INSERTCART AWS WEB · HOSTING GUIDE
How to host an HTML website on AWS S3 and CloudFront
Publish static HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images in your own AWS account with private S3 storage and HTTPS delivery.
Check that your website is static
A static website is a collection of browser-ready files. Your upload should contain index.html, CSS, JavaScript, images, and any fonts or other assets it references. If you use a static site generator, upload its build output rather than the source project. A server-side application, WordPress installation, or PHP script cannot run directly from these files.
Open your built website locally first. Check that filenames match their references exactly, including capitalization. Keep private configuration, access keys, and source-control folders out of the upload. An exported store can display products, but payments, inventory, and user accounts require separate services.
Connect your own AWS account
In the launch workspace, sign in to the deployment tool and select a website region. Click Connect AWS Account. The connection flow opens a CloudFormation setup page in AWS. Review its IAM permissions and optional domain and monitoring access before creating the stack. The AWS console may ask you to acknowledge that the template creates a named IAM resource.
Once the stack reaches CREATE_COMPLETE, open its Outputs tab. Copy RoleArn into the verification form. The tool verifies that it can assume that exact role with the unique connection external ID. You can revoke that connection by deleting its stack in AWS.
Upload and publish a complete website
Choose a template, upload a ZIP, or select a website folder. Your ZIP can contain files directly at the root or inside one enclosing folder, with index.html inside that root. ZIP uploads are limited to 20 MB compressed and 100 MB expanded; a folder upload is limited to 20 MB. Releases allow at most 2,000 file and folder entries.
The new deployment service stages uploaded files before switching the live release. It creates a versioned S3 bucket with public access blocked and a CloudFront distribution that reads that bucket through origin access control. Visitors use the CloudFront HTTPS URL. S3 is storage; CloudFront is the public delivery layer.
Wait for the ready status
Resource creation and website readiness are different steps. The dashboard shows upload and propagation status and waits for CloudFront and any requested cache invalidation to finish. Setup may take several minutes. If your browser closes, return to Manage websites and refresh the selected website to resume watching its job.
The original API remains available for advanced template creation. It returns resource details without the new background job tracking. When using that fallback, allow time for CloudFront to deploy and check its status in AWS.
Choose your next step
After publishing, connect a custom domain, publish updates, or enable optional alerts. Read the cost guide before enabling paid AWS features. For the underlying architecture, see AWS’s secure static website documentation.
Ready to publish?
Bring your static website files and connect your own AWS account.
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