DNS is one of the essential parts of your network as its main function is keeping your website visible on the internet and easily discoverable by a web browser. DNS provides your website with a binary number that translates into an IP address making the browser read them correctly. By optimizing the website’s DNS lookups, developers can save the time of visitors waiting for the website to load.
DNS, in simple terms, is the primary address book of the internet. It helps in directing users to different websites on the internet. Whenever an individual uses the internet, they are interacting with the DNS. There are several DNS providers, and as a website owner, you need to know which DNS server is best for you. In this article, we will provide you with a list of the most reliable DNS servers in 2021.
List of the Best DNS Servers in 2021
Typically, the ISP provides a DNS, which in most cases has a slow speed as providing high-speed DNS isn’t the ISP’s top priority in the first place. But it is the most crucial part of the website building and can make or break your online presence while affecting the user experience as well. Given below, we have the list of DNS providers who care about the speed and the reliability of your DNS connection as they use global points of presence (POP). These DNS providers can also provide high-speed lookups for both home and office-based usage.
1. Cloudflare DNS
We are starting our list of best DNS servers with Cloudflare DNS, which has scored excellent numbers in our independent audits. It is one of the providers which applies sensible layers of privacy and protection to keep a website secured against attacks. In addition to this, it’s an overall winner when it comes to performance. Their public DNS servers are well-constructed, and the web infrastructure it uses is developed by a reputed company. The usage of reverse proxy and CDN services makes Cloudflare the most prominent web infrastructure provider. This is why having their DNS service is a bonus for a website.
Features
- To decrease the latency, Cloudflare uses a decentralized cache served by its Global Anycast network, and this service is available for free.
- Both the resolvers and the precursors are on the same network. As a result, any queries put up by the user are solved in a short time.
- Users have the freedom of choice between selecting IPv6 and IPv4 addresses, as it supports DNS64.
- There’s a dedicated application that website owners use to get assistance in case some issue arises. Also, the app provides a built-in VPN protocol.
Cloudflare’s DNS is free to use, and honestly, the company does ask you to pay for the basic DNS needs. We have chosen it to be our first on the list because of its usability, flexibility, and security. At the same time, the DNS servers of Cloudflare keep a close eye on the privacy of their websites which is constantly tested by third-party audits.
2. Google Public DNS
If you are already using a DNS service and want to take a trial of the other without paying a penny, then Google Public DNS is for you. It is faster and more secure than your common ISPs. The main reason behind Google introducing their public DNS servers is because DNS providers were running out of steam as they can’t keep up with the multiple lookups from the complex web pages. Like the Cloudflare DNS service, Google also uses a recursive DNS resolver that communicates with several DNS servers before returning to the origin.
Features
- Google takes the assistance of load-balances and large cache systems on incoming query traffic to make sure the server can answer most of the queries directly from the cache.
- It’s a future-proof DNS server, which is ready to handle queries that come from both IPv4 and IPv6 networks. As a result, it returns queries with IPv6 addresses even if the destination requires IPv4.
- Google DNS service supports DNSSEC, which is legal protection against any vulnerabilities.
- It can also resolve addresses over the encrypted HTTPS connection to add an extra layer of privacy and security.
With Google’s DNS service, clients are only getting DNS resolution. If one is looking for something more aggressive that can control the amount of traffic on a website and provides blocking features, they need to look for something else.
3. Comodo Secure DNS
Comodo Secure has its limits but if you can work under those limitations, you are getting one of the best DNS services, which are based on a web filtering solution. Mainly its services are used for the deployment of online wallets of all sizes. There are two services that Comodo offers. The first one being completely free, which is a public DNS server, and the second option is the Secure Internet Gateway (SIG), which gives several management functionalities in addition to the public DNS server.
Features
- The Comodo DNS service is backed by Comodo’s worldwide network of redundant DNS servers.
- On the other hand, SIG service uses load-balanced Anycast DNS servers, which are distributed across 25 different countries.
- With the free SIG gold version, users get the power of customizing various aspects of DNS protection, and it can also be used to protect laptops and smartphones from online attacks.
- Moreover, SIG comes with higher security features that can be used to block phishing, malware domains, and malicious websites. It can also tackle botnets along with Command and Control events that can be used to hack a server along with the websites hosted by it.
- Users get the freedom to customize the policies for individual IP addresses if they wish to.
One thing users need to know is the SIG Gold DNS service from Comodo doesn’t encrypt the DNS traffic though it certainly offers various web filtering options. It’s an excellent DNS service to use if the website doesn’t cross the threshold of 300,000 DNS queries.
4. Quad9
Quad9 is a DNS server that is run by a non-profit entity named Global Cyber Alliance. The company was formed to help organizations to reduce cybercrime. The company then joined hands with IBM and Packet Cleaning House (PCH) to protect online users from malware that is spread by malicious domains. Quad9 is a free DNS domain service that works to provide users with a safe place on the internet so they don’t end up landing on malicious web pages, which could lead to phishing, C2 command and control domains, exploit kit compromised domains, etc.
Features
- Quad9 uses the Anycast traffic routing to send requests for queries from computers to the nearest geolocated servers.
- The servers are located in 145 locations which span over 88 different countries.
- Quad9 said one-fifth of the world’s top-level domains were being supported by their DNS.
- It also uses the PCH assets in its server in addition to the Point of Presence in 201.
- To keep the legitimate domains out from getting blocked, the server uses whitelisting algorithms.
- The service supports both the latest IPv6 network and IPv4.
- Lastly, the servers don’t log the IP address of the users who have visited the domains present on the server.
On the other hand, Quad9 doesn’t support DNS64 to translate IPv6 exclusive networks to IPv4. The main reason why someone wants to use Quad9 over anything else is the protection from malicious content. The performance takes a minor hit due to all the different protection protocols which are implemented on the server. If blocking malware at the DNS is crucial for your business, then the Quad9 DNS service is made just for you.
5. Rackspace
Rackspace offers web hosting, cloud hosting, along with dedicated server plans that have data centers located in different parts of the globe. It allows the configuration of their cloud plans using Openstack, AWS, and Azure. Also, Rackspace gives users the control via Cloud Control Panel and API to add, remove or modify domains and their subdomains in the server.
Features
- Automated migrations are done by using the formatted zone file based on the BIND-9 system.
- It has IP Anycast routing, which is helpful in providing the highest uptime to servers.
- The Cloud DNS comes with an account for each user, and it is compatible with RackConnect and with Cloud Load Balancers.
- Likewise, DNS service is completely free but only for its existing customers.
- The RESTful API works as a cloud control panel that can be used to modify the settings.
Rackspace is the one DNS service provider which gives total control of DNS in the hands of the user. With its API, users can make a number of changes in the DNS setting which is not possible in any other way.
6. CISCO Open DNS/ Cisco Umbrella
Cisco, in 2015 has acquired OpenDNS, which is a free as well as a commercial DNS server. The free home-based version is named Open DNS while the one dedicated for enterprise use is labeled as Cisco Umbrella. The company provides three different products for home users, the first one is entirely free, and the other two are paid products.
Features
- The end-user with the OpenDNS plans can enjoy the filtered content.
- Open DNS comes with pre-configured filters, which allow content blocking.
- The top tier plan comes with phishing protection along with keeping users secure from malware ingested domains.
- Both Windows and macOS systems can be protected using an OpenDNS server when the devices are connected through untrusted networks.
- It supports both IPv4 and IPv6, but there is no mention of DNS64 support.
With the assistance of the Umbrella dashboard, users get granular control over the access of the internet from multiple devices. In case you are interested in purchasing the premium subscriptions of the DNS service, you must have a Windows or macOS system as the dashboard doesn’t work with Linux systems.
7. Verisign DNS
This public DNS server promises stability, security, and privacy. Verisign DNS makes sure that users are always connected to the internet and don’t encounter any downtime when they are using its server. The company does come up with several security features to keep the websites free from malware attacks and phishing links.
Features
- Verisign DNS doesn’t sell information of users to third-party harvesting companies, and at the same time, it doesn’t redirect user queries to ad links.
- It doesn’t log any queries, so there will be no user tracking.
Verisign DNS servers reply to billions of internet queries each day, and it has 13 sets of root servers from A Root to J Root. It is the only company on the internet that has more than one set of servers for its DNS protocols.
8. Neustar
Neustar is said to be both a public and premium recursive DNS service provider. The free version of the DNS service is UltraDNS Public. While users interested in its premium version need to consider the UltraDNS Firewall. There is no trial period for the premium version, which is a disappointment. The Neustar has a network with over 30 DNS nodes that are spread across six different continents, and they are capable of handling the load of 100 million queries per second. If we do the maths, that’s a workload of 9 trillion queries every single day.
Features
- The servers provide lower latency and come with almost instant cache updates for the zones which are hosted by Neustar.
- There are multiple layers of blocking malware and other security threats, these range from filtering out websites to blocking malicious domains that are previously known for propagating malware.
- Parents can use secure family protection to shield children from accessing adult content.
- If there are some domains that are miscategorized as harmful domains, users can submit a dispute to get it unlocked as well.
- It works with both IPv4 and IPv6 network connections.
Neustar has gone old with time as it doesn’t encrypt the DNS traffic, and its policy of retaining and collecting data doesn’t sound too confident even on papers.
9. Oracle
Oracle’s managed DNS an essential part of its range of cloud-based products. It takes care of all the domains that the customers are using. As a result, when it is deployed, it gets in direct contact with the company’s online customers. The service can also be used as a primary external DNS hosting provider due to its failover feature and higher uptime.
Features
- The user interface of Oracle’s Dyn management system is pretty impressive, resulting in users spending less time searching for the buttons and working on the changes that they want to perform on the server.
- The whole step up and the configuration of the DNS server are quick in comparison to others DNS servers.
- All the changes that are done manually by the user with the help of Oracle Dyn get propagated to the server quickly.
- Both the power users and the newcomers can promptly understand the functionality of the Oracle DNS server.
- If there are any issues, the support staff quickly responds to the problem and tries to solve them as soon as possible.
Companies that are pretty frequent in updating their DNS and need to have a propagation that suits their business model need to consider Oracle DNS service. The ability to drop down TTLs to less than 30 seconds allows the migration to be a piece of cake. The DNS active Failover provided by Oracle is an excellent alternative for those companies who are looking for high availability but don’t want to spend too much money on other technologies.
Conclusion
To have the optimal speed of the server and get the best of security out of it, users need to optimize their DNS server. A lot of people are trying to find a way to reduce their milliseconds of upload time, but those who want to have the best internet experience will indeed be looking for the optimization of their DNS servers.
If it comes to us to recommend two DNS service providers from our list, then we would definitely go with the Google DNS service and Comodo Secure DNS. Today, DNS protection has to be there to keep internet users safe from malware and cyberattacks. Also, these DNS services will surely help you in achieving total security with top-notch performance along with the highest uptime.
People are also reading: