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Amazon Route 53 vs Azure DNS 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
Amazon Route 53 provides ROI through downtime prevention, efficiency improvements, security enhancements, and justifies its cost with quality.
Sentiment score
7.8
Azure DNS offers an 8% ROI with cost efficiency, reduced OpEx, pay-as-you-go pricing, and reliable functionality.
Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco Umbrella improves security, reduces costs, and enhances productivity, offering quick ROI and increased efficiency with threat prevention.
The main factors are time-saving and security, even if the cost is slightly higher.
The ROI is always high because Azure DNS setup is essential and does not incur high charges.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.1
Amazon Route 53 offers effective support, but premium plans improve experiences; basic plans might limit engagement and satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.8
Azure DNS support is generally positive, with varying response times and quality based on the support plan and region.
Sentiment score
8.0
Cisco Umbrella is praised for efficient support and extensive resources, with minor delays in email and purchasing processes.
Amazon's customer support is very good with a quick response time.
Amazon services are very stable, and there are few problems.
They provide a normal developer level of support, and within twenty-four hours for non-critical issues, which is acceptable for us.
Technical support is minimally required for DNS-related tasks if you have previous experience.
I would rate customer support ten out of ten due to the excellent assistance throughout the POC process.
Cisco's support is fantastic, providing assistance when needed, especially during the initial installation process.
The support channel isn't like the usual Cisco support where I could call instantly for a hardware issue like a router or switch.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Amazon Route 53 is highly rated for its scalability, reliability, and efficient integration, though some find it costlier.
Sentiment score
8.4
Azure DNS is praised for its scalability, ease of setup, and reliability, making it ideal for diverse business needs.
Sentiment score
8.1
Cisco Umbrella offers scalable, cloud-based infrastructure, enabling easy deployment and management across diverse organizational sizes globally.
We haven't faced any scalability issues, thanks to its integration with AWS services.
Amazon Route 53 is scalable as I use automation with YML files to handle scalability needs, and it works well.
The scalability is maintained by AKS, and Route 53's scalability part is primarily involved with load balancing.
Cisco Umbrella is scalable for our company.
It is a scalable solution but requires improvement in specific areas.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Amazon Route 53 is highly reliable, rated 99.99% stability, with rare downtime, enhanced by advanced routing features.
Sentiment score
8.2
Azure DNS is praised for its stability and robust performance, with minor installation challenges noted by fewer users.
Sentiment score
8.3
Cisco Umbrella is praised for its excellent stability, high uptime, and reliability despite rare minor connectivity issues.
Have not faced significant downtime due to its reliability.
I have not experienced any outages or downtime.
The solution is stable.
I have not experienced any major stability issues with Cisco Umbrella.
I will give stability a score of seven, as there are some glitches from time to time.
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek improvements in handling requests, logging, UI, security, pricing, support, configuration, integration, automation, and domain support in Route 53.
Azure DNS needs improvements in registration, support, security, scalability, pricing clarity, documentation, integration, performance, and multi-cloud functionality.
Cisco Umbrella needs improved integration, user experience, reporting, and regional data centers for better security and network performance.
There could be improvements in the configuration process, particularly in the options provided during setup, such as subdomain configurations and certificate management.
There is a need for technical knowledge to use Amazon Route 53 effectively.
In my project, everything is already configured, and we focus on monitoring and health checks.
I have to write an email to Umbrella support to get assistance, unlike the other products where I can call the Cisco technical assistance center and get an engineer.
Making it more flexible and easy to deploy, particularly when integrating with other technologies like Active Directory and proxies, would be beneficial.
The product can only shield a small area, making it less effective for larger spaces or multiple users.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon Route 53 offers scalable, usage-based pricing; considered reasonable for reliability but complex for high-demand sites.
Azure DNS offers cost-effective, usage-based pricing with seamless Azure integration, including free query allowances and charges for extra usage.
Cisco Umbrella pricing is fair yet expensive, with flexible plans, negotiable discounts, and complex scalability for large enterprises.
The pricing of Route 53 is slightly higher compared to other services, however, it is justified by its high availability and reliability.
Route 53 is more expensive.
Azure DNS charges based on the number of zones enabled, offering some free queries monthly, which keeps costs low.
The prices need to be lower as the current pricing is exceedingly high.
The only cost associated is the license cost unless additional solutions need to be integrated with Umbrella, which would incur extra costs.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon Route 53 excels in scalable DNS management, traffic routing, AWS integration, security, cost-effectiveness, and global domain management.
Azure DNS provides easy installation, security, integration, robust performance, and flexible domain management with a user-friendly interface.
Cisco Umbrella offers DNS-based protection, web filtering, and integration, enhancing security and productivity for hybrid work environments.
I find Amazon Route 53 valuable for its ability to manage DNS records and efficiently route traffic with features like failover routing and geolocation routing.
Route 53 is valued for its health check feature and reliability.
Amazon Route 53 is beneficial for managing traffic and domain names, offering features like latency-based routing and multi-deployment options.
Azure DNS provides end-to-end P2P connectivity and enhances security, making it more secure and reliable.
The most valuable feature of Cisco Umbrella is its DNS security.
The DNS layer security provided by Cisco Umbrella is very effective for our security posture, offering us vast improvements in visibility over DNS queries and potential threats.
The most valuable aspect is that it is hosted with Cisco and can detect any new anomalies, acting almost like an XDR.
 

Mindshare comparison

Managed DNS
Managed DNS
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Santhosh Varghese - PeerSpot reviewer
A reliable DNS service, easy to deploy, with no maintenance
I give the solution a nine out of ten. I have worked with probably five, or six clients in the last two to three years in consulting. Almost every one of them is using Azure DNS. I would say make use of Azure DNS. It is a very good solution. Rather than you try to build your own DNS. There are several ways you can build your own DNS. You can put your domain controller in Azure and install DNS on the domain controller because it is domain-integrated, Active Directory-integrated DNS. But that's not required now because there is DNS as a solution. So, you just deploy that service and you're up and running. Instead of putting your own servers in the cloud and trying to replicate your on-premise DNS, just make yourself a built-in DNS service.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
19%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
25%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What do you like most about Azure DNS?
The tool is easy to manage and use.
What needs improvement with Azure DNS?
I did not see any improvements required. It functions as a standard DNS, which is very important, and it does not nee...
What is your primary use case for Azure DNS?
In network-related tasks, I use this DNS to ensure proper end-to-end connectivity.
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

Route 53
No data available
OpenDNS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hess, Expedia, Kelloggs, Philips, HyperTrack
M-Files
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.
849,335 professionals have used our research since 2012.