AWS Amplify Hosting
A fully managed hosting service that integrates with Git repositories to automate CI/CD and global CDN delivery for frontend applications
Overview
AWS Amplify Hosting is a fully managed service that automatically builds and deploys frontend applications built with frameworks like React, Next.js, Vue, Angular, and Nuxt, triggered by Git pushes, and delivers them via a CloudFront-based global CDN. It supports SSR (Server-Side Rendering), SSG (Static Site Generation), and ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration), with built-in automatic preview environment generation and independent per-branch deployments.
Git-Based CI/CD and Build Configuration
Amplify Hosting connects to repositories on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and AWS CodeCommit, detecting pushes to specified branches to automatically trigger builds and deployments. Build settings are defined in an amplify.yml file, describing each phase: preBuild (dependency installation), build (build commands), and postBuild (post-processing). The framework auto-detection feature infers appropriate build commands for Next.js and Nuxt projects without any configuration. Environment variables can be set per branch, allowing different API endpoints or feature flags between development and production branches. Monorepo configurations are also supported, enabling builds triggered only by changes under specific directories. Build image customization accommodates projects requiring specific Node.js versions or system libraries.
SSR, ISR Support and Edge Execution
When deploying a Next.js SSR (Server-Side Rendering) application, Amplify automatically provisions a server-side execution environment to dynamically render pages at request time. ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration) is also supported, with background page regeneration working transparently. API Routes and Middleware run within Amplify's execution environment, allowing full-featured Next.js applications to be deployed as-is. Image Optimization (next/image) executes server-side, automatically delivering optimally sized and formatted images based on the device. Custom headers and redirect rules can be configured via amplify.yml or the Amplify console, making it easy to add SEO measures and security headers.
Preview Environments and Team Development Workflows
When the pull request preview feature is enabled, an independent preview environment is automatically deployed each time a PR is created, with a unique URL issued. Reviewers can verify actual behavior at the preview URL, and the preview environment is automatically deleted after the PR is merged. Integration with GitHub's Checks API displays build success or failure as PR status checks. Automatic subdomain configuration per branch (develop.example.com, staging.example.com) simplifies URL management across environments. Basic authentication access restrictions can be set per branch, making it easy to restrict staging environments to internal team members only. For custom domain setup, integration with Route 53 automates SSL certificate issuance and DNS record configuration.