Following on from our post which covered the 10 Best Free DNS Hosting Providers, I thought it would be interesting to focus on a handful of paid DNS services to see what they offer as premium services. So without further ado here’s my list of the best paid DNS services for load balancing.
Why is Load Balancing Important?
You won’t know this, but you’re already using a paid DNS provider, but the cost is hidden within your domain registration service. The reason why it’s in place is to help load balance traffic, for instance if you have a bunch of people trying to access your site then connections are going to slow down, it’s kind of like a traffic jam, but with 1’s and 0’s.
So you may experience periods of time when your site fails to load as the DNS request takes time to resolve. This is where a third-party DNS provider comes in handy as it offers reliability and assuranc, but it’s always a good idea to test your site’s current performance.
How can I Test?
Third-party DNS providers can be faster, but it isn’t always guaranteed as it depends on the following factors:
- Your geographical location
- Proximity to third-party DNS server(s)
- Speed of ISP’s DNS servers
Running a check will determine if your site’s DNS servers are configured correctly, as in delegation, consistency, and connectivity. Personally I recommend using Pingdom’s DNS Checker as it shows clearly what’s right and what’s wrong with your DNS servers.
If all the tests come back fine, then you probably don’t need a new DNS provider, however if it throws warnings/errors (or you just one piece of mind when it comes to your website) then you should check out one of the DNS providers below.
8 Paid DNS Services
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Rage4
One of our favourite DNS providers due to it’s simplicity – Rage4 supports anycast DNS which allows domains to be served from their own dual stack anycast network. They also support high traffic or CDN’ed domains, full API support to manage third-party services, GeoDNS to serve traffic from predefined servers, and ModulesGarden module support for integration with WHMCS and cPanel.
The Good The Bad • Simplicity • Lack of documentation • Over 30 DNS servers • Pay-as-you-go pricing • Flat fee based packages -
DNS Made Easy
As the name implies, DNS Made Easy is designed with ease of use which really shows with this globally managed provider. As a primary or secondary DNS, they offer full manageability in one control panel, disaster recovery in case of overburdened or downed servers, and round robin load balancing for reduced redundancy. With a guaranteed uptime of 100%, they’re one of the best premium providers on the web.
The Good The Bad • Easy setup • 12 edge servers • DNS backup servers • Costly (in comparison with competitors) • 100% uptime • IP Anycast routed DNS architecture -
Google Cloud DNS
Launched at the start of this year, Google intend on tackling the DNS market by offering a global anycast based network of DNS name servers whilst being competitively priced with their affordable monthly model. Integrating with their other services like Google Compute Engine virtual machines and Google Cloud Storage, Cloud DNS is attempting to corner the market with the “one size fits all” approach.
The Good The Bad • Easy integration with other Google services • Relatively new with no uptime assurance • Affordable pricing • Lack of support, have to rely on documentation • Easy to use and customisable -
OpenDNS
Having been around for nearly a decade, OpenDNS always keeps ahead of the curve by using the latest tech like anycast routing to ensure users communicate with the nearest data centre. With the largest and most up-to-date DNS caches on the web, they manage to serve billions of DNS requests on a daily basis without fail.
The Good The Bad • Offers free plan for low performance sites • Some features already built into browser • Good web filtering features • Known conflict issues with other DNS providers • Quick DNS resolver time • Affordable pricing plans -
NSONE
A high performance provider, NSONE goes for quality over quantity as it has it’s own edge servers located geographically in places like Australia, North and South America, and Europe. They offer a management panel for power users that control every aspect of their service for full configuration, and it can be setup to automatically adjust based on predefined parameters, which is perfect for those power users.
The Good The Bad • Easy to pick and use with advanced customisation • 16 edge servers (but covers Australia, North/South America, and Europe) • Uptime monitoring stats • Known to have quick support response time -
DNSimple
DNSimple is built around the idea that DNS should be easy to use without having to go through pages of documentation and tutorials, which it does go to show as it has the most elegant, simple, and overall easy interface. Trying to make every aspect transparent, they simplify domain registration, SSL setup, and API documentation. They’re definitely a good provider for users of novice, advanced, and even pro tech backgrounds.
The Good The Bad • “Pick and play” ease of use • Costly phone support • User friendly interface • Has only 4 name servers • System monitor and failover for primary DNS -
BuddyNS
Usually DNS providers take up to 12 hours to sync records, but with BuddyNS they offer an impressive 10 minute synchronisation wait time which dramatically reduces latency. Intended for domain name owners as a secondary DNS provider, they allow you to host unlimited zones and records, plus offer reasonably priced packages.
The Good The Bad • 10 minute synchronisation time • Not intended as primary DNS provider • Unlimited zones and records • Doesn’t offer greater functionality like other providers • Affordable pricing (free account for low end sites) -
DynDNS
An all in one DNS solution, Dyn have been around for a long time offering the latest functionality and providing award winning customer support. With a very fast propagation and fail over time, they have a speedy service with reports of DNS records being updated within minutes, not to mention pricing is competitively priced.
The Good The Bad • Award winning technical support • Confusing pricing plans • Affordable monthly/yearly pricing • Not a good option for developers or small businesses • Reliable and easy to use
10 Free DNS Services
If paid DNS services aren’t your cup of tea, then check out our post on a handful of free providers which we discuss why having more than one DNS hosting provider is essential as James discusses on the CDNify podcast.
We also cover why it’s important to protect your site against Distributed Denial of Service attacks, or DDoS for short, whilst covering the top 10 free DNS hosting providers.
