Is there an easy way to migrate a hosted LAMP site to Amazon Web Services? I have hobby sites and sites for family members where we’re spending far too much per month compared to what we would be paying on AWS.

Typical el cheapo example of what I’d like to move over to AWS:

• GoDaddy domain
• site hosted at 1&1 or MochaHost
• a handful of PHP files within a certain directory structure
• a small MySQL database
• .htaccess file for URL rewriting and the like

The tutorials I’ve found online necessitate PuTTY, Linux commands, etc. While these aren’t the most cumbersome hurdles imaginable, it seems overly complicated. What’s the easiest way to do this?

The ideal solution would be something like what you do to set up a web host: point GoDaddy to it, upload files, import database, done. (Bonus points for phpMyAdmin being already installed but certainly not necessary.)

It would seem the amazon AWS marketplace has now got a solution for your problem :
https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B0078UIFF2/ref=gtw_msl_title/182-2227858-3810327?ie=UTF8&pf_rd_r=1RMV12H8SJEKSDPC569Y&pf_rd_m=A33KC2ESLMUT5Y&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=awsmp-gateway-1&pf_rd_p=1362852262&pf_rd_s=right-3

Or from their own site
http://www.turnkeylinux.org/lampstack

A full LAMP stack including PHPMyAdmin with no setup required.

As for your site and database migration itself (which should require no more than file copies and a database backup/restore) the only way to make this less cumbersome is to have someone else do it for you…