The top managed DNS providers on the web
- about 2 years ago
- 2 min read
The Domain Name System (DNS) translates domain names into IP addresses (and vice versa), so it’s crucial for the uptime of domains and services. But how can a DNS influence uptime? And what’s the most commonly used managed DNS provider these days?
In a previous blog post, we discussed the largest DNS name servers and their role on the web. In this post, we're going to dive into managed DNS providers. A managed DNS provider, also called a premium DNS provider or authoritative DNS, has various systems in place to ensure the highest possible uptime and security, such as DNS load balancing, monitoring and alarm systems. These guarantee that the DNS can resolve IP addresses and domains. Sometimes, large companies use their own DNS solution, often with a self-managed fallback system.
At Dataprovider.com we store this DNS information: in particular, we can see which domain uses what DNS provider. Using this information we can identify the top managed DNS providers by instalment base.
You can see a large spread between the sole managed providers and how big their install bases are. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that the company as a whole is smaller. There are numerous factors that play a role in this. For example: what customers do they actually have and how big are those customers?
The top managed DNS providers are Amazon Route 53, NS1 and Microsoft Azure. We don’t include CloudFlare and Google Cloud DNS because they keep enterprise and free clients on the same domain, which makes it difficult to separate premium customers. You can see a large spread between the sole managed providers and how big their install bases are. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that the company as a whole is smaller. There are numerous factors that play a role in this. For example: what customers do they actually have and how big are those customers?
We’ve picked six companies that are also listed on the NASDAQ to see which DNS provider they’re using for their principal domain. Not surprisingly, you’ll find that Google manages its own DNS infrastructure. Amazon.com uses Oracle Dyn but at the same time also provides its own DNS service called Amazon Route 53. Among some of its customers are Zoom, Reddit and many more. Semiconductor producer Nvidia makes use of NS1, an American DNS provider. And Tesla makes use of Akamai’s Edge DNS product.
Managed DNS providers are important because they can offer better security and performance, which is important for larger domains that generate a lot of traffic. Here, we’ve identified some of the largest Premium DNS services by a number of installments. However, the number of installments alone doesn’t necessarily say much about the size or revenue of that company. In order to decide if a managed DNS provider is necessary and which one is best for your business, individual security and performance requirements need to be determined.
Check out our relevant Recipes for a better understanding of the trends and more in-depth analytics.
