AWS CloudFront CDN Setup for Laravel Assets

By Khimananda Oli | Last reviewed: August 2026

Serving static assets directly from your application servers creates unnecessary latency and wastes expensive compute resources on tasks that a CDN handles more efficiently. A proper AWS CloudFront CDN setup for Laravel assets offloads CSS, JavaScript, images, and fonts to edge locations while keeping your origin secure and your deployment pipeline automated. This guide walks through the production-grade configuration I use for clients serving audiences across Nepal and globally, covering S3 origins, Origin Access Control, cache policies, and Laravel environment integration.

How do you configure an S3 origin with Origin Access Control for Laravel?

The most common mistake in AWS CloudFront CDN setup for Laravel assets is leaving the S3 bucket public or relying on legacy Origin Access Identity configurations. In 2026, Origin Access Control (OAC) is the standard because it signs every request from CloudFront to S3 using IAM, eliminating the need for bucket policies that reference specific distribution IDs. This matters for compliance and audit readiness — if you're working toward SOC 2 or ISO 27001, demonstrating that static assets are never publicly accessible simplifies evidence collection significantly.

Create the private S3 bucket

Your bucket must block all public access at the account and bucket level. Use the AWS CLI or Terraform; never create this manually in the console for production environments.

aws s3api create-bucket \
  --bucket my-laravel-assets-prod \
  --region ap-south-1 \
  --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=ap-south-1

aws s3api put-public-access-block \
  --bucket my-laravel-assets-prod \
  --public-access-block-configuration \
    BlockPublicAcls=true,IgnorePublicAcls=true,\
BlockPublicPolicy=true,RestrictPublicBuckets=true

If you serve users primarily from Nepal or South Asia, choose ap-south-1 (Mumbai) as your origin region. CloudFront will still cache at edge locations worldwide, but origin fetches will be faster from a geographically closer region. For teams managing multiple environments, review managing multiple environments in IaC to keep staging and production buckets isolated.

Configure the OAC resource policy

Create an OAC in the CloudFront console or via CLI, then attach this bucket policy to your S3 bucket. Replace the placeholder values with your actual distribution ID and account ID.

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "AllowCloudFrontServicePrincipalReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {
        "Service": "cloudfront.amazonaws.com"
      },
      "Action": "s3:GetObject",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-laravel-assets-prod/*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals": {
          "AWS:SourceArn": "arn:aws:cloudfront::ACCOUNT_ID:distribution/DISTRIBUTION_ID"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

This policy ensures that even if someone discovers your bucket name, they cannot read objects without going through CloudFront. The AWS:SourceArn condition binds access to your specific distribution, which is critical for multi-tenant or multi-environment setups where several distributions might exist in the same account.

What cache policy settings work best for Laravel versioned assets?

Laravel's Vite build system generates versioned filenames like app-a1b2c3d4.js, which means you can safely set long cache TTLs without worrying about stale content. The cache policy is where most performance gains come from in your AWS CloudFront CDN setup for Laravel assets. Getting this wrong either wastes bandwidth on unnecessary origin fetches or serves outdated files after deployments.

Create two cache policies

You need separate behaviors for versioned build artifacts and unversioned files like favicon.ico, robots.txt, or manifest.json. Create these as managed cache policies in CloudFront.

• Versioned assets policy: Minimum TTL 31536000 (1 year), Default TTL 31536000, Maximum TTL 31536000. Disable query string forwarding. Enable gzip and brotli compression.
• Unversioned assets policy: Minimum TTL 0, Default TTL 3600 (1 hour), Maximum TTL 86400 (1 day). Forward query strings if your manifest uses them. Enable compression.

Configure cache behaviors in the distribution

Add path patterns to route requests to the correct policy. Order matters — CloudFront evaluates patterns top-to-bottom and uses the first match.

1. /build/* → Versioned assets policy (this catches all Vite output)
2. /assets/* → Versioned assets policy (if you store uploaded media here)
3. Default (*) → Unversioned assets policy or forward to your Laravel origin for dynamic content

If you're also optimizing database performance alongside CDN caching, the principles of reducing redundant work apply similarly. See Laravel caching strategies for complementary application-level optimizations.

How do you integrate CloudFront with Laravel environment variables and deployment?

Your Laravel application needs to know the CloudFront domain to generate correct asset URLs. This integration point is where many AWS CloudFront CDN setup for Laravel assets guides fall short — they show the AWS side but skip the application configuration that makes it actually work in production.

Set the ASSET_URL environment variable

In your .env file (or Secrets Manager / Parameter Store for production), configure:

ASSET_URL=https://d1234abcdef.cloudfront.net
APP_ENV=production

Laravel's asset() helper automatically prepends this URL. Verify in tinker:

php artisan tinker
>>> asset('build/assets/app-a1b2c3d4.js')
=> "https://d1234abcdef.cloudfront.net/build/assets/app-a1b2c3d4.js"

Automate asset deployment in CI/CD

Never upload assets manually. Your CI pipeline should build, sync, and optionally invalidate in one atomic step. Here's a GitHub Actions snippet:

- name: Build assets
  run: npm ci && npm run build

- name: Sync to S3
  run: |
    aws s3 sync public/build/ s3://my-laravel-assets-prod/build/ \
      --delete \
      --cache-control "public,max-age=31536000,immutable" \
      --exclude "*.html"

- name: Sync unversioned files
  run: |
    aws s3 cp public/favicon.ico s3://my-laravel-assets-prod/favicon.ico \
      --cache-control "public,max-age=3600"

The --delete flag removes old versioned files from S3, preventing storage bloat. Because filenames include content hashes, there's zero risk of deleting a file still referenced by live traffic. For teams deploying frequently, this approach eliminates the need for CloudFront invalidations entirely — each deploy produces new filenames, so caches naturally refresh. If you're building CI/CD pipelines for Laravel specifically, CI/CD pipeline with GitLab CI for Laravel covers the broader pipeline context.

When should you use CloudFront versus serving assets directly from EC2 or Nginx?

Not every Laravel project needs a CDN. Understanding the trade-offs prevents over-engineering small projects while ensuring you don't under-provision growing ones. This comparison reflects real-world deployments I've managed for Nepal-based businesses and global SaaS platforms.

For Nepal-focused applications with primarily local users and modest traffic, direct serving may suffice initially. But once you have international users, expect traffic spikes, or need to pass security audits, the CDN becomes necessary. The free tier makes the financial barrier negligible for most startups.

Secure Your AWS CloudFront CDN Setup for Laravel Assets in Production

A correctly configured AWS CloudFront CDN setup for Laravel assets reduces page load times by 60–90% for international users while keeping your origin completely private. Start with OAC-secured S3 origins, implement versioned asset deployments to avoid invalidation overhead, and monitor cache hit ratios in CloudWatch to validate your configuration. If your cache hit ratio stays below 90% after the initial warm-up period, revisit your cache policy TTLs and path patterns — something is forcing unnecessary origin fetches. When you're ready to audit your full infrastructure posture or need help with compliance-ready CDN configurations, reach out to discuss your setup.