So i got an e-mail from EveryDNS warning that they are moving on from the freemium model into the dyndns paid DNS (they were merged or acquired some time ago), that’s cool, i guess, i was only using them as backup DNS for Hostcult, since that domain runs pretty much all our hosting (so if it fails 90% of my sites start failing), before i was just using my domain registar DNS ( ResellerClub ) and they pretty much failed a lot on me over time (with glitches, maintenance, performance issues), so having a backup DNS was a pretty good idea, so with this e-mail from the now defunct EveryDNS, i think i have a opportunity to check my options (and in the process share them with you all).
So why not choose a professional/paid DNS? well if i don’t find a good alternative, them ill probably pay for it, but DNS is such a thing that 95% of the time im running it myself on each server, i only really need dns for off server domains or for my main hosting domain, so checking the free alternatives seems like the place to start, so i’m doing a showdown between: Hosted VS ResellerClub VS InternetBS VS NameCheap VS CloudNS VS Hurricane Electric VS PointHQ VS XName VS CloudFlare.
Added info for the tables:
Europe Avg: A 24 hour average from my computer in Europe.
Monitoring Avg: A weekly average from Pingdom DNS (From 2 locations in Europe and USA), 5min intervals.
Monitoring Spike: The worst performance for that week from Pingdom DNS (From 2 locations in Europe and USA), 5min intervals.
Uptime: If it was online or not.
Location: where the DNS server is.
Local DNS
| Europe Avg | Monitoring Avg | Monitoring Spike | Uptime | Location | |
| ns3.hostcult.com | 170 | 129 | 419 | 100% | USA, TX |
| ns4.hostcult.com | 166.5 | 109 | 325 | 100% | USA, TX |
Notes: Running on Cpanel, Complete DNS functions.
Restrictions: None.
Comments: Well running your own DNS isn’t perfect but its simple and doable, the client when doing a DNS query will have a quicker time, connecting again to the site (since both are in the same place), also changes to DNS are done quicker, overall good if you are hosting the sites on the same place as the DNS, and not that important the reliability, since if the server is down, the DNS being up or down is irrelevant.
| Europe Avg | Monitoring Avg | Monitoring Spike | Uptime | Location | |
| ns11.hostcult.com | FAIL | 112 | 301 | 100% | USA, TX |
| ns12.hostcult.com | FAIL | 98 | 293 | 100% | USA, TX |
| ns13.hostcult.com | FAIL | 105 | 283 | 100% | USA, TX |
| ns14.hostcult.com | FAIL | 82 | 258 | 100% | USA, TX |
Notes: Didn’t get any response from my own tests >_<, Average Control Panel, Complete DNS functions.
Restrictions: Its only available for domains hosted there.
Comments: Humm ResellerClub is my main domain registrar, and my current main dns host, but like i said above and as you can see on the tests, ResellerClub leaves a lot to be desired, its average at best, normally not so good, it also doesn’t help that all of their servers are in the same place.
| Europe Avg | Monitoring Avg | Monitoring Spike | Uptime | Location | |
| mercury.orderbox-dns.com | FAIL | 93 | 275 | 100% | USA, TX |
| venus.orderbox-dns.com | FAIL | 77 | 219 | 100% | USA, TX |
| earth.orderbox-dns.com | FAIL | 88 | 212 | 100% | USA, TX |
| mars.orderbox-dns.com | FAIL | 118 | 363 | 100% | USA, TX |
Notes: Didnt get any response from my own tests >_<, Average Control Panel, Complete DNS functions.
Restrictions: Its only available for domains hosted there.
Comments: Much like the Branded, the Un-Branded DNS is kinda slightly better, that makes it even more disappointing since i use the branded, ResellerClub is average at best, normally not so good, it doesn’t help as well that all their servers are in the same place.
| Europe Avg | Monitoring Avg | Monitoring Spike | Uptime | Location | |
| ns-canada.topdns.com | 175 | 88 | 245 | 100% | Canada, QC |
| ns-usa.topdns.com | 133.5 | 91 | 205 | 100% | USA, NJ |
| ns-uk.topdns.com | 109 | 74 | 176 | 100% | USA, TX |
Notes: Average control panel, Complete DNS Functions, although ns-uk has uk in the name, its actually hosted in USA, weird…
Restrictions: Its only available for domains hosted there.
Comments: Well InternetBS is also one of my domain registrars, and i can say im pleasantly surprised, even though my own test weren’t awesome, the weekly average shows that they perform pretty well, so kudos to InternetBS for a solid DNS Service.
| Europe Avg | Monitoring Avg | Monitoring Spike | Uptime | Location | |
| freedns1.registrar-servers.com | 95.5 | 78 | 200 | 100% | FAIL |
| freedns2.registrar-servers.com | 95.5 | 82 | 188 | 100% | FAIL |
| freedns3.registrar-servers.com | 178 | 72 | 187 | 100% | Germany |
Notes: Good Control Panel, Complete DNS Functions.
Restrictions: None.
Comments: My last and least used domain registrar was surprising, not only do they provide DNS services for free to anyone, but the performance was outstanding, they clearly know what they are doing, this is one of the best candidates to this point, excellent job.
| Europe Avg | Monitoring Avg | Monitoring Spike | Uptime | Location | |
| ns1.cloudns.net | 60 | 86 | 190 | 100% | FAIL |
| ns2.cloudns.net | 160.5 | 88 | 242 | 100% | USA, TX |
| ns3.cloudns.net | 112.5 | 72 | 233 | 100% | Bulgaria |
Notes: Good Control Panel, Complete DNS Functions.
Restrictions: Free for only 3 Domains.
Comments: Cloudns has a good panel and a pretty good DNS performance, even tough a bit weird, clearly their ns1 performs awesomely well, while the other 2 are a bit more weak, also hosting DNS in Bulgaria is just plain weird, you should keep DNS near major backbone transit facilities, that’s what i think.
| Europe Avg | Monitoring Avg | Monitoring Spike | Uptime | Location | |
| ns1.he.net | 232.5 | 119 | 265 | 100% | USA, CA |
| ns2.he.net | 229 | 196 | 740 | 100% | USA, CA |
| ns3.he.net | 234 | 194 | 712 | 100% | USA, CA |
Notes: Average Control Panel, Complete DNS Functions.
Restrictions: None.
Comments: Hurricane is kinda horrible in everything, clearly putting all their DNS servers in their facilities in California, doesn’t help little old me half way across the world or anybody else for that matter.
PointHQ DNS (No Longer Recomended!)
| Europe Avg | Monitoring Avg | Monitoring Spike | Uptime | Location | |
| dns1.pointhq.com | 63 | 111 | 242 | 100% | FAIL |
| dns2.pointhq.com | 133.5 | 110 | 238 | 100% | FAIL |
| dns3.pointhq.com | 228.5 | 92 | 210 | 100% | FAIL |
| dns4.pointhq.com | 63.5 | 96 | 225 | 100% | FAIL |
| dns5.pointhq.com | 67 | 73 | 186 | 100% | FAIL |
Notes: Good Control Panel, Complete DNS Functions.
Restrictions: Free for only 10 zones.
Comments: PointHQ has some servers closer, some server further away, still pretty good performance overall, but i wonder, normally a browser checks the first nameserver or it just chooses randomly, so you want a excellent first nameserver performance and then good performance from all the secondary ones, with PointHQ we don’t have that, if my browser checks dns3 im gonna have to wait 3 times more than if i was lucky and it choose dns4, so yeah, its ok i guess.
Update: Yeah its now fully paid! And they kinda screwed their users, so i would skip this one!
| Europe Avg | Monitoring Avg | Monitoring Spike | Uptime | Location | |
| ns0.xname.org | 83 | 79 | 302 | 100% | France, Paris |
| ns1.xname.org | 69 | 106 | 336 | 100% | France, Roubaix |
| ns2.xname.org | 109.5 | 118 | 311 | 100% | France, Villeneuve |
Notes: Good Control Panel, Complete DNS functions.
Restrictions: None.
Comments: Xname has been around for some time, and it shows, in a good way, they have some great performance, and i find it even more remarkable because all their DNS is in France, but USA monitoring still was quick, that just shows that you don’t need to put DNS servers across the world to give good performance, good job.
| Europe Avg | Monitoring Avg | Monitoring Spike | Uptime | Location | |
| carl.ns.cloudflare.com | 175.5 | 70 | 235 | 100% | FAIL |
| sue.ns.cloudflare.com | 178.5 | 65 | 173 | 100% | FAIL |
| lady.ns.cloudflare.com | 178 | 71 | 203 | 100% | FAIL |
| todd.ns.cloudflare.com | 176.5 | 93 | 245 | 100% | FAIL |
Notes: Basic Options, Lacks DNS Functions.
Restrictions: None.
Comments: What is cloudflare doing here? well cloudflare can also host you DNS, you can disable their CDN system, so basically you can use it as a pure DNS host, that’s why its here, so i have to say its weird, on my personal tests it goes from blazing fast 62 to 284 that’s why it has that average, also their system is probably a distributed one, as it doesn’t matter what dns server i point to, it will always reach the same place, probably they are leveraging their own CDN for their DNS hosting, and that’s a good thing, check the weekly average, that’s some impressive performance, with cloudns and namecheap with close results, probably cause all 3 are leveraging some sort of CDN cloud system as well, still it seems inconsistent at times and the lack of full DNS features, kinda kills it from the start, but still something to watch out for the future.
Conclusion
So what am i going to use, well most likely ill go with Namecheap and maybe Xname or Cloudns as backups, Namecheap clearly has a combination of full features and outstanding DNS performance, and also a namebrand you can trust with something as important as DNS.
As a sidenote, good job everyone, 100% UPTIME!!! YAY!!! (i include myself on this, so *pat pat* on the back) also i know this review is a bit unfair, DNS is more than these checks, and everyone can have a bad day, you just need a DDOS on one of the nameservers and bye bye average, also there are tons of providers missing, but i choose these ones according to popularity and namebrand, since that makes this choice of providers a bit more trustworthy, still i think this is a good broad view of them and good enough for me to make my choice.
