Best Free DNS Hosting Providers
Last Updated: 13th September 2021
Anycast DNS
An anycast IP address is where 1 IP is connected to more than 1 server. Users will be routed to the server that is closed to them reducing response times. Anycast IP's are utilised within DNS networks so that they can provide low response times globally. If your audience is worldwide you will want to consider having an anycast DNS provider to improve loading times.
DNSSEC
DNSSEC adds an additional layer of trust on top of the DNS system by adding cryptographic signatures to existing DNS records. This ensures the record wasn't modified, protecting against DNS injection and man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks.
Cloudflare have a detailed post on DNSSEC here: https://www.cloudflare.com/dns/dnssec/how-dnssec-works/
Secondary DNS
When running a website where availability is important a secondary DNS provider could be a good idea. This provides two benefits, if one provider goes down the other one is still there to answer your DNS queries, it can also speed up response times as the secondary provider may be the quickest for some users.
The two DNS servers typically run in tandem, one will be the main (master) and the other is the secondary (slave). The webmaster configures the records on the main server these are then synchronised with the secondary server via an AXFR (Authoritative Zone Transfer) record.
Query Limits
Some DNS providers offer a free plan but they often come with a cap on the number of DNS queries typically between 300k and 3M. I decided not to include these as they are freemium plans and you don't want to be stressing about the number of queries.
Provider Comparison
| Provider | Uses Cloudflare | Network | DNSSEC | Secondary Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984.is | ❌ | 🇮🇸/🇳🇱/🇬🇧 | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cloudflare | ✅ | 🌎 | ✅ | ❌ |
| DigitialOcean | ✅ | 🌎 | ❌ | ❌ |
| HE.net | ❌ | 🌎 | ❌ | ✅ |
| Hetzner | ❌ | 🇩🇪 | ❌ | ✅ |
| Linode | ✅ | 🌎 | ❌ | ✅ |
| Vultr | ❌ | 🌎 | ✅ | ❌ |
🌎 = Global Anycast Network
Check response times with dnsperf.com
DNS Marketshare
| Provider | Percentage |
|---|---|
| GoDaddy DNS | 50% |
| Cloudflare DNS | 16% |
| Amazon Route 53 | 4% |
| Google Cloud DNS | 3% |
| Google Domains | 3% |
| Data from Datanyze on 20th July 2021 |
