6: Make files public

Now, go to the Permissions tab in your bucket, scroll down to Bucket policy and add this policy (replace ‘your-bucket-name’ with your actual bucket name in the code):

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "PublicReadGetObject",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": "*",
      "Action": "s3:GetObject",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name/*"
    }
  ]
}

Once done, you can save the policy and your website will become publicly accessible via the endpoint URL.