Direct answer
The best free AWS hosting in 2026 comes down to three choices: Amplify for full-stack frontends (≈1,000 build minutes, 500K SSR requests, 15 GB egress free), S3 + CloudFront for static sites (CloudFront’s 1 TB egress + 10M requests/mo are always-free), and Lambda for serverless APIs (1M requests/mo, always-free). App Runner is the one to skip if you need free: it has no always-free tier, only new-account credits.
The comparison (verified 2026-09-26, re-checked 2026-10-04)
| Service | Free tier | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Amplify Hosting | ~1,000 build min/mo; 5 GB CDN storage; 500K SSR req + 100 GB-hr compute; 15 GB egress | Full-stack frontends, Git-based CI/CD |
| S3 static website | Storage within free tier/credits; unlimited buckets | Static files, cost-optimal |
| CloudFront CDN | Always-free: 1 TB egress, 10M HTTP(S) requests, 2M function invocations/mo | HTTPS + custom domains + global edge |
| Lambda | Always-free: 1M requests, 400K GB-seconds/mo | Serverless functions/APIs |
| App Runner | None (credits only for new accounts) | Containers, only if you’ll pay |
How to pick
- Frontend app with Git deploys → Amplify. Closest to the Vercel/Netlify workflow: connect a repo, get preview environments, SSR included.
- Static site at minimum cost → S3 bucket + CloudFront. You pay for storage only, and CloudFront’s always-free 1 TB egress covers a lot of hobby traffic.
- API or backend function → Lambda (1M requests/mo always-free) — pair with Amplify or a static frontend.
- Container app → not free. App Runner has no always-free tier; if you must run containers on AWS free, you’ll be spending new-account credits or paying ~$0.064/vCPU-hr.
- Custom domain + HTTPS everywhere → CloudFront in front of S3 or Amplify — and its always-free quota makes it the natural edge layer.
The honest caveats
- “Free” is split two ways now: the classic always-free quotas (Lambda, CloudFront) and the credit-based program for new accounts (up to $200 over 6 months, since July 2025). Check which applies to your account age — a legacy 12-month account sees the old terms, a new one sees credits.
- Amplify’s math matters at scale: 500K SSR requests is generous for a side project but thin if you’re serving a big audience — 15 GB egress on Amplify runs out before CloudFront’s 1 TB does.
- S3 website endpoints lack HTTPS/custom domain out of the box — always front with CloudFront (which also keeps the bucket private via OAC).
- Nothing here is “always-on compute for free”: static and serverless scale-to-zero. If you need a 24/7 always-responding container, budget a few dollars on App Runner or another provider.
Verified against official AWS pricing pages 2026-09-26, re-checked 2026-10-04 — see the live hosting comparison, the AWS Free Tier entry in our data registry. Some links are affiliate-free or tracked /go/ redirects — see our disclosure.