Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Akamai Edge DNS vs Amazon Route 53 vs Cisco Umbrella comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Mindshare comparison

Managed DNS
Managed DNS
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

JF
High availability ensures robust protection against DDoS attacks
The high availability of Akamai Edge DNS is impressive due to their numerous POPs, which help in supporting all attacks, including DDoS counterattacks. It offers scalability, which allows me to improve and manage various DNS zones efficiently. The deployment process is very easy and straightforward for our organization. Akamai provides support in Portuguese, which is crucial for me.
Jithin Scaria - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides clear documentation, easy to understand, simplifies management and efficiently handles our domain-related configurations and DNS records
For initial setup, we generally use provisioning tools for these kinds of DNS records. The choice often depends on the cloud provider and the Infrastructure as Code (IAC) tools the client prefers. We adapt our approach accordingly rather than focusing on a single method within Route 53. The documentation is very user-friendly. Even someone with no prior experience can easily understand it. It provides step-by-step instructions and explains things in a clear and concise way. You can find everything you need to know about Route 53 and its features in the documentation, including white papers. In addition to manual configuration, you can also use third-party tools like Terraform, Pulumi, or AWS CloudFormation templates to manage your Route 53 configurations.
Rohan Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Protects endpoints wherever they are, always pushing people to the right locations to avoid malicious intent
The most valuable thing is how easy it is to deploy. We did it with 9,000 users at my last job, and it took a week to get to all the endpoints. Doing that without having to physically touch all those endpoints was very simple. The single pane of glass management makes it very easy to manage your rollout. We get a lot of "single panes of glass" and, eventually, you need a pane of panes of glass. But it's always good to have a clear and graphical view, and Umbrella's is nice and easy to read. Definitely, of the panes of glass that we do have, it's one of the easiest to use. The single pane of glass is good to group users together and separate people out. Some people need different types of security. Some people are more vulnerable. Some have more highly valuable assets, like C-suite people. It's really good to be able to have end-users defined inside of that. You don't have to jump around. You don't have to figure out who's who. It's all done through one pane of glass. What most people don't realize is that it's running in the background, which is a really nice aspect when it comes to security. Often, when you deploy a security tool, it takes up CPU performance. Everything slows to a grind. But Umbrella is so simple and easy and it doesn't affect the end-user experience. It's the best of all worlds. It's nice when people realize that they're being protected when they go to the wrong site. I think people are happy that they're protected, but it's nice that they rarely notice it. It's generally easy to maintain network connectivity, but with Umbrella, the nice part is that whichever connectivity you're on, you're always secure. With Umbrella, as long as you're online, you're going to be protected.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The high availability of Akamai Edge DNS is impressive due to their numerous POPs, which help in supporting all attacks, including DDoS counterattacks."
"It is a very stable solution since it has a security feature that allows you to recover zone files if you accidentally delete them."
"We can maintain control of the configuration, and it seems to be covering the use case that we need."
"I haven't had any problems with the stability of Akamai Edge DNS in the past five years."
"Its user-friendly interface and compatibility with other AWS services make it valuable."
"The solution effectively monitors the health of resources and provides good identity access management."
"The tool's health check functionality improved our company's service reliability since it is a good feature."
"The tool's most valuable feature is in the area of domain registration and routing DNS."
"Route 53 is straightforward both via the console and API, providing ease of use."
"It stands out for its user-friendly interface, seamless integration with other AWS services, and ability to efficiently manage DNS, making it a valuable tool for various deployment scenarios, including those involving Kubernetes on AWS."
"Amazon Route 53 is easy to manage and install."
"The route mapping feature of Route 53 is valuable as it allows me to map services according to our requirements."
"Any time someone went off the network, the AnyConnect client had the Umbrella agent built in, and it would realize when their computer connected that they were not on the corporate network. It would monitor and they would have pretty close to the same rules that they had to follow when they were in the office, regarding what kind of website browsing they could do."
"We like Cisco Umbrella because of DNS security. It's one step ahead of whatever we are using for regular web filtering. In that way, it's more secure than other web filtering products."
"Using this solution has meant that we've needed to make fewer firewall changes."
"Cisco is a very efficient and on-point solution that controls the whole network and settings on one page. We can monitor the entire network."
"It has excellent resilience in cybersecurity. Cybersecurity for my organization is very important because we are a banking organization. We need this security to protect the personal information of our clients. This is very important for our security."
"The most valuable features are the protection against ransomware and phishing."
"We've found it to be stable and good for our customers."
"Cisco Umbrella is a totally different solution. They are the first to come up with this idea of security. It's a totally new concept of security for everybody, for every time, real time, perfectionism."
 

Cons

"CNAME flattening is a feature that Akamai does not support."
"The only area that needs improvement is the pricing for DNS zones. The price is higher than competitors, and Akamai should offer a better pricing model."
"The only area that needs improvement is the pricing for DNS zones."
"The solution has a fairly complex setup with our cloud vendors, including Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle."
"The tool's support services lack chat options offered to users, making it an area where improvements are required."
"Streamlining and optimizing processes related to Procter, VPN workflows, and other subjects based on specific needs would allow for continual improvement and adaptation to the evolving requirements of the system."
"There isn't room for recommending new configurations."
"The limitations of the tool revolve around the area of monitoring location, especially since the performance and selection options offered by the product are limited."
"The platform is more complicated to learn than one of its competitors."
"The product should improve its automation."
"There is room for improvement in restricting access through one website from S3 buckets, as it still seems not very obvious."
"It is difficult to manage the product if the person involved in the setup process doesn't know much about the solution."
"It would be better if there was a little bit of flexibility for organizations that don't have SD One in their environment. Because of the complexity of the environment, it's not easy to actually turn on the feature of the secure internet gateway for our users. We have not been able to explore that option yet."
"I think it's a very basic solution, and because of that, Cisco Umbrella would not be a suitable solution for large companies."
"If the virtual appliances could also gather traffic bandwidth reports, that would be great."
"Data reporting could be improved."
"Client delivery and client updates should be improved. Client delivery was not as easy as expected. Another area for improvement is the integration of escalation procedures for security issues."
"Looking at the full umbrella suite in the light of SASE, Secure Access Service Edge, they are clearly lacking in the inline CASB."
"I would like for their support to be faster."
"The integration with other solutions is a little complex. If you want to integrate with something like ArcSight or LogRhythm or Splunk, you need to do a lot of configuration. There are no easy ways to implement it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Since Akamai is the industry leader, I imagine the solution would be a little more expensive than some other vendors."
"Amazon Route 53 is not an expensive solution."
"Amazon Route 53 is not that expensive."
"The pricing depends on usage and is moderate."
"The price of the solution could be a little bit lower compared to Google DNS, which has more features than Amazon."
"It can be expensive compared to some other providers."
"The price of Amazon Route 53 is reasonable."
"Amazon Route 53 is an expensive solution."
"The price of the product is perfectly fine in my opinion."
"Cisco Umbrella is expensive and could be cheaper."
"Cisco has a model called ELA. With ELA, if you buy the solution you will have the complete security portfolio and you can pay it yearly or after three years, it depends on the contract."
"The pricing model is easier compared to some of the other solutions, and it is also competitive."
"The licensing fee is paid on a yearly basis."
"Cisco uses subscription models for the pricing and there are three subscription plans."
"Cisco is expensive. For example, we are looking at Nexus Dashboard, and it's costing about 250,000 euros. I ask, "What do I get from it?" I'm still not convinced that we have to spend on it, so pricing is a problem."
"Cisco should make the solution cheaper."
"You get what you pay for."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Managed DNS solutions are best for your needs.
849,475 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
18%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
25%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Akamai Edge DNS?
It is a very stable solution since it has a security feature that allows you to recover zone files if you accidentall...
What needs improvement with Akamai Edge DNS?
The only area that needs improvement is the pricing for DNS zones. The price is higher than competitors, and Akamai s...
What is your primary use case for Akamai Edge DNS?
I have experience with all Akamai products because I use all of them, including Edge DNS, API Security, and App and A...
Azure DNS or Amazon Route 53?
Azure DNS is a hosting service of DNS domains. It has excellent operating time and performance, resulting in fast res...
What do you like most about Amazon Route 53?
The most valuable features of the solution are the DNS, routing, and traffic features.
What needs improvement with Amazon Route 53?
There is a need for technical knowledge to use Amazon Route 53 effectively. If a person without much technical backgr...
Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Zscaler?
Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access are two broad-spectrum Internet security solutions that I have tried. Zs...
Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Microsoft Cloud App Security?
Cisco Umbrella is an integral component of the Cisco SASE architecture. It integrates security in a single, cloud-nat...
What do you like most about Cisco Umbrella?
Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy.
 

Also Known As

Akamai Fast DNS
Route 53
OpenDNS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Otto Group
Hess, Expedia, Kelloggs, Philips, HyperTrack
Chart Industries, City of Aspen, Eastern Mountain Sports, FLEXcon, George Washington University, Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, Ohio Public Library Information Network, PTC, Richland Community College, Smart Motors, Tulane University, VeriClaim
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Quad9 DNS and others in Managed DNS. Updated: March 2025.
849,475 professionals have used our research since 2012.