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Alibaba Cloud DNS:Edition comparison

Last Updated:Dec 02, 2025

Purchase a Public Zone instance subscription for a higher availability Service-Level Agreement (SLA), a shorter Time-to-Live (TTL), and enhanced security protection for your domain name resolution. This service is ideal for individual or enterprise users with specific DNS requirements.

Edition comparison

Important
  • You can purchase DNS security services to increase the peak limit for DNS resolution and prevent resolution failures when the number of requests reaches the peak value.

  • In scenarios that require frequent batch changes to DNS records, you can use the DNS record backup feature to quickly revert resolution changes if errors occur.

  • The number of attached domain names is calculated based on the number of primary domain names. If you host a subdomain separately, the subdomain is counted as a primary domain name.

Note

Alibaba Cloud DNS supports seamless instance upgrades. For more information, see Upgrade, detach, replace, or downgrade an instance.

Feature/Edition

Free Edition

Paid Edition

Personal Edition

Enterprise Ultimate Edition

Exclusive Edition

Applicable sites

Business testing scenarios

For purchase and use by individual developers only

Note

Enterprise users cannot purchase new Personal Edition instances. Existing Personal Edition instances can still be used and renewed.

Suitable for enterprise customers in various industries

Note

Suitable for enterprise organizations in various industries. Provides more refined O&M capabilities and expert consulting services.

Availability SLA

No availability guarantee

100% monthly availability

100% monthly availability

100% monthly availability

Dedicated service support

None

DingTalk user support group

DingTalk user support group

1-on-1 expert service

6 resolution change support requests per year

1 DNS architecture planning consultation per year

DNS POPs

4 in the Chinese mainland

12 in the Chinese mainland,

15 outside China

12 in the Chinese mainland,

15 outside China

12 in the Chinese mainland,

15 outside China

Subdomain hosting level

Level 16

Level 16

Level 16

Level 16

Number of DNS records for a single primary domain

100,000

100,000

100,000 (Submit a ticket to request an increase if you exceed the limit.)

Unlimited*

Subdomain levels

10

20

Level 20

Unlimited*

Minimum TTL value

600 seconds

600 seconds

1 second

1 second

Intelligent Resolution

  • Region

    • Chinese mainland

    • Outside China

  • Carrier

    • Supported: China Unicom, China Telecom, China Mobile, CERNET

  • Search engine

    • Supported: Google, Baidu, Bing, Sogou, Qihoo, Youdao

  • Region

    • Chinese mainland

    • Outside China

  • Carrier

    • Supported: China Unicom, China Telecom, China Mobile, CERNET, China Broadcasting Network, Dr. Peng

  • Search engine

    • Supported: Google, Baidu, Bing, Sogou, Qihoo, Youdao, Yahoo

  • Region

    • Chinese mainland (by province)

    • Outside China (by country)

  • Cloud provider

    • Alibaba Cloud (Chinese mainland)

    • Alibaba Cloud (outside China)

  • Carrier

    • Supported: China Unicom, China Telecom, China Mobile, Dr. Peng, CERNET, China Broadcasting Network, CSTNET, Chilian Network, Founder Broadband, Topway, Wasu, Oriental Cable Network, Haokuan Network, Gehua

  • Search engine (in and outside the Chinese mainland)

    • Supported: Google, Baidu, Bing, Sogou, Qihoo, Youdao, Yahoo

  • Custom lines

  • Region

    • Chinese mainland (by province)

    • Outside China (by country)

  • Cloud provider

    • Alibaba Cloud (Chinese mainland)

    • Alibaba Cloud (outside China)

  • Carrier

    • Supported: China Unicom, China Telecom, China Mobile, Dr. Peng, CERNET, China Broadcasting Network, CSTNET, Chilian Network, Founder Broadband, Topway, Wasu, Oriental Cable Network, Haokuan Network, Gehua

  • Search engine (in and outside the Chinese mainland)

    • Supported: Google, Baidu, Bing, Sogou, Qihoo, Youdao, Yahoo

  • Custom lines

URL forwarding (single domain name)

2 items

5 entries

10

Unlimited*

Weight configuration (A, CNAME, and AAAA records)

Supported

Supported

Supported

Supported

Load balancing (IP address capacity for a single domain name on a single line)

10

100

100

Unlimited*

Request statistics (accurate to the subdomain level)

×

Supported

Support

Supported

IPv6 DNS

Supported

Supported

Support

Supported

Secondary DNS

×

×

Supported

Supported

DNS record backup

×

×

Supported

Supported

DNSSEC

×

Supported

Supported

Supported

Number of domain names that can be attached to an instance

Not applicable

1 by default, up to 100,000

1 by default, up to 100,000

1 by default, up to 100,000

DNS resolution peak

Up to 20,000 queries/second

Up to 200,000 queries/second

Up to 200,000 queries/second

Up to 200,000 queries/second

DNS attack protection

Not supported

Optional Basic Protection and Full Protection

Optional Basic Protection and Full Protection

Full Protection included by default

Note

*Unlimited: If you exceed the default system limit, you can submit a ticket to request a limit increase, provided that the product can run in a stable and secure manner.

DNS security protection

The Free Edition of Public Zone does not provide DNS security protection. Paid DNS editions offer security protection features that you can purchase based on your required security level.

Security level

Specification

Description

DNS Security

Basic Protection

Provides basic DNS attack protection for domain names attached to a Public Zone instance. The protection limit for each domain name is 10 million queries per second.

Full Protection

Provides full DNS attack protection for domain names attached to a Public Zone instance. The protection capability for each domain name exceeds 100 million queries per second (QPS), ensuring normal DNS resolution during flood QPS attacks.

FAQ

Q: What is "Smart DNS"?

"Smart DNS" returns resolution results based on the user's geographic location and carrier to reduce resolution latency and improve website access speed. It includes resolution lines for carriers, carrier provinces, regions outside China, continents outside China, continents/countries outside China, and custom resolution. For more information, see Smart DNS.

Q: Does Alibaba Cloud DNS support instance downgrades?

Alibaba Cloud DNS does not support instance downgrades. However, you can achieve a similar result by replacing the instance to which a domain name is attached. For more information, see Upgrade, detach, replace, or downgrade an instance.

  • If a domain name is attached to a higher edition DNS instance and you want to use a lower edition, you can replace the current instance with a paid instance of a lower edition.

  • You can also use this method if you want to reduce the security protection level or the number of domain names supported by your current package.

Note

After you attach the domain name to the new instance, you can unsubscribe from the old instance. For more information, see Unsubscribe from an instance.

Q: What cluster POPs are included in the global network of Public Zone?

The global cluster points of presence (POPs) for Public Zone are distributed as follows:

  • Global nodes: US (Virginia), US (Silicon Valley), Mexico, Indonesia (Jakarta), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Singapore, Japan (Tokyo), SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region), UAE (Dubai), Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London), Thailand (Bangkok), South Korea (Seoul), Philippines (Manila), China (Hong Kong), China (Beijing), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Hangzhou), China (Chengdu), China (Qingdao), Dalian, Xi'an, Tianjin, Taiyuan, Zhengzhou, China (Nanjing - Local Region - Decommissioning).

  • Cluster deployment is subject to change based on the development of Alibaba Cloud's infrastructure and is not covered by the service's Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Q: What does "number of domain names that can be attached to an instance" mean?

When you purchase a Public Zone instance, it supports one domain name by default, such as example.com. To support more domain names, such as example.cn and example.net, you can increase the number of domain names supported by the instance, up to a maximum of 100,000.