Your app is running on your computer. But only you can see it. In this lesson and the next, we make it accessible to the world — for free. First: setting up AWS properly so you don't get any surprise bills.
Why AWS?
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world's largest cloud platform. It powers Netflix, Airbnb, NASA, and millions of other applications. More importantly for us, it has an incredibly generous Free Tier — enough to run our Waitlist Wizard at zero cost.
Concept
"The cloud" simply means someone else's computers. Instead of buying and maintaining your own server, you rent computing power from AWS. They handle the hardware, security, backups, and uptime. You just deploy your code.Creating Your AWS Account
Step 1: Go to aws.amazon.com and click "Create an AWS Account"
Step 2: You'll need:
- An email address (use your primary one — this is your root account)
- A credit card (AWS charges $1 for verification and immediately refunds it)
- A phone number for SMS verification
Step 3: Choose the Free support plan. You won't be charged unless you explicitly use paid services beyond the free tier.
Honest Note
Yes, AWS asks for a credit card. This worries people, and that's understandable. The truth is: if you follow the steps in this lesson — especially the billing alerts — you'll be safe. AWS Free Tier is genuinely free for what we're using. The credit card is there in case you accidentally go over the limits, which we'll set up alerts to prevent.Securing Your Account (Critical)
This is the most important section of this entire lesson. Do not skip these steps.
Enable MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)
MFA adds a second verification step when logging in. This is non-negotiable.
- Go to the IAM service in AWS Console
- Click on your root user
- Select "Assign MFA device"
- Choose "Authenticator app"
- Scan the QR code with Google Authenticator, Authy, or 1Password
- Enter two consecutive codes to verify
Create an IAM User for Daily Use
Your root account has unlimited power — it can delete everything, change billing, close the account. You should never use it for regular work.
- Go to IAM > Users > Add user
- Username:
admin-daily(or whatever you prefer) - Select "Provide user access to the AWS Management Console"
- Attach the policy:
AdministratorAccess - Save the login credentials
- From now on, log in with this user, not root
Set Up Billing Alerts
This is your safety net against unexpected charges:
- Go to AWS Billing Dashboard > Budgets
- Click "Create a budget"
- Choose "Cost budget — recommended"
- Set the monthly budget amount to $1.00
- Set up email notifications at 80% and 100% of your budget
- Enter your email address
Try It
Complete all three security steps above: MFA, IAM user, and billing alert. These take about 10 minutes and will protect your account for its entire lifetime.Understanding the Free Tier
AWS Free Tier has three categories:
| Category | Duration | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Always Free | Forever | DynamoDB (25GB), Lambda (1M requests/mo) |
| 12 Months Free | First year | Amplify Hosting (5GB), S3 (5GB) |
| Short-Term Trials | Varies | Some AI/ML services |
What we'll use for Waitlist Wizard:
- AWS Amplify — hosts our Next.js app (5GB storage + 15GB bandwidth/month, free for 12 months)
- DynamoDB — our database (25GB + 200M requests/month, always free)
- Lambda — runs our API functions (1M requests/month, always free)
- CloudWatch — basic monitoring (always free)
All of this is more than enough for a waitlist app. You'd need thousands of daily users to approach these limits.
Pro Tip
Check the AWS Billing Dashboard at least once a week for the first month. After that, your billing alerts will notify you if anything unexpected happens. It's like checking your bank account — a good habit that prevents surprises.Common Free Tier Mistakes
Forgetting to terminate EC2 instances: If you experiment with EC2 (virtual servers) and forget to shut them down, they'll keep running and charging. Always terminate when done.
Selecting the wrong region: Some AWS regions have slightly different pricing. Stick with us-east-1 (N. Virginia) — it has the best free tier coverage.
Leaving S3 buckets with public access: This is both a security risk and a potential cost risk if someone uploads files to your bucket.
Running multiple services "just to try": Each service has its own free tier limit. Keep it simple — only use what you need for your project.
The Golden Rule: Monitor Everything
Set up AWS Cost Explorer for a visual breakdown of your spending:
- Go to AWS Billing > Cost Explorer
- Enable Cost Explorer (first time only)
- Check it weekly to understand what's using resources
If anything looks unexpected: stop, don't guess. Ask Claude (or search online) before making changes.
Git Checkpoint
There's no code to commit this lesson — but add your AWS setup notes to a file:
echo "# AWS Setup Notes\n- Account created: $(date)\n- Region: us-east-1\n- MFA: enabled\n- Budget alert: $1/month" > AWS-SETUP.md
git add AWS-SETUP.md
git commit -m "document AWS account setup"
Key Takeaway
AWS gives you enterprise-grade infrastructure for free. But "free" requires attention — set up billing alerts, use IAM properly, and monitor your usage. Your account is now secure, budgeted, and ready for deployment.