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Amazon Route 53 vs Azure DNS 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
3.6
Amazon Route 53 offers significant ROI through downtime prevention, cost and time savings, security improvements, and enhanced integration.
Sentiment score
4.4
Azure DNS offers reduced costs, high ROI, pay-as-you-go billing, reliability, operational simplicity, and substantial time savings.
Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Umbrella improves security, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness with cloud access, integrating seamlessly and reducing operational costs and malware.
The main factors are time-saving and security, even if the cost is slightly higher.
The ROI is always high because Azure DNS setup is essential and does not incur high charges.
Cisco is a big brand in the networking domain, but in security, they are pushing a lot and improving day by day.
From my point of view, the biggest return on investment when using the solution is that it makes it a lot easier to delegate some of the tasks that were traditionally used, such as building policies on the firewalls and doing it through Cisco Umbrella.
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.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.0
Amazon Route 53 support is highly rated, effective with premium accounts; basic plans face potential delays in response times.
Sentiment score
5.1
Azure DNS support is generally praised for reliability and responsiveness, but experiences vary depending on user plans and outsourced services.
Sentiment score
7.9
Cisco Umbrella excels in support efficiency, but purchasing and real-time support integration need improvement despite good documentation.
Amazon services are very stable, and there are few problems.
Amazon's customer support is very good with a quick response time.
They provide a normal developer level of support, and within twenty-four hours for non-critical issues, which is acceptable for us.
Technical support is minimally required for DNS-related tasks if you have previous experience.
I would rate customer support ten out of ten due to the excellent assistance throughout the POC process.
Cisco's support is fantastic, providing assistance when needed, especially during the initial installation process.
If I don't need to go to support all the time, that means the product is working fine, so I'm very happy with them.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Amazon Route 53 is praised for scalability, seamless integration, quick deployment, and effective auto-scaling despite higher costs.
Sentiment score
7.6
Azure DNS offers exceptional scalability, supporting enterprises of all sizes and up to 400 users, with high user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco Umbrella is scalable, supporting seamless user growth and integration, making it ideal for organizations of any size.
We haven't faced any scalability issues, thanks to its integration with AWS services.
The scalability is maintained by AKS, and Route 53's scalability part is primarily involved with load balancing.
Amazon Route 53 is scalable as I use automation with YML files to handle scalability needs, and it works well.
Cisco Umbrella scales incredibly with the growing needs of my organization.
Cisco Umbrella scales really well with the growing needs of my company, bringing the ability to ensure that people are safe and connected.
Cisco Umbrella scales effectively with the growing needs of my company; it's excellent, and I have experienced no issues.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Amazon Route 53 is praised for its stability, boasting 99.99% uptime, reliable performance, and effective scalability and security features.
Sentiment score
7.9
Azure DNS offers excellent reliability and stability, though some users face installation challenges and scalability needs improvement.
Sentiment score
8.3
Cisco Umbrella is highly reliable, offering consistent performance and high uptime with minor glitches easily resolved.
We use auto-scaling groups to manage load.
The solution is stable.
I have not experienced any outages or downtime.
I have not experienced any major stability issues with Cisco Umbrella.
Cisco Umbrella Secure Access is pretty stable in my mind, and we have not seen many glitches that would have interrupted services at customer locations.
The stability and reliability of the Cisco Umbrella platform have been great.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon Route 53 needs better concurrency, integration, security, user interfaces, pricing transparency, and enhanced routing policies for improved user experience.
Azure DNS needs domain registration, better redundancy, improved documentation, enhanced integration, and clearer pricing to address current shortcomings.
Cisco Umbrella struggles with integration, customization, user interface, and performance, needing improved documentation, security features, and deployment processes.
There could be improvements in the configuration process, particularly in the options provided during setup, such as subdomain configurations and certificate management.
They need to ensure that the threats reported on are actual threats.
There is room for improvement in restricting access through one website from S3 buckets.
Making it more flexible and easy to deploy, particularly when integrating with other technologies like Active Directory and proxies, would be beneficial.
The product can only shield a small area, making it less effective for larger spaces or multiple users.
I have to write an email to Umbrella support to get assistance, unlike the other products where I can call the Cisco technical assistance center and get an engineer.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon Route 53 offers scalable, usage-based pricing; enterprises find it reasonable, yet some users seek clearer cost estimation.
Azure DNS is cost-effective with flexible, usage-based pricing and free queries, often included in broader Azure agreements.
Enterprise buyers appreciate Cisco Umbrella's security but have mixed opinions on its pricing, citing flexibility and potential cost issues.
Route 53 is more expensive.
The pricing of Route 53 is slightly higher compared to other services, however, it is justified by its high availability and reliability.
Azure DNS charges based on the number of zones enabled, offering some free queries monthly, which keeps costs low.
We've bundled that with our firewall stuff and our VPN, which brings the price down and adds the ability to grow.
The only cost associated is the license cost unless additional solutions need to be integrated with Umbrella, which would incur extra costs.
The prices need to be lower as the current pricing is exceedingly high.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon Route 53 simplifies DNS management with scalability, integration, and reliability, enhancing internet exposure for applications with robust security.
Azure DNS ensures secure, integrated DNS management with automation, private zones, traffic management, and low-latency global resolution.
Cisco Umbrella features robust security, seamless deployment, granular control, enhancing hybrid work protection and compliance with ease of use.
I find Amazon Route 53 valuable for its ability to manage DNS records and efficiently route traffic with features like failover routing and geolocation routing.
They do not alert on non-actionable items, making their alerts reliable and focused on concerns that matter.
Amazon Route 53 is beneficial for managing traffic and domain names, offering features like latency-based routing and multi-deployment options.
Azure DNS provides end-to-end P2P connectivity and enhances security, making it more secure and reliable.
The DNS layer security provided by Cisco Umbrella is very effective for our security posture, offering us vast improvements in visibility over DNS queries and potential threats.
The most valuable feature of Cisco Umbrella is its DNS security.
The best possible thing is that it is very easy to deploy, easy to configure, and very fast to get onboarded with a customer because this is a cloud-based service.
 

Mindshare comparison

Managed DNS Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Amazon Route 537.3%
Cloudflare33.8%
Quad932.5%
Other26.400000000000006%
Managed DNS
Managed DNS Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Azure DNS8.0%
Cloudflare33.8%
Quad932.5%
Other25.700000000000003%
Managed DNS
Domain Name System (DNS) Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Umbrella20.6%
Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection19.3%
Palo Alto Networks DNS Security11.5%
Other48.599999999999994%
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

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…
Dieudonné-Nsabimana - PeerSpot reviewer
Overall experience improves efficiency and lowers operational challenges
* Add native management routing (geo‑routing, failover, weighted records) directly within Azure DNS zones to reduce dependency on extra services. * Cost Efficiency: Offer bundle pricing tiers or discounts for high‑volume enterprise customers, or an option for cost‑optimized internal DNS zones. * Improved Error Diagnostics: Provide more descriptive error codes and guided troubleshooting steps in the portal or CLI.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
5%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business49
Midsize Enterprise30
Large Enterprise51
 

Questions from the Community

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?
For Amazon Route 53, improvements I see include the need for a DNS firewall and a domain-based SSL checker security f...
What do you like most about Azure DNS?
The tool is easy to manage and use.
What needs improvement with Azure DNS?
* Add native management routing (geo‑routing, failover, weighted records) directly within Azure DNS zones to reduce d...
What is your primary use case for Azure DNS?
I have worked with AWS solutions, such as AWS Application Migration Service, Snowball and also provided great feedbac...
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

Route 53
No data available
OpenDNS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hess, Expedia, Kelloggs, Philips, HyperTrack
M-Files
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: September 2025.
871,358 professionals have used our research since 2012.