Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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."
"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 can maintain control of the configuration, and it seems to be covering the use case that we need."
"We haven't faced any outages or issues directly related to Route 53. It has been 100% stable for me."
"The main DNS resolution is really, really fast."
"Amazon Route 53 is excellent for those dealing with traffic management and routing services."
"The product integrates with other services from AWS, like Amazon S3 bucket and load balancers. The product can also be used with AWS EC2 Instances, AWS Global Accelerator, Amazon SNS, and AWS Lambda."
"The solution is stable."
"Route 53 is valued for its health check feature and reliability."
"We use Amazon Route 53 for dynamic naming and routing policy."
"The route mapping feature of Route 53 is valuable as it allows me to map services according to our requirements."
"DNS protection, domain blocking, SIP component, and the Cisco Umbrella roaming client are the valuable features of Cisco Umbrella."
"The solution is very easy to manage. We found the initial setup, for example, to be quite simple."
"The Global Block List is one of the most valuable features because it's really easy to block domain names as well as URLs. Sometimes you don't want to block the whole site, you just want to block one URL. The Global Block and Allow Lists are the best features for us."
"The most valuable feature is that it secures our network against blacklisted or malicious websites."
"I like the original functionality, which allows for providing secure DNS services."
"Cisco Umbrella is such a solution and can be implemented very fast and easy. All that we must do is redirect the DNS registers in their routers, or the active directory service of the enterprise that are going to use in Umbrella services. If you buy the service now, in two hours you are protected by the service because it's very fast to put in service."
"Threats never come close to your network with security at the DNS level​."
"It has certainly saved us time. If we go and look at what's rejected on the requests from the hospital itself, it has saved about 5% or 6% time."
 

Cons

"The solution has a fairly complex setup with our cloud vendors, including Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle."
"CNAME flattening is a feature that Akamai does not support."
"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."
"The only area that needs improvement is the pricing for DNS zones."
"Akamai Edge DNS is expensive, and the pricing is higher compared to Infoblox."
"There is room for improvement in restricting access through one website from S3 buckets, as it still seems not very obvious."
"The solution’s pricing could be reduced."
"When we are looking at the model registry, it may be not clear sometimes. For example, if you use a single grid model and group or registry, it has a different SDK in the pilot. And it may be not so comfortable to use both of them because it is two different places for keeping things in order."
"There are no detailed logs, and they should implement that in the solution."
"Streamlining and optimizing processes related to Procter, VPN workflows, and other subjects based on specific needs would allow for continual improvement and adaptation to the evolving requirements of the system."
"Supporting DNS check is one feature missing in the solution."
"A general area for improvement with AWS services is that while AWS quickly releases new services, sometimes these services are not as mature as expected, which can be frustrating."
"The limitations of the tool revolve around the area of monitoring location, especially since the performance and selection options offered by the product are limited."
"There are a couple of interface issues. I know that they say that there are feature enhancements that are noted. For example, we've got the Cisco Meraki security appliances, and there, we geofence our company to where we're allowed to send and receive traffic. So, in our case, by default, we only allow traffic to six different countries, which allows us to effectively prevent traffic for the majority of bad players in the world, but they don't give you an easy way to do that in Cisco Umbrella. With Cisco Meraki, I can specify or pick the countries. I can say that I want to only allow traffic from these six countries, and I'm done. With Cisco Umbrella, I have to rely on the fact that they're going to prevent traffic to other countries. They're going to decide if it's good or bad."
"Sometimes there are some lags, and I have to refresh multiple times to access parts of the dashboards. Sometimes the dashboard pages crash and I'm not sure why, so that's one area for improvement."
"Actually, we recently switched over to Zscaler because it has more features and it's more scalable than Cisco Umbrella."
"The firewall capabilities could be better. Cisco is starting to introduce some layer 7 capabilities now, but there's still some room to grow. They should continue with the development of Umbrella so that it is a full-blown cloud-managed firewall solution."
"For us, as an MSP, the initial licensing changes were a roadblock, and they still could be a lot clearer. Specifically, it's an honor-based licensing system. We'd like it to be more specific to our traffic or our users so that we can make sure that the customer is paying for all their licensing."
"I'm hoping for the conversion of Cisco ZTNA's features from Duo to Umbrella."
"There should be a way to monitor traffic at the user level."
"The locks and management could be better. The product is fairly new, and it may take some time to get all the features up and running."
 

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 an expensive solution."
"Amazon Route 53 is not that expensive."
"The tool is a bit expensive."
"The pricing depends on usage and is moderate."
"The price of the product is perfectly fine in my opinion."
"The price of Amazon Route 53 is reasonable."
"We pay per use."
"The pricing model is easier compared to some of the other solutions, and it is also competitive."
"We did a good negotiation, and at the moment, its price is fine."
"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."
"Cisco Umbrella is expensive and could be cheaper."
"There is room for improvement when it comes to the cost."
"It needs a better price point."
"I am not sure, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I think it's $1.00 or so per device/month."
"Pricing and licensing of Cisco Umbrella is a bit confusing because you have to separate the DNS solution and the full-feature solution. Cisco in Portugal helped us understand which one was the right one for us."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Managed DNS solutions are best for your needs.
859,545 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

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
19%
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.
859,545 professionals have used our research since 2012.