DNS Comparison
Edge DNS vs AWS Route 53
A detailed comparison of Edge DNS and Amazon Route 53 for authoritative DNS hosting.
How we compare to Route 53
Route 53 is AWS's DNS service: mature, reliable, and deeply integrated with the rest of the AWS ecosystem. If your infrastructure lives entirely inside AWS, that integration is a real convenience.
The trade-off is pricing complexity and speed. Route 53 charges $0.50 per hosted zone per month before you've answered a single query, $0.40 per million queries after that, and $0.50 per health check on top. Record changes take around 60 seconds to propagate. Edge DNS is free — up to 50 zones with unlimited records and a million queries a month per zone — with health checks included and propagation in under 5 seconds.
Edge also includes the AI DNS Examiner, which analyses your zone configuration automatically — something Route 53 has no equivalent for.
Key Differences
-
Free DNS hosting – Route 53 charges $0.50 per hosted zone, every month -
Faster propagation – <5 seconds vs 60 seconds -
Health checks included – $0.50 per check on Route 53 -
No query metering – 1M queries/month per zone included vs $0.40 per million
Feature Comparison
How Edge DNS and Route 53 compare feature by feature.
| Feature |
Edge
| Route 53 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $0.50/zone + usage |
| Zones Included | Up to 50 | Pay per zone |
| Records | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Query Pricing | 1M/zone/month included | $0.40/million |
| Anycast PoPs | 50+ | 50+ |
| Propagation Time | <5 seconds | 60 seconds |
| DNSSEC | | |
| Health Checks | Included | $0.50/check |
| Geo-routing | | |
| ALIAS Records | | |
| API Access | | |
| DDoS Protection | Unlimited | Limited |
| AI DNS Examiner | | |
Price Comparison
Monthly pricing for common usage scenarios. Route 53's per-zone and per-check fees compound as your footprint grows; Edge's single query rate doesn't.
| Scenario | Edge | Route 53 |
|---|---|---|
| 10 domains, 10M queries/mo | Free | $9 |
| 50 domains, 50M queries/mo | Free | $45 |
| 10 health checks | Included | $5/mo |
| Geo-routing | Included | Per-query premium |
When to Choose Edge
Both are capable DNS providers. Here's when Edge makes more sense.
You manage many domains
Route 53's $0.50 monthly fee per hosted zone adds up fast across a portfolio. Edge DNS is free for up to 50 zones — you pay nothing per domain.
You need changes to land quickly
Edge propagates record changes in under 5 seconds, against 60 seconds on Route 53. For failover and rapid rollouts, that gap matters.
You want predictable, simple pricing
Free — with unlimited records, a million queries a month per zone, and health checks included. No per-zone fees, no per-check fees, no bill-shaped surprises.
Also considering Cloudflare? See how Edge DNS compares to Cloudflare DNS.
Ready to try Edge DNS?
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