IBM NS1 Connect vs Managed DNS Services comparison

Why PeerSpot?

IBM and DNS Made Easy are both solutions in the Managed DNS category. IBM is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3, while DNS Made Easy is ranked #16. IBM holds a 3.1% mindshare in MDP, compared to DNS Made Easy’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of DNS Made Easy users who would recommend it.

IBM NS1 Connect

Read 20 IBM NS1 Connect reviews

3,381 Views
3,212 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Managed DNS Services

Read 1 Managed DNS Services review

893 Views
893 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM NS1 Connect

Managed DNS Services

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM NS1 Connect and Managed DNS Services based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BlueCat and others in Managed DNS.

To learn more, read our detailed Managed DNS Report (Updated: October 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Managed DNS

October 2026

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Helped 920,769 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

IBM NS1 Connect

Ranking in Managed DNS

4th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Domain Name System (DNS) Security (9th)

Managed DNS Services

Ranking in Managed DNS

16th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Managed DNS category, the mindshare of IBM NS1 Connect is 3.1%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Managed DNS Services is 1.1%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed DNS Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
IBM NS1 Connect	3.1%
Managed DNS Services	1.1%
Other	95.8%

Managed DNS

Featured Reviews

reviewer2889387

Associate Software Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees

Intelligent traffic steering has improved uptime and now needs simpler policies and support

The best features IBM NS1 Connect offers include the authoritative DNS filter chain, traffic steering policies, and endpoint health monitoring, along with its API-first automation and DNS reporting, which are all some of the most valuable features. Out of those features, I find myself relying on the traffic steering policies the most because we detect the endpoints and steer new DNS responses towards healthy alternatives. This is very helpful because whenever there is a massive amount of requests coming into the region or to the server, and for a better user interface and customer experience, we should not show the user that the server is down. We can reroute the request to the server nearest to that region, making it an important capability. The authoritative DNS ensures DNS queries for domains and reliable DNS resolution are essential for users, particularly to discover application endpoints, but it alone does not guarantee this. The API-first automation automates DNS configurations and changes through APIs and infrastructure as code workflows, reducing repetitive manual work and the risk of human error. The DNS reporting and analytics help teams understand query volume, traffic distribution, and unusual behavior under the support of troubleshooting and capacity planning.

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Vijay Muddu

Manager server admin and security at Vivaconnect

Cost-effective and helpful in the updation of DNS records

I improve the uptime of my company's website by opting for free DNS-related services offered by Google and other vendors, which are available in the market. You need services like Amazon Route 53, AWS, or DNS Made Easy when you want fast resolutions and updates. I can use some free DNS services like GoDaddy if terms of request come into my website, but its resolution is slow. DNS Made Easy helps me with the DNS query in a very fast manner. DNS Made Easy works very fast if any changes I want to make, especially in scenarios where I change my server ID in the DNS records in GoDaddy. Within a fraction of a second, it globally updates the DNS records so that my new server can reach everywhere. The valuable feature of the product to manage high traffic volume stems from the fact that the DNS resolution part is good and very fast. The DNS updation part is also very fast. The DNS records are very quickly updated. The tool also provides a failover option. With the automatic failover option, users can configure the DNS automatic failover to multiple DNS records, where if one of my nameservers fails, it is possible to switch to another nameserver. I can add multiple IPs to my single domain, and if one of my IPs fails, it can use the automatic failover for my present IP. The product provides help during failovers and helps add multiple nameservers. The tool updates DNS records very fast while also serving the DNS queries at a fast rate. The GoDNS feature of the product has impacted my company's global website performance since it works at a very fast rate. As soon as you update any of the IPs, the GoDNS feature works at a drastically super fast speed. If I want to change my website's IP right away, the GoDNS feature takes only 10 seconds to update the IPs at a global level. The API integration is not an area I used to streamline our company's DNS management process since I prefer to use the dashboard manually. The product is very cost-effective compared to other products in the market, like AWS or Amazon Route 53. The transition time offered by the product is super fast. Those people who don't want to spend much money on cloud services offered by AWS or opt for other third-party services that may be very expensive can opt for DNS Made Easy since it is a fast and cost-effective solution. I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Their Pulsar filters allow us to collect RUM metrics from our users so that we can determine the best paths for our users to take. That has been very useful in providing the best user experience, and for responding to and recovering from downtime of our multiple CDNs."

"The authoritative DNS ensures DNS queries for domains and reliable DNS resolution are essential for users, particularly to discover application endpoints, and the API-first automation automates DNS configurations and changes through APIs and infrastructure as code workflows, reducing repetitive manual work and the risk of human error."

"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 you need an external DNS provider, NS1 has been a really good provider for us, giving us exactly what we were looking for and with more functionality than we need for the moment, functionality that we can buy additionally."

"IBM NS1 Connect can manage itself and try to scale automatically, helping me reach my goals of 99% uptime instead of experiencing problems reaching the network."

"The best benefits of using IBM NS1 Connect are the performance and availability of the product towards the cloud, and when comparing the performance with other products, I believe it is above par, as it is really helpful and gives me at least a 20 to 30% improvement in functionality."

"Overall, it has helped to improve our end-user experience."

"The auto DNS traffic routing helps during deployment or incidents by providing more reliability and faster performance."

More IBM NS1 Connect pros

"It is a very robust and stable solution."

Cons

"We care about monitoring and telemetry work, and NS1 provides a pretty good system for monitoring. We can monitor our endpoints and points of presence around the world. If there are any issues, we can easily remove them from our network, but this area needs some improvement because it is not always reliable in NS1. In the past, we had a number of false-positive cases when the monitoring system told us about some problems in our infrastructure that were not true. NS1 is improving the system, and we are constantly talking about this with them. I know that they are releasing a new version of their monitoring system, which is really important for us, but this is a different area where we would expect them to improve."

"I would like to see the UI updated to allow me to do finer searches."

"We use our client in our infrastructure to communicate with NS1. This client is a bit complex in the way that it is set up. NS1 has their own client solution that you can deploy into your platform to do this, but even that is a bit complex. So, I would like a very simple, thin, light API agent that we can deploy into our platform to communicate with NS1. That would be welcome."

"I would love to see improvement in the testing capabilities they provide."

"The Filter Chain setup is a bit hard to grasp at first."

"IBM NS1 Connect has a very steep learning curve in terms of learning the custom filter chains and the complex multi-region setup, which requires a specialized DNS expert and can be difficult for beginners."

"There could maybe be additional ways to manage traffic. There are no major improvements we're looking for. It's a very complete solution."

"Our experience with customer support has been mixed; while some team members are really helpful and responsive, there have been instances where responses to complex technical issues are slower because they need to evaluate and provide support."

More IBM NS1 Connect cons

"The tool fails to offer load-balancing options compared to products like Azure or Amazon Route 53."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of this product is one of the reasons that we chose it."

"Everything can always be cheaper, but as it is today the pricing is fair."

"From a cost standpoint, it's certainly not the most expensive out there, and it's also not the cheapest, but it does well to balance the cost and the functionality/reliability."

"We pay about $30,000 a month. We used to pay about $20,000 with Dyn every month, for lower volume than we're doing right now, but it had none of the features that we have available with NS1, so it was worth it for us. It seems competitive for us, given that we're doing 4.5 billion requests."

"NS1's pricing is much more aggressive than its competitors in the market and you get more value out of what you pay for it."

"The tool offers paid services at a very cost-effective rate."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	16

No data available

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with NS1 Managed DNS?

IBM NS1 Connect has a very steep learning curve in terms of learning the custom filter chains and the complex multi-region setup, which requires a specialized DNS expert and can be difficult for be...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for NS1 Managed DNS?

IBM NS1 Connect serves as our managed authoritative DNS and traffic steering service, which is highly reliable, and its performance is excellent for a global Anycast network. For a specific example...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering NS1 Managed DNS?

Regarding IBM NS1 Connect's AI capabilities, I think its governance and security are great as it's a SaaS-based solution, and the governance is also good. While we haven't had a very close connecti...

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Comparisons

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Compared 24% of the time

Amazon Route 53 vs IBM NS1 Connect

Compared 17% of the time

Akamai Edge DNS vs IBM NS1 Connect

Compared 11% of the time

Constellix DNS vs IBM NS1 Connect

Compared 7% of the time

BlueCat Integrity vs IBM NS1 Connect

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM NS1 Connect Competitors

Dyn vs Managed DNS Services

Compared 21% of the time

Cloudflare vs Managed DNS Services

Compared 11% of the time

BlueCat Integrity vs Managed DNS Services

Compared 11% of the time

Hurricane Electric Free DNS vs Managed DNS Services

Compared 7% of the time

Akamai Edge DNS vs Managed DNS Services

Compared 6% of the time

More Managed DNS Services Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM NS1 Connect

October 2026

Download IBM NS1 Connect product report

Buyer's Guide

Managed DNS

October 2026

Download Managed DNS Services product report

Also Known As

NS1 Managed DNS, NS1

No data available

Overview

IBM NS1 Connect delivers comprehensive DNS management with features like DNSSEC, low latency, and intelligent traffic routing. It integrates seamlessly with automation tools, making it ideal for improving infrastructure management.

IBM NS1 Connect offers a robust DNS management platform combining security, speed, and reliability. Its API-driven functionality allows for seamless integration with Terraform and other tools, enhancing geolocation-aware capabilities and real-time performance monitoring. Smart Domains ensure optimal routing, while Pulsar boosts user experience. Real-time telemetry and intelligent traffic routing minimize load times, contributing to efficient service delivery and application uptime. Recommendations for improvement include enhancing DNS timeout resolutions and providing educational resources for networking novices.

What are IBM NS1 Connect's key features?

DNSSEC: Enhances security by protecting DNS information.
Low Latency: Ensures faster DNS query responses.
API-driven Functionality: Facilitates easy integration with tools like Terraform.
Real-time Telemetry: Provides up-to-date performance insights.
Intelligent Traffic Routing: Directs traffic for optimized user experience.
Pulsar: Enhances performance with smart routing algorithms.
Filter Chains: Offers customizable rules for traffic handling.
Secondary DNS: Ensures redundancy and disaster recovery.

What benefits should users look for?

Cost-effectiveness: Reduces infrastructure costs by leveraging cloud hosting.
Improved Application Uptime: Minimizes downtime with reliable DNS management.
Faster Provisioning: Speeds up infrastructure setup and updates.
Reliable Metrics: Provides accurate performance data for informed decision-making.
Enhanced User Interface: Offers a straightforward navigation experience.

In healthcare, IBM NS1 Connect enhances CDN routing and facilitates efficient DNS management. Financial institutions leverage its geo-load balancing capabilities for secure transaction processing. E-commerce brands use its low latency and automation features to improve website responsiveness and reduce error rates. Telecom companies benefit from its API integration, allowing for seamless upgrades and network optimizations.

IBM

Managed DNS Services provide scalable and reliable DNS infrastructure, enhancing domain availability and performance. By leveraging automated solutions, businesses ensure efficient DNS management, reducing downtime and improving user access.

Organizations seeking robust DNS management choose Managed DNS Services for their superior security, redundancy, and ease of use. They offer extensive control and automation, simplifying DNS setup and adjustments, saving time and resources. With global reach and advanced features, Managed DNS enables seamless configurations and optimizes DNS processes.

What are the key features of Managed DNS Services?

Scalability: Supports large volumes of DNS queries without performance dip.
Security: Provides features like DDoS protection to safeguard data.
Redundancy: Ensures continuous uptime with backup servers.
Automation: Simplifies manual processes to improve efficiency.
Global Load Balancing: Distributes traffic for optimal website performance.

What benefits should you look for in Managed DNS Services reviews?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces direct costs related to DNS management.
Enhanced Site Performance: Improves website response times and availability.
Increased Security: Offers protection against DNS attacks and threats.
Improved User Access: Ensures quick and reliable access to online services.

Managed DNS Services see widespread industry use, from e-commerce to finance, ensuring fast, uninterrupted online customer engagement. In retail, these services help maintain high-traffic websites with consistent uptime. In healthcare, they ensure secure, swift access to critical resources, compliance with privacy standards being a priority.

DNS Made Easy

Sample Customers

Avast Software, Bloomberg L.P., BBC, Carfax, CNBC LLC, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Disney Streaming, Dropbox, EBAY Inc, Gannett Media Corp, Salesforce, Wayfair, Workday

Information Not Available

Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BlueCat and others in Managed DNS. Updated: October 2026.

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