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Amazon Route 53 vs Azure DNS vs Cloudflare 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
4.4
Amazon Route 53 offers cost-effective, reliable DNS management, delivering ROI through downtime prevention, security, and integration, despite higher costs.
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
6.5
Cloudflare enhanced speed, security, and data protection, providing significant ROI and improved operations and client satisfaction for businesses.
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.
WordPress security can be tricky, and that's where Cloudflare can be absolutely helpful for small businesses.
For the small project I was working on, using the basic tier provided a huge improvement at zero cost.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.7
Amazon Route 53 support is generally positive, with high ratings and knowledgeable staff, but varies by support tier and plan.
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
7.0
Cloudflare's customer service is efficient for paying users, but responses can vary in speed and effectiveness for others.
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.
This would help us address issues promptly, especially during unforeseen events like DDoS attacks.
Cloudflare does not offer hands-on technical support to fix customer problems but rather a self-service model.
The key factor is the language in which the support is offered, which, in this case, is in Thai.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Amazon Route 53 is highly scalable and efficiently handles diverse needs, praised for integration despite some 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
Cloudflare is praised for seamless scalability, managing enterprise-level traffic efficiently and earning high customer satisfaction during peak events.
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.
It is a SaaS tool, but the fact that they have workloads deployed across the world proves that it is a highly scalable tool.
The tool offers very good performance, even during high-traffic periods.
I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Amazon Route 53 is highly stable with consistent performance, minimal downtime, and is preferred for scalability and security.
Sentiment score
7.9
Azure DNS offers excellent reliability and stability, though some users face installation challenges and scalability needs improvement.
Sentiment score
7.6
Cloudflare is widely regarded as stable and reliable, with improvements noted in uptime and performance on higher plans.
We use auto-scaling groups to manage load.
The solution is stable.
I have not experienced any outages or downtime.
For DDoS protection, I would not recommend Cloudflare.
I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.
The service is very stable with no impacts during high-traffic periods.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon Route 53 needs better concurrent request handling, interface, integration, security, error tracing, and simpler pricing and configuration.
Azure DNS needs domain registration, better redundancy, improved documentation, enhanced integration, and clearer pricing to address current shortcomings.
Cloudflare requires improvements in analytics, CDN speed, API, technical support, DNS management, documentation, pricing clarity, and international and reseller support.
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.
There's a need for improvement in areas like AI-based DDoS attacks and Layer 7 WAF features.
Despite these challenges, overall, Cloudflare remains the preferred solution compared to Azure, AWS CloudFront, and Google Cloud Armor.
Cloudflare should add more documentation and pricing to the cloud version.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon Route 53 offers flexible, scalable pricing but may be costly compared to Google DNS and GoDaddy for certain features.
Azure DNS is cost-effective with flexible, usage-based pricing and free queries, often included in broader Azure agreements.
Cloudflare offers cost-effective, scalable plans with no setup fees, starting from free for small businesses to enterprise-level solutions.
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.
That's where Cloudflare shines for smaller businesses – it's ten times cheaper than Akamai.
I find it to be cheap.
I think they should consider reevaluating the pricing for support, as it can be quite high.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon Route 53 offers scalable DNS services with seamless AWS integration, robust features, user-friendly interface, and cost-effectiveness.
Azure DNS ensures secure, integrated DNS management with automation, private zones, traffic management, and low-latency global resolution.
Cloudflare enhances security, speed, and SEO with easy-to-use features like CDN, SSL, DDoS protection, and centralized management.
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 most valuable features of the solution are performance and security.
Techniques like minification and image compression reduce the size of assets, leading to better performance and faster user load times.
The solution has been able to compare it to the market, and I think the product has taken great strides in automating quite a bit of things, and they use a lot of AI.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Managed DNS category, the mindshare of Amazon Route 53 is 6.4%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure DNS is 6.9%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cloudflare is 34.5%, down from 35.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed DNS
 

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.
Carlos Alam Hernandez Baruch - PeerSpot reviewer
Fast and secure deployments simplify operations for government and fintech clients
It is a fast and secure DNS. It is very easy to deploy, and my customers are happy with this tool. Additionally, the CDN performance in Mexico is excellent, providing fast service and tools. It offers reliability during high-traffic periods, ensuring no impact on the environment. It helps my clients avoid using on-premise boxes, simplifying operations as they only use the prices on Cloudflare.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Managed DNS solutions are best for your needs.
865,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user68487 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 6, 2013
CloudFlare vs Incapsula: Web Application Firewall
CloudFlare vs Incapsula: Round 2 Web Application Firewall Comparative Penetration Testing Analysis Report v1.0 Summary This document contains the results of a second comparative penetration test conducted by a team of security specialists at Zero Science Lab against two cloud-based Web…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
5%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
Amazon Route 53 should focus on timeliness and work towards better accuracy. They need to ensure that the threats rep...
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 best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GR...
Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?
Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service...
What do you like most about Cloudflare?
Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Route 53
No data available
Cloudflare DNS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hess, Expedia, Kelloggs, Philips, HyperTrack
M-Files
Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BlueCat and others in Managed DNS. Updated: August 2025.
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