Previously I wrote an article on my blog’s pipeline. It was quite complex for this dead simple use case:

  • Publish a static website from markdown files
  • Automate build to convert markdown into html static pages using Jekyll
  • Be able to preview articles with a draft subdomain

A few months ago, during re:Invent'18, AWS launched a new service called AWS Amplify Console. I didn’t pay attention to this new service until a few days ago, when trying to find some optimizations around my blog.

Amplify Logo

The conclusion is simple: all my pipeline could be trashed right away. This new service is all I need, with the advantage of being fully managed by AWS, zero-config, with a few more features.

Steps

I just followed a few steps to get started:

  1. Linked my GitHub blog repository to Amplify Console (with the newly available free private repository).
  2. Added the master branch.
  3. Connected the draft branch.
  4. Set up a password-protected draft branch.
  5. Set up my domain (including Certificate Manager and CloudFront).

Please follow this great Medium post for a detailed step by step guide.

Pricing

Regarding the pricing of this service, you pay for two features: build and hosting.

If I assume I’m posting every day (this will not happen, for sure), with 3 minutes build time, 1GB stored and 4GB served per month:

Build:

  • $0.01 _ 3 min _ 365 days = $10,95 per year

Hosting:

  • $0,023 per GB Stored = $0,023 * 12GB = $0,276

  • $0,15 per GB Served = $0,15 _ 4GB _ 12 months = $7,2

Total: 10,95+0,276+7,2 = $18,4 per year

Thanks AWS for this great tool that makes my blogging a streamlined experience and plumbing free. It just works.

More information: AWS Amplify.

That’s all folks!

zoph.