AWS S3 Static Website Hosting

A simple static webpage hosted on Amazon S3 using its static website hosting feature — no servers, no backend, no database. Built as a hands-on introduction to core AWS concepts: object storage, public access policies, and static content delivery.

Live URL: http://areeb-cloud-demo-2026.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com

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Architecture

The browser sends an HTTP GET request to the S3 static website endpoint. Inside the bucket, a bucket policy checks that the request is a public read, then S3 returns the requested object — index.html on success, or error.html if the page doesn't exist.

Browser --GET request--> S3 Bucket [Bucket Policy: public GetObject]
                              |
                    ┌─────────┴─────────┐
                index.html          error.html
              (200 OK, found)     (404, not found)
                              |
Browser <---- returns page ---┘

Components used:

• S3 bucket — object storage for the site files
• Static website hosting — S3 feature that serves index.html/error.html directly, no server needed
• Bucket policy — grants public read-only access (s3:GetObject), nothing is publicly writable

Cost: $0 — entirely within the AWS Free Tier.

Note: This bucket serves over HTTP only. S3 static website endpoints don't support HTTPS natively — adding TLS would require putting CloudFront in front of the bucket with an ACM certificate. That's a natural next step, but kept out of scope here to focus on core S3 concepts.

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Steps taken

1. Created an S3 bucket with a globally unique name, in region us-east-1 (N. Virginia)
2. Uploaded index.html and error.html to the bucket
3. Enabled Static website hosting under the bucket's Properties tab, set index.html as the index document and error.html as the error document
4. Added a bucket policy allowing public s3:GetObject access, scoped only to this bucket
5. Verified the site loads at the generated website endpoint
6. Verified error handling by visiting a non-existent path and confirming error.html renders

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Screenshots

Step	Screenshot
Bucket created
Files uploaded
Static hosting enabled
Bucket policy added
Before policy — 403 Forbidden
After policy — site live

Before the bucket policy was added, the site returned a 403 Forbidden even though static hosting was enabled — S3 blocks all access by default until a policy explicitly allows it. After adding a policy granting public s3:GetObject, the same URL served the page correctly. This step-by-step comparison is intentional: it shows the policy isn't just boilerplate, it's the actual gate controlling access.

(AWS Account ID and any billing details are cropped/blurred out of all console screenshots for privacy.)

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What I learned

• How S3's static website hosting differs from just storing files in a bucket
• How bucket policies work, and how to scope permissions to exactly what's needed (public read, nothing else)
• How to verify a deployment properly, not just assume it works — including testing the error path

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Repo structure

aws-s3-static-hosting/
├── site/
│   ├── index.html
│   └── error.html
├── screenshots/
└── README.md

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Contact

• GitHub: 4reeb-5yed
• LinkedIn: areeb-syed
• Email: 4reeb.5yed@gmail.com