Deploy Your First Website on AWS Using Only Free Tier

Introduction.

In today’s world, having an online presence isn’t just a luxury it’s a necessity. Whether you’re a developer, designer, freelancer, student, or small business owner, launching your own website is often the first step toward sharing your ideas, showcasing your work, or offering your services to a global audience.

But building a website is only half the battle hosting it affordably and reliably is the next big challenge. If you’re just starting out, you might be looking for a hosting solution that’s fast, secure, scalable, and ideally… free.

Enter Amazon Web Services (AWS) the most widely used cloud platform in the world. Trusted by startups and Fortune 500 companies alike, AWS offers a robust infrastructure that powers millions of websites and applications every day. But what many people don’t realize is that you don’t need a big budget to get started with AWS.

Thanks to the AWS Free Tier, you can deploy and run your own website on the same infrastructure used by tech giants without paying anything for the first 12 months (and in some cases, forever).

Yes, you read that right.

AWS Free Tier gives new users access to a generous set of cloud resources at zero cost. From hosting static websites on Amazon S3, to delivering them globally with Amazon CloudFront, and even adding HTTPS for secure connections using AWS Certificate Manager all of it can be done for free within certain usage limits.

This isn’t some stripped-down, limited demo. You’re working with production-grade tools that real companies use only you’re starting small, and free.

In this blog post, we’re going to walk you through exactly how to deploy your first website on AWS using only Free Tier services. You don’t need any cloud experience or coding knowledge beyond basic HTML/CSS we’ll guide you step-by-step from uploading your files to launching your site to the world.

You’ll learn how to:

• Use Amazon S3 to host your static website files (like index.html, CSS, JS, and images)
• Set up public access and enable static website hosting on S3
• Access your live website via the S3 bucket’s endpoint
• (Optional) Add Amazon CloudFront to improve performance and enable HTTPS also free within limits
• (Optional) Connect a custom domain using Route 53, or your own registrar
• Stay within the AWS Free Tier limits to avoid unexpected costs

Whether you’re building a personal portfolio, a product landing page, or just experimenting to learn cloud technologies, this guide is for you. It’s also a perfect starter project to boost your resume or GitHub profile especially if you’re pursuing a career in web development or cloud engineering.

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll not only have a live website running on AWS you’ll have hands-on experience with real cloud services, an understanding of how static website hosting works, and the confidence to go deeper into cloud development.

And the best part? You won’t spend a dime doing it.

So, let’s roll up our sleeves and launch your first website the AWS way, the Free Tier way.

What You’ll Need

• An AWS Free Tier account
• A basic website folder (HTML, CSS, JS)
• Optional: Your own domain name (for Route 53 setup)

Step 1: Create an S3 Bucket

S3 (Simple Storage Service) can be used to host static websites.

1. Go to the S3 Console
2. Click Create bucket
   • Name it after your domain (e.g. mywebsite.com)
   • Choose a region (stick with a Free Tier eligible one)
   • Uncheck “Block all public access” (this is important)
3. Enable static website hosting under Properties
   • Set index document: index.html
   • Error document: error.html (optional)

Your bucket is now set to serve static files!

Step 2: Upload Your Website Files

1. In your S3 bucket, go to the Objects tab.
2. Click Upload and add your website files (HTML, CSS, JS, images, etc.)
3. After upload, make sure each file is set to public:
   • Click the file → Permissions → Grant public read access

Step 3: Access Your Website

• Go back to the static website hosting section under Properties
• Copy the bucket website endpoint (e.g. http://mywebsite.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com)
• Paste it into your browser your site is live!

Step 4: Add CloudFront (CDN + HTTPS for Free)

CloudFront is AWS’s global CDN and it can cache your S3 website and provide free HTTPS (SSL) via ACM.

1. Go to CloudFront → Create Distribution
2. Choose:
   • Origin domain: your S3 bucket website endpoint
   • Viewer protocol policy: Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
   • Enable Caching (default)
3. Click Create distribution
4. Once deployed (~15 mins), your site will be available at a CloudFront URL (e.g. d123.cloudfront.net) with HTTPS

Step 5: Use a Custom Domain with Route 53

If you have your own domain:

1. Register or transfer it to Route 53
2. Create a hosted zone
3. Set up an A record pointing to your CloudFront distribution (via alias)
4. Request a free SSL certificate via ACM and attach it to CloudFront

Now you have a custom domain + HTTPS + global CDN — all on Free Tier!

What’s Free in This Setup?

Tips to Stay Within the Free Tier

• Monitor usage via AWS Billing Dashboard
• Set up billing alerts
• Avoid uploading large files (>100MB)
• Use CloudFront caching to reduce S3 requests

Wrap Up

With just a few clicks and a basic website, you can:

• Deploy globally with S3 + CloudFront
• Get SSL encryption (HTTPS)
• Pay $0 if you stay within Free Tier limits

AWS might feel intimidating at first, but once you set it up, it’s a rock-solid platform for hosting personal projects, portfolios, landing pages, and more.

Conclusion

Deploying a website on AWS might sound intimidating at first but as you’ve seen, it’s completely possible to get your site online quickly, securely, and at zero cost using the AWS Free Tier. With just a few simple steps, you can take advantage of the same cloud infrastructure that powers global enterprises without touching your wallet.

By using Amazon S3, you’ve hosted your static files in a highly durable and scalable storage system. With CloudFront, you’ve boosted performance and added free HTTPS encryption for a professional, secure experience. And if you added Route 53 or a custom domain, you’ve taken the extra step to fully brand your online presence.

This isn’t just a website it’s your first hands-on experience with the cloud. You’ve learned how to:

• Create and configure an S3 bucket for web hosting
• Upload and serve static content to the public
• Enable fast, global content delivery with CloudFront
• Secure your site with free SSL certificates
• (Optionally) use a custom domain and DNS configuration

Best of all, every part of this project can stay within the limits of AWS’s Free Tier giving you plenty of room to learn, experiment, and build more.

As you get more comfortable, you can continue expanding your site with contact forms (using AWS Lambda), visitor analytics, or even a backend API all with other Free Tier services available on AWS.

The cloud is no longer reserved for big companies or enterprise-level apps. It’s for creators, learners, builders and now, you.

So go ahead and share your site with the world. And when someone asks, “Where’s your website hosted?” you can confidently say: on AWS.