How can I redirect one domain to another in Route 53?

Short description

You can redirect a domain to another domain when you use Route 53 with an Application Load Balancer, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), or Amazon CloudFront. Each method has different capabilities.

Resolution

You can redirect a domain to another domain when you use Route 53 with other AWS services. The following methods support different redirect behaviors.

Use an Application Load Balancer for domain redirection

Application Load Balancer supports HTTP to HTTPS redirection and domain name redirection.

• It's a best practice to use an Application Load Balancer instead of Amazon S3 when your domain points to an Application Load Balancer.
• For more information, see How can I use an Application Load Balancer to redirect one domain to another?

Use Amazon S3 and CloudFront for domain redirection

Set up a static website in an S3 bucket and configure it to redirect traffic. However, S3 only supports the HTTP protocol. To redirect from HTTP to HTTPS, use a CloudFront distribution with the S3 bucket.

• For steps, see How do I redirect an apex domain to its subdomain or any other domain using S3 and Route 53?
• For HTTPS support, see How do I use CloudFront to serve HTTPS requests for my Amazon S3 bucket?

Use a CloudFront function for advanced redirection

CloudFront functions support redirection at the edge based on viewer request information.

• You can redirect all traffic to a different domain or only specific pages.
• For details, see the Use an edge function that redirects requests to the new domain section of How do I redirect a domain in CloudFront?

Important:

• Redirection changes the domain name in the browser.
• CNAME or alias records preserve the original URL and don’t perform a redirect.