Learn how to deploy your static websites with AWS S3 and CloudFront for blazing fast performance and global availability.
A complete guide to hosting your static websites on AWS infrastructure for maximum performance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness.
Get StartedCloudFront's global CDN ensures your content is delivered with low latency from edge locations worldwide.
S3 hosting is incredibly affordable, with costs often just pennies per month for small to medium sites.
AWS infrastructure provides enterprise-grade security, durability, and availability for your content.
Build your static site using your favorite generator (like Hugo, Jekyll, or Gatsby) or hand-code your HTML/CSS/JS files.
Make sure all your links are relative and your site works locally before deploying.
Log in to your AWS Console and navigate to S3 service. Create a new bucket with a name matching your domain (e.g., www.yourdomain.com).
In your bucket properties, enable "Static website hosting" and set index.html as your index document.
Upload all your static files to the S3 bucket. You can do this through the AWS Console, AWS CLI, or CI/CD pipeline.
Create a new CloudFront distribution with your S3 bucket as the origin. Configure caching, SSL certificate, and domain settings.
Wait for the distribution to deploy (this can take 10-15 minutes).
Point your domain's DNS to the CloudFront distribution using a CNAME or Alias record in Route 53 or your DNS provider.
Cost effective hosting for any size static site
S3 is storage where your files are kept, while CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) that caches your files at edge locations worldwide for faster delivery to users.
No, you can use S3 alone for static hosting, but adding CloudFront improves performance with global caching and provides additional features like custom SSL certificates and better HTTPS support.
You can set up a CI/CD pipeline using AWS CodePipeline, GitHub Actions, or other tools to automatically deploy changes when you push to your repository.
Yes! You can configure CloudFront to use your custom domain and provision an SSL certificate through AWS Certificate Manager for free.
You can configure redirect rules in CloudFront using Lambda@Edge functions or set up redirects directly in S3 for simple cases.