Compare DNS resolver and forwarding services across AWS Route 53 Resolver, Azure DNS, Cloud DNS, and OCI.
Showing 21 of 21 features.
| Feature | AWS | Azure | GCP | OCI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Service Name Core Features | Amazon Route 53 | Azure DNS / Azure Traffic Manager | Google Cloud DNS | OCI DNS / Traffic Management |
DNS Hosting Core Features | Authoritative DNS with global anycast edge network | Authoritative DNS hosting on Azure's global network | Authoritative DNS on Google's anycast network | Authoritative DNS with global anycast points of presence |
DNS Resolution Core Features | Route 53 Resolver for VPC DNS; Resolver Endpoints for hybrid | Azure DNS Private Resolver for VNet; custom DNS forwarding | Cloud DNS policies for VPC; DNS forwarding to on-prem | VCN DNS resolver with custom resolvers and forwarding |
Pricing Model Core Features | Per hosted zone/month + per million queries + health checks | Per zone/month + per million queries; Traffic Manager per million queries | Per zone/month + per million queries | Per zone/month + per million queries; steering policies included |
Query Latency Core Features | Sub-millisecond via 400+ edge locations worldwide | Low latency via Azure's global network infrastructure | Sub-millisecond via Google's global anycast network | Low latency via Oracle's global edge network |
SLA Core Features | 100% availability SLA for Route 53 DNS queries | 100% availability SLA for DNS queries | 100% availability SLA for Cloud DNS queries | 100% availability SLA for DNS queries |
Latency-Based Routing DNS Routing | Latency routing policy routes to lowest-latency region | Traffic Manager Performance routing method | Geolocation-based routing (not latency-native); use Global LB for latency | Traffic Management performance steering policy |
Geolocation Routing DNS Routing | Geolocation routing by continent, country, or US state | Traffic Manager Geographic routing method | Geolocation routing policy in Cloud DNS (by region/country) | Geolocation steering policy by region and country |
Weighted Routing DNS Routing | Weighted routing policy with proportional traffic distribution | Traffic Manager Weighted routing method | Weighted round-robin routing policy | Weighted steering policy for proportional distribution |
Failover Routing DNS Routing | Active-passive failover with health check integration | Traffic Manager Priority routing with health probes | Failover routing policy with primary and backup targets | Failover steering policy with health check triggers |
Multi-Value Routing DNS Routing | Multi-value answer routing returns up to 8 healthy IPs | Traffic Manager MultiValue routing (up to 8 endpoints) | Round-robin across multiple healthy records | Load balancer steering distributes across answers |
IP-Based Routing DNS Routing | IP-based routing for CIDR-range to endpoint mapping | Traffic Manager Subnet routing by client IP range | No native IP-based routing; use firewall rules | No native IP-based routing; use geolocation |
DNSSEC Security | DNSSEC signing for public hosted zones (KSK via KMS) | DNSSEC supported for public zones | DNSSEC signing for public zones with automatic key management | DNSSEC supported for public zones |
Private DNS Zones Security | Route 53 private hosted zones associated with VPCs | Azure Private DNS zones linked to VNets | Cloud DNS private zones for VPC-scoped resolution | Private DNS zones within VCN views |
DNS Firewall Security | Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall with domain lists (allow/deny) | Azure DNS Private Resolver with DNS forwarding rulesets | Cloud DNS response policies for DNS-level blocking | DNS resolver rules for conditional forwarding and blocking |
DDoS Protection Security | Shield Standard automatic protection for Route 53 | Azure DDoS protection for DNS infrastructure | Google infrastructure DDoS protection for Cloud DNS | Built-in DDoS protection for OCI DNS |
Query Logging Security | Route 53 query logging to CloudWatch Logs | Azure Monitor diagnostic logs for DNS queries | Cloud DNS query logging to Cloud Logging | DNS query logging via OCI Logging service |
Health Checks Operations | HTTP/HTTPS/TCP health checks with failover; calculated checks | Traffic Manager: HTTP/HTTPS/TCP probes with custom intervals | No native DNS health checks; use Cloud Monitoring + LB | HTTP/HTTPS/TCP health checks for Traffic Management |
Hybrid DNS Resolution Operations | Resolver Endpoints: inbound (on-prem to AWS) and outbound (AWS to on-prem) | Private Resolver with inbound and outbound endpoints for hybrid | DNS forwarding zones and server policies for hybrid resolution | Custom resolver endpoints with conditional forwarding rules |
Terraform Support Operations | aws_route53_zone, aws_route53_record, aws_route53_resolver_endpoint | azurerm_dns_zone, azurerm_private_dns_zone, azurerm_traffic_manager_profile | google_dns_managed_zone, google_dns_record_set, google_dns_policy | oci_dns_zone, oci_dns_record, oci_dns_steering_policy |
Domain Registration Operations | Route 53 domain registration with auto-renewal and transfer lock | Azure App Service Domains for registration (limited TLDs) | Cloud Domains for registration and management | No native domain registration; use external registrar |
The comparison table is a static, hand-maintained dataset of feature rows tagged by category (Core Features, DNS Routing, Security, Operations); filtering and search narrow the visible rows without a live API call to any provider, verify current routing-policy support and pricing directly with each provider before finalizing a DNS architecture decision.
A comparison of authoritative DNS hosting and VPC-internal resolution across AWS Route 53 (plus Route 53 Resolver for hybrid DNS), Azure DNS (plus Azure DNS Private Resolver), Google Cloud DNS, and OCI DNS. A subtle but important gap: GCP's Cloud DNS supports geolocation-based routing but not true latency-based routing natively, the documented recommendation for latency-sensitive global routing on GCP is to use the Global External Load Balancer instead of trying to force DNS-layer latency routing, whereas AWS Route 53 and Azure Traffic Manager both support native latency-based routing policies directly at the DNS layer.
A workload migrating from Route 53's latency-based routing to GCP shouldn't try to force-fit Cloud DNS geolocation routing as a substitute, evaluate the Global External Load Balancer instead, it's the architecturally correct equivalent, not a DNS-layer policy tweak.
Hybrid DNS forwarding (Resolver Endpoints and equivalents) needs explicit security group / firewall rules allowing DNS traffic (UDP/TCP 53) between the cloud VPC and on-prem network, a commonly missed step that presents as intermittent, hard-to-diagnose resolution failures rather than a clean connection error.
The '100% availability SLA' language across all four providers is specifically about the DNS query-serving infrastructure, it doesn't extend to health-check-based routing decisions being instantaneous or correct, treat health-check-driven failover behavior as a separate reliability concern to validate independently.
Not natively as a DNS routing policy, Cloud DNS supports geolocation-based routing (by region/country) but not a true latency-measurement-based policy. Google's documented guidance for latency-sensitive global routing is to use the Global External HTTP(S) Load Balancer instead, which does perform genuine latency-aware routing, just at the load-balancer layer rather than the DNS layer.
Authoritative DNS hosting (Route 53 hosted zones, Cloud DNS managed zones, etc.) serves the public or private DNS records for domains you own. A resolver (Route 53 Resolver, Azure DNS Private Resolver, Cloud DNS forwarding, OCI's VCN resolver) is about how queries originating inside your VPC/VNet get resolved, including forwarding to on-prem DNS servers for hybrid environments, they're related but distinct pieces of the DNS architecture.
The general shape is similar (per hosted zone/month plus per-million-queries), but exact rates and what counts as a billable query (health-check-triggered queries, for instance) differ per provider, and Traffic Manager/Traffic Steering-style routing policies are sometimes billed separately from base DNS hosting. Check current pricing for the specific routing policy types you're using, not just base zone hosting.
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