Setup WordPress on AWS Lightsail

In this article I will show you how you can quicky setup a WordPress instance on a scalable host that will cost you $5 per month. This is an unpaid review.

You’ll need an AWS account so create one if you don’t already have one.
Create AWS Account

AWS Lightsail is Amazon Web Services simple virtual machine service. Each instance includes bandwidth, networking, SSD storage and a moderate performance single or dual core VM. You can quickly setup a Linux or Windows system with Lightsail.

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Once you have logged into the AWS Management Console visit the Lightsail service. Then click create an instance. From the create instance screen you’ll be able to choose your Linux or Windows platform or from a number of blueprint images. For this tutorial, choose the Wordpress option. You can change your region to one closer to you or your blog visitors. The default option of us-east-1 is good.

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You have several options for instance sizes. The smallest option is $5/month and is adequate for many blogs.

Customize the instance name if you want, then click Create.

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Copy your new instance’s IP address and give it a few minutes to boot up completely before you start working on it.

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After the blog is running, you can SSH into it using the browser-based client. Just click on your WordPress instance then click Connect using SSH.

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After you have connected to your new instance, type the following command to retrieve your wordpress admin password.

cat bitnami_application_password

Bitnami provides pre-configured images for several popular open source platforms on Amazon EC2.

There are several image options for “One Click Installers” provided by Bitnami:

  • WordPress
  • Lamp Stack
  • Node.js
  • Joomla
  • Magento
  • MEAN Stack
  • Drupal
  • GitLab CE (Community Edition)
  • Redmine
  • Nginx

Standalone Operating Systems Options:

  • Amazon Linux
  • Ubuntu
  • Debian
  • FreeBSD
  • openSUSE
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Microsoft SQL 2016 Express

Steps

  • Create AWS Account
  • Choose the closest datacenter to your or your wordpress blog visitors.
  • Create an Instance
  • Connect to Instance
  • Get Password
  • Login to WP Admin
  • Done

If you need help doing this, check the link in the description where you can pay to have someone else do it.

Summary of what is included for $5/month.

  • First month free.
  • 512 MB Ram Dedicated Instance
  • 1 Virtual CPU
  • 20 GB SSD
  • Free Static IP available
  • 1000 Gigs Outbound Transfer
  • Unlimited incomming Transfer
  • Easy to expand or connect to other applications on AWS.