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Amazon Route 53 vs IBM NS1 Connect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

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
8.0
IBM NS1 Connect improved performance, reduced costs, and enhanced efficiency through automation, benefiting application uptime and customer experiences.
The main factors are time-saving and security, even if the cost is slightly higher.
Technical Owner at Harman International
 

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
9.1
IBM NS1 Connect offers exceptional customer support with expert guidance, responsiveness, and reliability, consistently exceeding customer expectations in DNS services.
Amazon's customer support is very good with a quick response time.
AWS Cloud Architect at WHY Global Services
Amazon services are very stable, and there are few problems.
Cloud Specialist at TCL Tech
They provide a normal developer level of support, and within twenty-four hours for non-critical issues, which is acceptable for us.
Technical Owner at Harman International
 

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
8.3
IBM NS1 Connect efficiently scales to meet traffic demands with automation, low error rates, and global operational reliability.
We haven't faced any scalability issues, thanks to its integration with AWS services.
AWS and DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Amazon Route 53 is scalable as I use automation with YML files to handle scalability needs, and it works well.
.Net Developer at Freelance
Scalability became more challenging as they expanded the product line.
Architect at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

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
8.2
IBM NS1 Connect offers high stability and reliability, with minimal downtime and excellent performance even during high-demand situations.
We use auto-scaling groups to manage load.
AWS and DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I have not seen any hiccups or issues with Amazon Route 53.
Lead Software Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I have not experienced any outages or downtime.
Software Engineer - Backend at InfinID • FullTime
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon Route 53 needs better concurrency, integration, security, user interfaces, pricing transparency, and enhanced routing policies for improved user experience.
IBM NS1 Connect can improve by enhancing API, bulk changes, traffic management, DNS configurations, testing, and dashboard usability.
There could be improvements in the configuration process, particularly in the options provided during setup, such as subdomain configurations and certificate management.
AWS and DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
They need to ensure that the threats reported on are actual threats.
Architect at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Error tracing could be made more intuitive.
Software Engineer - Backend at InfinID • FullTime
 

Setup Cost

Amazon Route 53 offers scalable, usage-based pricing; enterprises find it reasonable, yet some users seek clearer cost estimation.
IBM NS1 Connect provides competitive, value-driven pricing, satisfying enterprises with fair costs for high request volumes and advanced features.
Route 53 is more expensive.
Cloud Specialist at TCL Tech
The pricing of Route 53 is slightly higher compared to other services, however, it is justified by its high availability and reliability.
AWS and DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

Amazon Route 53 simplifies DNS management with scalability, integration, and reliability, enhancing internet exposure for applications with robust security.
IBM NS1 Connect offers geo-load balancing, automation, and real-time telemetry with integration capabilities, enhancing performance and user experience.
They do not alert on non-actionable items, making their alerts reliable and focused on concerns that matter.
Architect at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
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.
.Net Developer at Freelance
It aids in better DNS management and facilitates routing to internal services that can identify IP addresses.
Lead Software Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Route 53
Ranking in Managed DNS
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM NS1 Connect
Ranking in Managed DNS
12th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Managed DNS category, the mindshare of Amazon Route 53 is 10.1%, up from 7.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM NS1 Connect is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed DNS Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Amazon Route 5310.1%
IBM NS1 Connect1.4%
Other88.5%
Managed DNS
 

Featured Reviews

NV
Technical Lead - Cloud at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Security and monitoring features enhance website protection and DNS management effortlessly
For Amazon Route 53, improvements I see include the need for a DNS firewall and a domain-based SSL checker security feature. DNS security is the most important part for me. I feel that whenever you host any kind of website, the first and most important thing is to protect it with a valid SSL. The secure socket layer is essential for the HTTPS green lock in the browser. If I forget to deploy SSL on a website and if my domain hosting is under Amazon Route 53, there should be a mechanism that Amazon Route 53 protects the insecure website using SSL, a thing that the end user does not know whether the SSL certificate comes from the domain, meaning from Amazon Route 53 or from the website.
Adam Surak - PeerSpot reviewer
VP of Infrastructure & Security at Algolia
Handles customer-facing records and upstream selection logic with good efficiency
We leverage two things from Managed DNS that we couldn't do with any other solution. One is their filter chain technology, which allows us to shift some of the intelligence we need for the traffic steering to the DNS. The second one is data sources, which enables us to manipulate multiple records simultaneously using NS1's internal message DOS. In our case, we are trying to direct the traffic in over 150,000 different NS1 records to an arbitrary set of repeating responses. If we have about 1,000 endpoints, that translates to around 150,000 records. Assuming there's an even distribution, so every time a server fails or an endpoint goes on a level, we would have 150 updates. With NS1, we have one, so this had an even more significant effect. There are situations where we have thousands of specific records sharing the same responses. In that case, there is one update instead of thousands and thousands. When we chose Managed DNS in 2014, it was the only solution that could do what we wanted, but I'm not sure about the current state of the market. The NS1 API is an API on top of a managed DNS. It's not an afterthought. It's not like the solution existed. Someone was sending updates by email. Then a product manager came along and said, "Hey, there is this cool thing. It's called an API. Maybe we should do it?" And they are like, "Okay. Let's do it." In the case of NS1, they thought about how to use an API to manipulate and retrieve the stuff. It's supposed to be API-driven. Also, NS1 doesn't have hidden features that would not be available over the API. Even their dashboard is built on top of the API. You can leverage all the functionality programmatically. That's what we do. We don't use their native integrations because we have been customers before these integrations and real-time telemetry existed. Our solution isn't leveraging either of those. Instead, we leveraged their API integration, which was the first thing that existed. Indeed, the API is at the core of how we use Managed DNS. No one goes to the dashboard or manually clicks anything. Everything goes via the API, and we perform hundreds of changes every minute. The API automatically drives everything, so that's the integration we leverage. We don't use the Pulsar Active Steering feature because we don't have a website. Our solution is being used as an API for other solutions. You can put the Pulsar agent on the website and feed NS1 the information. In our case, we are integrating into third-party sites. We cannot put our JavaScript on their websites for NS1 to provide the data, so we don't.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
5%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
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
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
 

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 resolution. We like the ability to view everything in the Azure portal - this makes...
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?
I do not see any areas for improvement with Amazon Route 53 at the moment.
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

Route 53
NS1 Managed DNS, NS1
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hess, Expedia, Kelloggs, Philips, HyperTrack
Avast Software, Bloomberg L.P., BBC, Carfax, CNBC LLC, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Disney Streaming, Dropbox, EBAY Inc, Gannett Media Corp, Salesforce, Wayfair, Workday
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Route 53 vs. IBM NS1 Connect and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.