# DNSimple vs Google Cloud DNS

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/dnsimple-vs-google-cloud-dns/

Every value below is read from DNSimple's and Google Cloud DNS's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | DNSimple | Google Cloud DNS |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. | No minimum and no plan. A managed zone costs $0.000273973 an hour — about $0.20 a month — and queries are $0.40 per million up to a billion, $0.20 above that. No magnitude is recorded because an hourly zone rate is not a monthly plan fee. |
| 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. | Two meters, one of them hourly. Managed zones are billed per hour — $0.000273973 for the first 25, falling twice above that — and queries by the million, with routing-policy queries priced higher than regular ones. |
| Uptime SLA | None on Solo, stated in those words on the pricing page. Higher plans are where an SLA appears. | 100% for the Google-managed authoritative name servers, stated as a Service Level Objective rather than a percentage below it. |
| DNSSEC | Supported — Listed under DNS Security beside DDoS protection | Supported — Cloud DNS creates and rotates the keys and signs the zone itself |

## 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))
- Google Cloud DNS: No minimum and no plan. A managed zone costs $0.000273973 an hour — about $0.20 a month — and queries are $0.40 per million up to a billion, $0.20 above that. No magnitude is recorded because an hourly zone rate is not a monthly plan fee. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/dns/pricing))

### 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))
- Google Cloud DNS: Two meters, one of them hourly. Managed zones are billed per hour — $0.000273973 for the first 25, falling twice above that — and queries by the million, with routing-policy queries priced higher than regular ones. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/dns/pricing))

### 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))
- Google Cloud DNS: 100% for the Google-managed authoritative name servers, stated as a Service Level Objective rather than a percentage below it. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/dns/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 Google Cloud DNS if An estate already on Google Cloud, where DNS should be another line on the same bill and another resource in the same IAM. Zones are billed by the hour and queries by the million, with no plan to pick and no minimum to clear.

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: Google Cloud DNS — You want to know what a month costs without doing arithmetic. A zone priced at $0.000273973 an hour is roughly twenty cents a month, and routing-policy queries cost nearly twice a regular one — both true, neither obvious, and both free elsewhere.

## Documented by only one

- Edge network: DNSimple: Supported
- Query price: Google Cloud DNS: $0.40 per million regular queries up to one billion a month, $0.20 per million above it. Routing-policy queries — geolocation, weighted round robin, failover — are $0.70 per million, halving to $0.35 past a billion.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: DNSimple or Google Cloud DNS?**

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.
Google Cloud DNS: No minimum and no plan. A managed zone costs $0.000273973 an hour — about $0.20 a month — and queries are $0.40 per million up to a billion, $0.20 above that. No magnitude is recorded because an hourly zone rate is not a monthly plan fee.

**Should I choose DNSimple or Google Cloud DNS?**

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 Google Cloud DNS if An estate already on Google Cloud, where DNS should be another line on the same bill and another resource in the same IAM. Zones are billed by the hour and queries by the million, with no plan to pick and no minimum to clear.