Migrate Your Website to AWS Cloud Hosting: Complete 2025 Guide

Why Migrate to AWS Cloud Hosting in 2025?

The web hosting landscape has shifted dramatically. In 2025, traditional shared hosting — the kind that bundles dozens of sites onto a single server — is no longer adequate for businesses that care about performance, security, and growth.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) now powers roughly 32% of the global cloud infrastructure market (Synergy Research Group, Q1 2025), making it the largest cloud platform in the world. From startups to Fortune 500 companies, the migration to cloud hosting has become less of a question of if and more a question of when.

But migrating a live website to AWS is not as simple as dragging files into a new folder. It requires planning, the right architecture decisions, and a clear execution roadmap.

This guide walks you through every step.

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Traditional Hosting vs. AWS Cloud: What Actually Changes?

Before diving into the how, let’s clarify the why. Here’s a side-by-side comparison:

Feature	Traditional Shared Hosting	AWS Cloud Hosting
Scalability	Fixed resources, manual upgrades	Auto Scaling, on-demand resources
Uptime SLA	99.5%–99.9% (typical)	99.99% (EC2 SLA)
Global Reach	Single data center	34 regions, 108 Availability Zones
Security	Basic firewall, shared SSL	IAM, WAF, Shield, KMS, VPC isolation
Performance	Shared CPU/RAM	Dedicated instances, NVMe SSD, CloudFront CDN
Cost Model	Fixed monthly fee	Pay-as-you-go, Reserved Instances
Backup & DR	Manual or limited	Automated snapshots, cross-region replication

The difference isn’t just technical — it’s strategic. On AWS, your infrastructure grows with your business instead of forcing you to predict capacity months in advance.

Real-World Impact: Speed and Core Web Vitals

Google’s Core Web Vitals remain a ranking factor in 2025. Here’s what we typically see when migrating a mid-traffic WordPress or PrestaShop site from shared hosting to a properly configured AWS stack:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): drops from 3.8s → 1.2s
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP): drops from 280ms → 85ms
• Time to First Byte (TTFB): drops from 1.1s → 0.18s

These aren’t theoretical numbers. At Lueur Externe, our team — certified AWS Solutions Architects since the early days of cloud adoption — has documented these improvements consistently across dozens of client migrations.

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Phase 1: Assessment and Planning

Every successful migration begins long before any server is provisioned. Here’s what the planning phase should cover.

Audit Your Current Environment

Document everything about your existing setup:

• CMS and version (WordPress 6.x, PrestaShop 8.x, custom PHP, etc.)
• PHP version and extensions required
• Database engine and size (MySQL 8.0, MariaDB 10.x, PostgreSQL)
• Total file storage (media, uploads, logs)
• Current traffic volume (average and peak requests per second)
• Third-party integrations (payment gateways, APIs, cron jobs)
• SSL certificates (Let’s Encrypt, commercial, wildcard)
• Email services (are you using your hosting provider’s mail server?)

Define Your Target Architecture

AWS offers hundreds of services. For a typical website migration, you’ll work with a focused subset:

• EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) — your web server(s)
• RDS (Relational Database Service) — managed MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL
• S3 (Simple Storage Service) — static assets, backups, media files
• CloudFront — CDN for global content delivery
• Route 53 — DNS management
• ACM (AWS Certificate Manager) — free SSL/TLS certificates
• ElastiCache — Redis or Memcached for object caching
• SES (Simple Email Service) — transactional email

Choose the Right EC2 Instance

For most CMS-based websites, start with these instance families:

• t3.medium (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM) — small WordPress/blog sites
• t3.large (2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM) — medium-traffic sites, small e-commerce
• m6i.large (2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM) — consistent workloads, PrestaShop stores
• c6i.xlarge (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM) — CPU-intensive applications, WooCommerce with heavy plugins

You can always resize later. That’s the whole point of the cloud.

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Phase 2: Setting Up Your AWS Environment

Once planning is complete, it’s time to build.

VPC and Network Configuration

Always deploy inside a custom VPC (Virtual Private Cloud). Never use the default VPC for production workloads.

A solid baseline architecture includes:

• 2 public subnets (across 2 Availability Zones) for your load balancer
• 2 private subnets for your EC2 instances
• 2 private subnets for your RDS database (Multi-AZ)
• A NAT Gateway so private instances can reach the internet for updates

Server Provisioning: A Sample Approach

Here’s a simplified example using AWS CLI to launch an EC2 instance for a WordPress migration:

# Create a key pair for SSH access
aws ec2 create-key-pair \
  --key-name my-site-key \
  --query 'KeyMaterial' \
  --output text > my-site-key.pem
chmod 400 my-site-key.pem

# Launch an EC2 instance (Amazon Linux 2023, t3.medium)
aws ec2 run-instances \
  --image-id ami-0c02fb55956c7d316 \
  --instance-type t3.medium \
  --key-name my-site-key \
  --subnet-id subnet-0abc123def456 \
  --security-group-ids sg-0abc123def456 \
  --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=WebServer-Prod}]' \
  --block-device-mappings '[{"DeviceName":"/dev/xvda","Ebs":{"VolumeSize":50,"VolumeType":"gp3"}}]'

# Allocate and associate an Elastic IP
aws ec2 allocate-address --domain vpc
aws ec2 associate-address \
  --instance-id i-0abc123def456 \
  --allocation-id eipalloc-0abc123def456

Of course, for production environments, we strongly recommend using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform or AWS CloudFormation) rather than manual CLI commands. This ensures repeatability and version control.

Database Setup with RDS

Don’t run your database on the same EC2 instance as your web server. Use Amazon RDS for managed database hosting:

• Automated backups with point-in-time recovery
• Multi-AZ deployment for failover (99.95% SLA)
• Automated patching and maintenance windows
• Easy vertical scaling (change instance class with a few clicks)

For a typical PrestaShop or WordPress site, db.t3.medium with 20 GB of gp3 storage is a solid starting point.

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Phase 3: Migration Execution

This is where precision matters most. A sloppy migration means downtime, broken links, and lost revenue.

Step 1: Lower DNS TTL

48 hours before migration, reduce your DNS TTL to 300 seconds (5 minutes). This ensures that when you switch DNS to point to AWS, the change propagates quickly.

Step 2: Sync Files

Use rsync over SSH to transfer your website files from the old server to the new EC2 instance:

rsync -avz --progress \
  -e "ssh -i old-server-key.pem" \
  user@old-server:/var/www/html/ \
  /var/www/html/

Step 3: Migrate the Database

Export from the old server and import into RDS:

# Export from old server
mysqldump -u root -p --single-transaction \
  --routines --triggers \
  my_database > my_database.sql

# Import into RDS
mysql -h my-rds-endpoint.amazonaws.com \
  -u admin -p my_database < my_database.sql

Step 4: Update Configuration Files

Update your CMS configuration to point to the new RDS endpoint:

• WordPress: edit wp-config.php → update DB_HOST
• PrestaShop: edit app/config/parameters.php → update database_host

Step 5: Test Thoroughly

Before switching DNS:

• Test the site using the EC2 public IP or a temporary domain
• Verify all pages, forms, checkout flows, and admin panels
• Run a Lighthouse audit to confirm performance gains
• Check SSL certificate configuration via ACM + CloudFront or ALB

Step 6: Switch DNS and Go Live

Update your Route 53 (or current DNS provider) A/CNAME records to point to your new AWS infrastructure. With the lowered TTL from Step 1, propagation should complete within minutes.

Step 7: Final Delta Sync

If your old site was still receiving orders or content updates during migration, run one final database and file sync to capture any changes made between the initial sync and the DNS switch.

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Phase 4: Post-Migration Optimization

Migrating is only half the job. Optimization is where the real gains happen.

Enable CloudFront CDN

CloudFront distributes your content across 600+ edge locations worldwide. Configure it to:

• Cache static assets (images, CSS, JS) with long TTLs
• Serve dynamic content via the origin with short TTLs
• Enable Brotli and Gzip compression automatically
• Enforce HTTPS with a free ACM certificate

Implement Caching Layers

A well-cached site can handle 10–50x more traffic on the same infrastructure:

• Object caching: ElastiCache (Redis) for database query results and sessions
• Page caching: Varnish or NGINX FastCGI cache on EC2
• OPcache: PHP opcode caching (should be enabled by default)
• Browser caching: proper Cache-Control and Expires headers

Set Up Monitoring and Alerts

• CloudWatch for CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics
• CloudWatch Alarms to notify you when CPU exceeds 80% or disk space drops below 20%
• AWS Health Dashboard for service-level incident awareness
• Consider Uptime Robot or Better Uptime for external monitoring

Automate Backups

• RDS automated backups with a 7–30 day retention period
• EBS snapshots of your web server volumes (daily, via AWS Backup)
• S3 cross-region replication for disaster recovery of critical assets

Cost Optimization

AWS bills can grow fast if left unmanaged. Key strategies:

• Right-size instances — don’t run a c5.2xlarge for a site that needs a t3.medium
• Use Reserved Instances or Savings Plans for predictable workloads (up to 72% savings)
• Enable S3 Intelligent-Tiering for media storage
• Set billing alerts in AWS Budgets
• Review Cost Explorer monthly

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Common Migration Pitfalls to Avoid

After handling AWS migrations for over two decades, the team at Lueur Externe has seen every possible issue. Here are the most common ones:

1. Forgetting to migrate cron jobs — WordPress cron, PrestaShop scheduled tasks, and custom cron jobs need to be recreated on the new server.
2. Hardcoded paths or IPs — Search your codebase for any references to the old server’s IP address or absolute file paths.
3. Email delivery failures — If your old host handled email, you need to set up Amazon SES or a third-party SMTP service. EC2 throttles outbound email on port 25 by default.
4. File permissions — Linux file ownership and permissions often differ between hosting environments. Run chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html (or your web server user) after file transfer.
5. Not testing under load — Use tools like k6, Apache JMeter, or Artillery to simulate peak traffic on your new AWS setup before going live.
6. Ignoring security hardening — Restrict SSH access to your IP only, disable root login, enable AWS WAF on CloudFront, and configure Security Groups with the principle of least privilege.

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When to Consider a Managed Migration Service

Not every team has a certified AWS Solutions Architect on staff — and that’s perfectly fine. A managed migration is the right choice when:

• Your site generates significant revenue and zero downtime is non-negotiable
• You’re running a complex stack (e.g., PrestaShop with custom modules, multi-site WordPress, headless CMS)
• You need to meet compliance requirements (GDPR data residency, PCI-DSS for e-commerce)
• You want the architecture optimized from day one rather than iterating through trial and error

This is where working with an experienced agency makes a measurable difference — not just in technical execution, but in long-term cost savings and performance.

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Conclusion: Your 2025 Cloud Migration Starts Now

Migrating to AWS isn’t just a hosting change — it’s a strategic infrastructure upgrade that impacts your site’s speed, SEO rankings, security posture, and ability to scale.

The key takeaways:

• Plan thoroughly — audit your current setup and define your target architecture before touching a server
• Execute carefully — use parallel environments, delta syncs, and thorough testing to achieve zero-downtime migration
• Optimize relentlessly — CloudFront, caching layers, monitoring, and cost controls turn a good migration into a great one

If you’re ready to move your website to AWS and want it done right the first time, Lueur Externe can help. As a certified AWS Solutions Architect agency with deep expertise in WordPress, PrestaShop, and SEO, we’ve been guiding businesses through complex cloud migrations since 2003.

Get in touch with our team → and let’s architect your cloud infrastructure together.