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  5. CloudFlare vs Google Cloud DNS

CloudFlare vs Google Cloud DNS

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

CloudFlare
CloudFlare
Stacks77.3K
Followers23.1K
Votes1.8K
Google Cloud DNS
Google Cloud DNS
Stacks2.4K
Followers572
Votes44

CloudFlare vs Google Cloud DNS: What are the differences?

CloudFlare and Google Cloud DNS are two commonly used services for managing DNS (Domain Name System) settings for websites. While both offer DNS management capabilities, there are key differences between the two.

  1. Pricing: CloudFlare provides a free tier for basic DNS management, with additional features available through paid plans. In contrast, Google Cloud DNS charges based on usage, with pricing varying depending on the number of DNS zones and the volume of DNS queries.

  2. Infrastructure: CloudFlare operates a global network of DNS servers distributed across multiple data centers worldwide. This enables them to deliver fast and reliable DNS resolution. On the other hand, Google Cloud DNS leverages Google's infrastructure, which is known for its scalability and performance.

  3. Integration with CDN: CloudFlare offers not only DNS management but also Content Delivery Network (CDN) services. This integration allows for enhanced website performance, security, and caching. While Google Cloud DNS focuses solely on DNS management and does not provide integrated CDN capabilities.

  4. Traffic Routing: CloudFlare offers advanced traffic routing capabilities through their Traffic Manager. This allows users to distribute incoming requests to different origins based on various criteria such as geographical location, server availability, or performance. Google Cloud DNS does not provide this level of traffic routing functionality.

  5. Security Features: CloudFlare has a strong focus on providing security features for websites, including protection against DDoS attacks, web application firewalls, and SSL/TLS encryption. Google Cloud DNS primarily focuses on DNS management and does not offer the same level of security features as CloudFlare.

  6. User Interface and API: CloudFlare provides a user-friendly web interface and a comprehensive API for managing DNS settings. Google Cloud DNS also offers a web interface and API, but it is more tailored towards developers and may require more technical expertise to fully utilize.

In summary, CloudFlare and Google Cloud DNS offer DNS management capabilities, but they differ in terms of pricing, infrastructure, integration with CDN, traffic routing capabilities, security features, and user interface/API. The choice between the two depends on specific needs and priorities of website owners.

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Advice on CloudFlare, Google Cloud DNS

Eric
Eric

Service Engineer at Zix Corporation

Aug 5, 2020

Needs adviceonAmazon Route 53Amazon Route 53

We are looking for advice / best-practices / caveats about migrating off BIND on to Unbound https://nlnetlabs.nl/projects/unbound/about/ for internal & external (customer-facing) DNS. Is unbound suitable for this, or is it only recommended for caching? How easy or difficult is it to move 10000's of existing BIND DNS zone entries? We already use Amazon Route 53 for our AWS instances and Cloud DNS for our GCP ones, but would like to maintain internal DNS for cost, control, and latency reasons.

58.6k views58.6k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

CloudFlare
CloudFlare
Google Cloud DNS
Google Cloud DNS

Cloudflare speeds up and protects millions of websites, APIs, SaaS services, and other properties connected to the Internet.

Use Google's infrastructure for production quality, high volume DNS serving. Your users will have reliable, low-latency access to Google's infrastructure from anywhere in the world using our network of Anycast name servers.

CDN;WAF (Web Application Firewall);DDOS Protection;
High performance, reliable DNS service;Easy to use, customizable to your needs;Manage records for all your services
Statistics
Stacks
77.3K
Stacks
2.4K
Followers
23.1K
Followers
572
Votes
1.8K
Votes
44
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 426
    Easy setup, great cdn
  • 278
    Free ssl
  • 200
    Easy setup
  • 191
    Security
  • 181
    Ssl
Cons
  • 2
    Expensive when you exceed their fair usage limits
  • 2
    No support for SSHFP records
Pros
  • 9
    Backed by Google
  • 7
    High-availability
  • 6
    Reliable
  • 5
    Anycast DNS servers
  • 5
    High volume
Cons
  • 4
    Lack of privacy
  • 2
    Backed by Google
Integrations
CodeGuard
CodeGuard
Google Analytics
Google Analytics
GoSquared
GoSquared
Clicky
Clicky
UserVoice
UserVoice
SnapEngage
SnapEngage
Blitz
Blitz
Pingdom
Pingdom
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to CloudFlare, Google Cloud DNS?

Amazon CloudFront

Amazon CloudFront

Amazon CloudFront can be used to deliver your entire website, including dynamic, static, streaming, and interactive content using a global network of edge locations. Requests for your content are automatically routed to the nearest edge location, so content is delivered with the best possible performance.

Amazon Route 53

Amazon Route 53

Amazon Route 53 is designed to give developers and businesses an extremely reliable and cost effective way to route end users to Internet applications by translating human readable names like www.example.com into the numeric IP addresses like 192.0.2.1 that computers use to connect to each other. Route 53 effectively connects user requests to infrastructure running in Amazon Web Services (AWS) – such as an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance, an Amazon Elastic Load Balancer, or an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket – and can also be used to route users to infrastructure outside of AWS.

KeyCDN

KeyCDN

KeyCDN offers super fast and secure content delivery for minimal loading time. In addition to the CDN, it also offers advanced image processing and many other features such as live logs and Let's Encrypt SSL.

Fastly

Fastly

Fastly's real-time content delivery network gives you total control over your content, unprecedented access to performance analytics, and the ability to instantly update content in 150 milliseconds.

MaxCDN

MaxCDN

The MaxCDN Content Delivery Network efficiently delivers your site’s static file through hundreds of servers instead of slogging through a single host. This "smart route" technology distributes your content to your visitors via the city closest to them.

DNSimple

DNSimple

DNSimple provides the tools you need to manage your domains. We offer both a carefully crafted web interface for managing your domains and DNS records, as well as an HTTP API with various code libraries and tools. Buy, connect, operate!

jsDelivr

jsDelivr

jsDelivr is a free CDN for open source developers, with advanced features for javascript projects with access to NPM and Github It uses multiple CDN providers, resulting in the best possible uptime and performance.

Dyn

Dyn

An all-in-one Managed DNS service for your registered domain names. Dyn DNS is the perfect solution for your domain name’s DNS needs, whether it is for personal or business use. It gives you complete control over your DNS zone and its associated DNS records, complete with a simple DNS management web interface.

Moovweb XDN

Moovweb XDN

All-in-one platform to develop, deploy, preview, experiment on, monitor, and run your frontend.

DNS Made Easy

DNS Made Easy

DNS Made Easy is a subsidiary of Tiggee LLC, and is a world leader in providing global IP Anycast enterprise DNS services. DNS Made Easy is currently ranked the fastest provider for 8 consecutive months and the most reliable provider.

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