🚀 Hosting Solutions Using AWS Always Free Tier Services
If you're a developer, student, startup, or just curious about cloud computing, Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers an "Always Free Tier" that lets you host websites and applications at zero cost—forever (as long as you stay within usage limits).
In this post, we'll walk you through powerful hosting solutions you can build entirely using AWS Always Free Tier services, based on the latest AWS Free Tier offerings.
🧾 What's in the AWS Always Free Tier?
Here are a few of the Always Free services we'll be using:
- Amazon S3 – 5 GB storage + thousands of requests
- Amazon CloudFront – 1 TB/month data transfer
- AWS Lambda – 1M requests/month
- Amazon API Gateway – 1M HTTP API calls/month
- DynamoDB – 25 GB storage, 25 read/write units
- AWS App Runner – 50 compute hours/month
- Amazon Cognito – 50,000 monthly active users
- Amazon SQS, CloudWatch, IoT Core, and more
Now let’s build something awesome.
1. 🌐 Static Website Hosting (S3 + CloudFront)
Perfect for hosting:
- Portfolios
- Product landing pages
- Documentation sites
🔧 Services Used:
- S3 for storing your static files (HTML, CSS, JS)
- CloudFront for fast, global CDN + HTTPS
💡 How to do it:
- Create an S3 bucket and upload your website.
- Enable static website hosting.
- Distribute via CloudFront (1TB/month free).
2. ⚙️ Serverless Full-Stack App
Build scalable web apps with zero server management.
🔧 Services Used:
- S3 + CloudFront (frontend)
- API Gateway (API layer)
- Lambda (backend functions)
- DynamoDB (database)
- Cognito (user auth, optional)
💡 Use Cases:
- To-do apps
- Admin dashboards
- Minimalist SaaS tools
3. 🐳 Container App with AWS App Runner
Deploy Dockerized applications straight from GitHub.
🔧 Services Used:
- AWS App Runner – 50 free compute hours/month
💡 Great for:
- Lightweight microservices
- Flask/Django/Node.js apps in containers
- MVPs and early-stage projects
4. 🔌 Backend-only API (Lambda + API Gateway)
Need just a backend API? Go serverless!
🔧 Services Used:
- API Gateway (HTTP routing)
- Lambda (function execution)
- DynamoDB or SQS for data and queues
💡 Use Cases:
- REST APIs
- Contact forms
- Event-driven processing
5. 📬 Background Jobs with SQS
Decouple workloads and run tasks asynchronously.
🔧 Services Used:
- Amazon SQS – 1 million requests/month
- Lambda – to process jobs from the queue
💡 Use Cases:
- Email sending
- Order processing
- Image resizing
6. 📡 IoT Device Messaging
Build a smart home or sensor platform using AWS IoT.
🔧 Services Used:
- AWS IoT Core – 2.25 million minutes of connection/month
💡 Use Cases:
- Smart sensors
- Device messaging
- Edge data processing
7. 📊 Monitoring and Logs Dashboard
Track performance, errors, and metrics in real-time.
🔧 Services Used:
- CloudWatch – 10 custom metrics + 5 GB log ingestion/month
💡 Use Cases:
- Monitor Lambda/API performance
- Trigger alarms on errors
- Centralized log management
🧮 Comparison Table
| Solution | Services Used | Ideal For |
|---|---|---|
| Static Website | S3, CloudFront | Personal websites, landing pages |
| Serverless Web App | S3, Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, Cognito | Full-stack apps, MVPs |
| Container App | AWS App Runner | Dockerized apps, microservices |
| Backend API | Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB | Headless APIs |
| Background Jobs | Lambda, SQS | Async tasks |
| IoT Application | AWS IoT Core | Device-to-cloud communication |
| Monitoring Dashboard | CloudWatch | Logs, alerts, performance |
🚦 Wrapping Up
AWS’s Always Free Tier gives you everything you need to build real-world cloud apps without spending a cent. Whether you're building a portfolio site, launching a SaaS product, or experimenting with IoT, these tools are robust and production-ready.