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Akamai Edge DNS vs Amazon Route 53 vs Cisco Umbrella comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Mindshare comparison

Managed DNS
Managed DNS
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

YA
Ensures global distribution and DDoS protection while offering seamless integration and low latency DNS responses
For user experience, Akamai Edge DNS should allow notes to be added for each record, as this is something Infoblox supports. Without notes, managing changes in DNS records can be difficult, especially for large companies with over 1,000 records, as they may not know who requested changes without proper documentation. I requested this feature two years ago, but it has not been added yet. Akamai Edge DNS could also improve its AI capabilities.
ArunDhwaj - PeerSpot reviewer
Managed security and horizontal scaling enhance application performance
We are using Route 53 for application security. We are also using it for computing, EC2, and setting up our server plus a complete infrastructure Route 53 helps us manage security without manually handling it. We can maintain availability and horizontal scaling effectively. One of the best…
Emilio Montoya - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensures internet navigation safety and boosts productivity
The features of Cisco Umbrella I prefer most are DNS protection and traffic redirect. With Cisco Talos's threat intelligence, we reduce the impact of malware traffic in our network, and we currently see the behavior of equipment and choose the correct sites. Cisco Talos has helped us reduce the impact of malware traffic. We can see the behavior and choose the correct sites. We're currently testing secure access with Umbrella in order to secure access to core applications. It's a product that the user doesn't even know is there, even though it is protecting them. It's not hard on the equipment. And, for us, it centralizes everything, which improves productivity. With the Experience Insights feature of Cisco Secure Access, we've seen impacts on the management of user connectivity by allowing us to deliver safe connectivity. We are testing the Secure Access product with Cisco Umbrella to improve our connectivity with our users in order to secure access to the corporate applications. Cisco Umbrella is in the cloud, which is nice.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I recommend Akamai Edge DNS because it is distributed globally and prevents DDoS attacks."
"We can maintain control of the configuration, and it seems to be covering the use case that we need."
"I haven't had any problems with the stability of Akamai Edge DNS in the past five years."
"It is a very stable solution since it has a security feature that allows you to recover zone files if you accidentally delete them."
"The high availability of Akamai Edge DNS is impressive due to their numerous POPs, which help in supporting all attacks, including DDoS counterattacks."
"We haven't faced any outages or issues directly related to Route 53. It has been 100% stable for me."
"You can host your zone and name servers here, and keeping track of records is easy."
"One of the best advantages is managed security."
"The initial setup is good and straightforward."
"The main DNS resolution is really, really fast."
"Using Amazon Route 53 is located in a central place in Amazon AWS which makes it easier to manage every DNS entry in one place. You are able to manage your public and private DNS from there. We can create rules based on weight and globalization is impressive."
"Amazon's customer support is very good with a quick response time."
"The scalability is the most valuable feature."
"My overall rating for Cisco Umbrella is ten out of ten."
"It has excellent resilience in cybersecurity. Cybersecurity for my organization is very important because we are a banking organization. We need this security to protect the personal information of our clients. This is very important for our security."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to block users from reaching places that they should not even try to reach has been a boon."
"The reports and notifications are the most useful part of the platform. As soon as you deploy the security layers, the reporting is very comprehensive. It helps you to have, at a glance, a clear view of what's going on."
"Threats never come close to your network with security at the DNS level​."
"Umbrella has helped my IT staff in two ways. First, our security team was able to get more insights into the users, their devices, and the sites they browse. Second, our system administration team was able to manage DNS resolutions in a way that is more accessible and less intrusive to our domain system."
"It offers good visibility for the Administrator. The administrator has full visibility of what is blocked or has the knowledge of where users go when they are surfing the internet."
"The biggest return on investment when using Cisco Umbrella for me is the ease of use of the fact that we've deployed this with our Cisco VPN Secure Client, so every computer has the Umbrella module in it."
 

Cons

"The only area that needs improvement is the pricing for DNS zones. The price is higher than competitors, and Akamai should offer a better pricing model."
"Akamai Edge DNS is expensive, and the pricing is higher compared to Infoblox."
"The only area that needs improvement is the pricing for DNS zones."
"CNAME flattening is a feature that Akamai does not support."
"The solution has a fairly complex setup with our cloud vendors, including Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle."
"The cost calculator for determining the cost of Route 53 is a little bit obscure."
"Route 53 would be better if it had the ability to handle multiple requests at the same time because we have a lot of users. I would like that to be optimized in the next version."
"There isn't room for recommending new configurations."
"Error tracing could be made more intuitive."
"The product should improve its automation."
"The solution’s pricing and technical support could be improved."
"Supporting DNS check is one feature missing in the solution."
"There could be improvements in the configuration process, particularly in the options provided during setup, such as subdomain configurations and certificate management."
"The channel of support needs improvement. It is not under normal Cisco support, and I cannot simply call for support."
"The integration with Cisco could be better."
"One of the issues with Umbrella is as you get into endpoint detection and response, such as EDR point solutions, some of them will not integrate well with Umbrella. Sometimes when you want to use technology, such as Always On VPN, it will not work. There are some looming issues as one type of technology starts to crossover with Umbrella. That is the challenge and Umbrella should find a way to be more compatible with some of the endpoint response solutions that are coming out on the market."
"We need to work on integration as it is very complex."
"It has happened in the past that Cisco Umbrella has denied us access to secure websites."
"If you wish to inspect all the traffic and it's integrated with Cisco AnyConnect, all the traffic basically goes through Cisco AnyConnect, which is not a good idea. That means you need to have more internet capacity as a data sampler, so in the case of a split tunnel, we cannot inspect the traffic that is being migrated through the local internet. I'm not sure whether there is a possibility wherein Cisco Umbrella can also inspect the traffic that is outside the AnyConnect tunnel."
"The solution could be faster as the process is very slow."
"Hopefully, it works with the Canvas and starts feeding results into the AI canvas. That would be excellent."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Since Akamai is the industry leader, I imagine the solution would be a little more expensive than some other vendors."
"It can be expensive compared to some other providers."
"Amazon Route 53 is not that expensive."
"The pricing depends on usage and is moderate."
"The price of Amazon Route 53 is reasonable."
"Amazon Route 53 is an expensive solution."
"Amazon Route 53 is not an expensive solution."
"The tool is a bit expensive."
"The price of the solution could be a little bit lower compared to Google DNS, which has more features than Amazon."
"There is room for improvement when it comes to the cost."
"Its price for us is quite expensive because it's a subscription, and we just use it for the DNS log. So, for us, it's quite expensive."
"The price is quite good."
"I think Cisco Umbrella is priced well. We have a mix of customers with different verticals such as education. We have clients in the commercial space as well. Umbrella is at a good price point for all of our customers."
"The price depends on the use case, and it's a bit linear. But it depends on the customer's strategy and how Cisco plans to optimize the costs."
"You get what you pay for if you break the solution up into tiers."
"Cisco solutions are generally perceived to be rather expensive. We have constant internal discussions as to whether we should offer lower-priced security solutions from some of the competitors."
"I think it's worth the money."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Educational Organization
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
20%
Educational Organization
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Akamai Edge DNS?
It is a very stable solution since it has a security feature that allows you to recover zone files if you accidentall...
What needs improvement with Akamai Edge DNS?
For user experience, Akamai Edge DNS should allow notes to be added for each record, as this is something Infoblox su...
What is your primary use case for Akamai Edge DNS?
As a reseller company for Akamai, my typical use case for Akamai Edge DNS is its distribution worldwide, providing DD...
Azure DNS or Amazon Route 53?
Azure DNS is a hosting service of DNS domains. It has excellent operating time and performance, resulting in fast res...
What do you like most about Amazon Route 53?
The most valuable features of the solution are the DNS, routing, and traffic features.
What needs improvement with Amazon Route 53?
Amazon Route 53 should focus on timeliness and work towards better accuracy. They need to ensure that the threats rep...
Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Zscaler?
Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access are two broad-spectrum Internet security solutions that I have tried. Zs...
Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Microsoft Cloud App Security?
Cisco Umbrella is an integral component of the Cisco SASE architecture. It integrates security in a single, cloud-nat...
What do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?
Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.
 

Also Known As

Akamai Fast DNS
Route 53
OpenDNS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Otto Group
Hess, Expedia, Kelloggs, Philips, HyperTrack
Chart Industries, City of Aspen, Eastern Mountain Sports, FLEXcon, George Washington University, Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, Ohio Public Library Information Network, PTC, Richland Community College, Smart Motors, Tulane University, VeriClaim
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BlueCat and others in Managed DNS. Updated: June 2025.
859,579 professionals have used our research since 2012.