The secure, production-ready pattern is to store your built portfolio files in a private Amazon S3 bucket and deliver them through an Amazon CloudFront distribution. CloudFront provides HTTPS, caching at edge locations and a stable hostname; S3 supplies the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images and videos. Keep S3 Block Public Access enabled, use CloudFront Origin Access Control (OAC) to grant the distribution read access, and add an AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) certificate plus DNS records if you want a custom domain.
What this architecture does—and what it does not
A static portfolio is a collection of files that a browser can download and run: HTML documents, stylesheets, client-side JavaScript, images, fonts, audio or video. S3 stores those objects durably. CloudFront copies frequently requested objects to edge locations and serves visitors from a nearby location when possible.
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Neither S3 static hosting nor this CloudFront arrangement executes server-side code. There is no PHP, Python, Ruby, Node.js process or database session behind a page. A contact form that needs server-side validation, authentication, private data or email delivery requires another service, such as an API and a function, alongside this static architecture.
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The secure design uses the S3 bucket’s normal REST origin, not a publicly readable S3 website endpoint. The bucket remains private, and a CloudFront OAC signs requests made on its behalf. Visitors never need direct S3 permissions.
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Choose the deployment path
| Approach | Setup and control | HTTPS and delivery | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private S3 bucket plus CloudFront | More steps: bucket policy, OAC, distribution settings, certificate and DNS. You control cache behavior, origins and deployment tooling. | CloudFront supplies TLS and edge caching after you attach an ACM certificate for a custom hostname. | People who want infrastructure control, a predictable static origin and a workflow driven by their own build or CI tools. |
| Amplify Hosting | Managed workflow with less manual CloudFront configuration; deployment can be connected to a source repository or uploaded content. | AWS describes it as backed by CloudFront and providing a public HTTPS URL. | People who prefer a guided hosting workflow over configuring each CDN and bucket setting. |
Official AWS material presents Amplify Hosting as an alternative for S3 website content, not as a universal cost or performance winner. Select it when reducing configuration work matters more than controlling every distribution setting.
Prerequisites and decisions
- An AWS account with permission to create S3 buckets, CloudFront distributions, OACs, ACM certificates and DNS records.
- A completed static-site build. Identify its publish directory—the folder containing the final
index.html, assets and client-side bundles. - A globally unique S3 bucket name. A bucket name does not have to match your domain, although using a clear name makes administration easier.
- A decision about the public address: the CloudFront-generated hostname is enough for testing, while a custom domain requires a registered domain and DNS management.
- A plan for client-side routing. If your single-page application expects paths such as
/aboutto resolve in the browser, configure an appropriate error response or generate real files for those paths.
Step 1: Create a private S3 bucket
- Open the Amazon S3 console and choose the option to create a bucket in the region you want to use for storage.
- Enter a globally unique bucket name. Keep all four S3 Block Public Access settings enabled. Do not add a public-read bucket policy and do not disable the block settings merely to follow older S3 website-hosting tutorials.
- Leave Object Ownership configured so that ACLs are not needed. Uploading through the console, a deployment script or a CI role should grant the uploader normal object ownership.
- After creation, upload the contents of your publish directory, not the directory itself. The bucket root should contain
index.htmlif that is your site entry point. Preserve relative paths and case exactly; a link to/Images/portrait.jpgwill not match an object namedimages/portrait.jpg.
You can upload before or after creating CloudFront. A private bucket may show an access-denied response when opened directly; that is expected and confirms that visitors are not bypassing the CDN.
Step 2: Create the CloudFront distribution and OAC
- In CloudFront, start a new distribution and choose the S3 bucket as the origin. Select the bucket itself as the origin rather than selecting an S3 website endpoint. Website endpoints are HTTP-only and do not support the OAC pattern.
- Create or select an Origin Access Control for the S3 origin. Use the signing option recommended for S3 origins so CloudFront signs each origin request.
- Set the distribution’s default root object to
index.html. This makes a request for the hostname’s root load the portfolio entry page. - Set viewer protocol behavior to redirect HTTP to HTTPS, or require HTTPS if you want to reject plain HTTP requests outright. Redirecting is usually friendlier when visitors follow an old HTTP link.
- Choose a cache policy appropriate for static assets. A longer lifetime reduces origin requests, while a shorter lifetime makes unversioned updates appear sooner. There is no single universally correct TTL; choose based on how often you publish and whether filenames are fingerprinted.
- Keep the distribution’s domain name for initial verification. CloudFront can take time to deploy configuration changes to all edge locations, so do not diagnose a still-deploying distribution as an origin failure.
Step 3: Grant CloudFront permission to read S3 objects
Creating an OAC does not, by itself, authorize access to your bucket. CloudFront displays a bucket-policy statement or a policy template for the distribution. Apply that statement to the bucket policy, limiting the principal to CloudFront’s service principal and the specific distribution resource shown in the console.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesThe resulting policy should allow the distribution to retrieve objects (normally s3:GetObject) while retaining Block Public Access. Do not grant Principal: "*" read access. If the console offers to update the policy when you create the distribution, review the proposed resource and accept it only when it names your bucket and distribution.
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Test permissions with the CloudFront hostname, not the S3 URL. A 403 response usually means the policy resource, object path or OAC association is wrong; a missing object generally produces a 404 response.
Step 4: Add HTTPS for a custom domain with ACM
CloudFront’s default hostname already uses HTTPS. For a branded address such as www.example.com, request a public certificate in AWS Certificate Manager and include every hostname you intend to use, such as the apex domain and its www subdomain.
CloudFront certificates must be requested or imported in the us-east-1 AWS region, even when your S3 bucket is elsewhere. This region requirement is specific to CloudFront’s global service. Choose DNS validation when possible; ACM supplies a validation record that remains in DNS so the certificate can renew automatically.
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- Open ACM in
us-east-1and request a public certificate. - Enter the exact custom hostnames. A certificate for
example.comdoes not automatically coverwww.example.com, and vice versa. - Complete DNS validation with the records ACM provides.
- In the CloudFront distribution’s alternate domain name (CNAME) setting, add the validated hostname and select the ACM certificate.
- Wait for the distribution update to deploy before testing the custom address.
Step 5: Point DNS at CloudFront
In the DNS service that hosts your domain, create alias records for each hostname. With Route 53, an alias record can target the CloudFront distribution without entering a changing IP address. For an apex domain, use the DNS provider’s supported apex-alias or equivalent record type; a conventional CNAME cannot normally be placed at the zone apex.
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Create a separate record for www if you want both addresses to work, and add both names to the certificate and CloudFront alternate-domain list. DNS propagation is controlled by the records’ TTL and resolver caches, so a newly created record may not be visible everywhere immediately.
AWS’s secure-site CloudFormation workflow assumes that the domain is registered and associated with a Route 53 hosted zone. That particular template deploys in us-east-1; using another DNS provider is possible, but you must create the equivalent validation and alias records yourself.
Step 6: Verify before announcing the URL
- Open the CloudFront hostname over HTTPS and confirm that the home page, styles, scripts, fonts and images load.
- Open the browser’s developer tools and check for 403, 404, mixed-content or incorrect MIME-type errors. Mixed content usually means a page still references an
http://asset. - Test a hard refresh and an incognito window. A successful first request can be masked by an old browser cache.
- After the custom DNS record resolves, test both the apex and subdomain names you configured. Confirm that HTTP redirects or refuses connections according to your chosen viewer protocol policy.
- Check a deep link and a nonexistent path. Decide whether your application should return a custom not-found page or the single-page application’s entry document.
Publishing updates and understanding the cache
CloudFront does not fetch every object from S3 on every visit. It serves an object from an edge cache until that object’s configured expiration. Once expired, CloudFront checks S3 and stores a newer copy when one exists.
For reliable releases, give static assets content-hashed filenames, such as app.4f31c.js, and use a shorter cache lifetime for index.html. A new build then references new asset names while old assets can remain cached safely. If filenames cannot change, create a CloudFront invalidation for paths that must update immediately, commonly /index.html and selected changed files. Invalidations add operational work and may incur charges under your CloudFront pricing terms, so they are not a substitute for a considered cache policy.
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When a deployment appears inconsistent, compare the object in S3 with the response headers from CloudFront and note which edge location served the request. An upload can be correct while some visitors still receive the previous cached version until expiry or invalidation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Costs to budget
AWS does not provide one fixed price for this architecture. Your bill depends on region, traffic and request volume.
| Service or item | What drives the charge | Planning note |
|---|---|---|
| S3 | Stored data, requests and data transferred. | Image-heavy portfolios and frequent deployments increase storage or request usage; deleting obsolete build artifacts can reduce storage. |
| CloudFront | Viewer requests, data transferred and the edge locations used to serve traffic. | Traffic geography and cache hit rate affect the total. Review current regional pricing before launch. |
| Domain registration | An annual registration fee that varies by top-level domain and registrar. | AWS’s getting-started documentation gives an illustrative range from about $9 to several hundred dollars, not a current quote. Check the live fee for your chosen domain. |
| ACM public certificate | The certificate used by CloudFront is generally managed through ACM rather than purchased as a separate per-site certificate. | Validation and renewal still depend on keeping the DNS validation record in place. |
Set billing alerts and review S3 and CloudFront usage after the first release. A small portfolio with low traffic may use little storage and transfer, but the actual amount cannot be inferred without your visitor count, asset sizes and region.
Common failures and fixes
403 Access Denied from CloudFront
Confirm that the origin is the bucket endpoint, OAC is attached, and the bucket policy names the correct distribution. Check that the requested key exists and that its capitalization matches the URL. Do not solve a 403 by making the bucket public; that removes the security boundary the OAC provides.
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CloudFront works, but the custom domain does not
Verify that the hostname is present in three places: the ACM certificate, CloudFront alternate domain names and DNS. For CloudFront, the certificate must be in us-east-1. Check that DNS targets the distribution hostname rather than an S3 endpoint.
HTTPS certificate is pending validation
Copy ACM’s validation record exactly, including the record name and value. Remove DNS-proxying or rewriting that changes the validation response, and wait for resolvers to see the record. Keep it published after issuance so ACM can renew the certificate.
Updated files are not visible
Check whether the object is cached at CloudFront or in the browser. Wait for the configured expiry, invalidate the affected path, or publish with a new filename. Do not repeatedly upload the same object while assuming every edge will refresh instantly.
Single-page application routes return 404
S3 and CloudFront look for an object matching the path. Either generate an index.html file in each route’s directory or configure a CloudFront custom error response that returns the application shell for the relevant 404 response. Ensure that genuinely missing assets still produce an error instead of the shell.
When this pattern is the right choice
Use private S3 plus CloudFront when your portfolio is a static build, you want HTTPS and edge delivery, and you are comfortable managing infrastructure settings or a deployment script. It keeps the origin simple and avoids exposing the bucket directly.
Choose a managed workflow such as Amplify Hosting when reducing manual distribution, certificate and deployment configuration is more important than controlling each CloudFront behavior. Both approaches still require you to understand DNS, custom domains, caching and the boundary between static files and server-side features.
If the project grows into authenticated pages, personalized responses, an order system, a database-backed blog or server-rendered content, treat this setup as the static front end and add a separately secured backend rather than trying to make S3 execute application code.
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