# DNSimple vs Amazon Route 53

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/dnsimple-vs-amazon-route53/

Every value below is read from DNSimple's and Amazon Route 53's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | DNSimple | Amazon Route 53 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Entry paid plan | $0.50 per hosted zone per month on Solo, which is free for one user; 50,000 queries per zone per month are included, then $0.80 per million. Teams is $29/month including one seat, with 500,000 queries per zone and $0.60 per million after. | $0.50 per hosted zone per month for the first 25, then $0.10 for each additional zone. Extra record sets within a zone are $0.0015 a month each. |
| Pricing model | Per zone and per query, with the seat free on Solo. Both meters loosen as the plan rises: Teams doubles nothing but raises the included queries tenfold and lowers the overage rate. | Per hosted zone and per million queries, with the zone rate falling fivefold after the first 25 and the query rate halving after the first billion. Health checks and DNS firewall rules are metered separately again. |
| Uptime SLA | None on Solo, stated in those words on the pricing page. Higher plans are where an SLA appears. | 100%. AWS defines the monthly uptime percentage as 100% minus the minutes a hosted zone was unavailable, and any month below 100% earns a service credit — 10% down to 99.99%, 25% down to 99.95%. |

## Where they differ

### Entry paid plan

- DNSimple: $0.50 per hosted zone per month on Solo, which is free for one user; 50,000 queries per zone per month are included, then $0.80 per million. Teams is $29/month including one seat, with 500,000 queries per zone and $0.60 per million after. ([source](https://dnsimple.com/pricing))
- Amazon Route 53: $0.50 per hosted zone per month for the first 25, then $0.10 for each additional zone. Extra record sets within a zone are $0.0015 a month each. ([source](https://pricing.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/offers/v1.0/aws/AmazonRoute53/current/index.json))

### Pricing model

- DNSimple: Per zone and per query, with the seat free on Solo. Both meters loosen as the plan rises: Teams doubles nothing but raises the included queries tenfold and lowers the overage rate. ([source](https://dnsimple.com/pricing))
- Amazon Route 53: Per hosted zone and per million queries, with the zone rate falling fivefold after the first 25 and the query rate halving after the first billion. Health checks and DNS firewall rules are metered separately again. ([source](https://pricing.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/offers/v1.0/aws/AmazonRoute53/current/index.json))

### Uptime SLA

- DNSimple: None on Solo, stated in those words on the pricing page. Higher plans are where an SLA appears. ([source](https://dnsimple.com/pricing))
- Amazon Route 53: 100%. AWS defines the monthly uptime percentage as 100% minus the minutes a hosted zone was unavailable, and any month below 100% earns a service credit — 10% down to 99.99%, 25% down to 99.95%. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/route53/sla/))

## Which should you choose?

Pick DNSimple if Teams that want DNS as a product rather than a loss leader: $0.50 per zone, 50,000 queries each, an API, domain registration and access control — priced openly at every tier including the overage rate.

Pick Amazon Route 53 if A 100% uptime commitment on your nameservers, which only Google matches here, plus the AWS integrations — alias records to load balancers and CloudFront, health checks, and IAM on the zone itself.

Consider something else: DNSimple — The zones are yours and the budget is nothing. Cloudflare and bunny.net charge neither per zone nor per query, and DNSimple's entry plan publishes 'No SLA' in those words — so you are paying for the product and the tooling rather than for a commitment.

Consider something else: Amazon Route 53 — You want DNS to be free. $0.50 a zone and $0.40 per million queries is small until you run hundreds of domains, and Cloudflare and bunny.net charge nothing for either at any volume.

## Documented by only one

- Edge network: DNSimple: Supported
- Query price: Amazon Route 53: $0.40 per million resolver queries for the first billion a month, $0.20 per million above it. Queries to latency-based-routing alias records are free of charge.
- DNSSEC: DNSimple: Supported — Listed under DNS Security beside DDoS protection

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: DNSimple or Amazon Route 53?**

DNSimple: $0.50 per hosted zone per month on Solo, which is free for one user; 50,000 queries per zone per month are included, then $0.80 per million. Teams is $29/month including one seat, with 500,000 queries per zone and $0.60 per million after.
Amazon Route 53: $0.50 per hosted zone per month for the first 25, then $0.10 for each additional zone. Extra record sets within a zone are $0.0015 a month each.

**Should I choose DNSimple or Amazon Route 53?**

Pick DNSimple if Teams that want DNS as a product rather than a loss leader: $0.50 per zone, 50,000 queries each, an API, domain registration and access control — priced openly at every tier including the overage rate.
Pick Amazon Route 53 if A 100% uptime commitment on your nameservers, which only Google matches here, plus the AWS integrations — alias records to load balancers and CloudFront, health checks, and IAM on the zone itself.