I Just Discovered S3 Static Website Hosting — And I Put a Site Online in 5 Minutes!

A few days ago, I was poking around in the AWS Console, trying to figure out how to use cloud tools to host simple projects. That’s when I found the S3 static website hosting option — and honestly, I didn’t expect much from it.

But 10 minutes later… my first website was live, publicly accessible on the internet — with no server, no backend, and no stress.

🤔 Wait, S3 Can Host Websites?

I always thought S3 was just cloud storage for files — kind of like Google Drive, but on AWS.

But it turns out, S3 can also serve static websites. You just upload your HTML, CSS, and images — and boom, it gives you a public link.

No EC2, no backend, no deploy scripts. Just drag and drop.

🔍 What I Found Inside S3 Hosting

As a beginner, these things stood out to me:

🪄 Static website hosting is built-in: You just enable it from the Properties tab of any bucket.

🗂️ Uploading files is drag-and-drop: I uploaded my index.html and style.css in seconds.

🌐 You get a public URL instantly: S3 gives you a live link to share your website right away.

🔐 Bucket policy controls visibility: I had to tweak the bucket policy JSON to make it public — and it was my first time writing a policy!

⚙️ What I Did (Step-by-Step)

1. Created a bucket and unblocked public access

2. Uploaded my HTML/CSS files

3. Enabled static website hosting

4. Added a simple bucket policy for public read access

5. Opened the endpoint URL — and saw my site online!

📚 What This Taught Me (as a Cloud Beginner)

Before this, “deploying a site” felt like something only pros did. But now I know that hosting a static site can be:

• Free (within the AWS free tier)

• Fast (less than 10 mins)

• Fun (you feel like a hacker seeing it live 😄)

💡 Final Thoughts

If you’re new to AWS, don’t skip S3. It's not just storage — it's a powerful tool for launching mini projects, portfolios, or resume websites.

Now I have a live site. And a little more cloud confidence.