Edition comparison_Public authoritative DNS resolution - Alibaba Cloud DNS

You can purchase a HostedPublicZone instance to ensure better availability SLA, TTL, and security protection for your domain name resolution. This is suitable for individual or enterprise users who have specific requirements for DNS resolution.

Edition comparison

Public authoritative DNS resolution is divided into Free Edition DNS and paid DNS (Personal Edition authoritative hosted domain name instance, Enterprise Ultimate Edition authoritative hosted domain name instance). The following table compares the differences between these editions.

Important

We recommend that you purchase DNS security services to increase the DNS resolution peak limit and avoid resolution failures when requests reach the peak value.
For scenarios that require frequent batch changes to DNS records, we recommend that you use the DNS data backup feature to quickly revert resolution changes if errors occur.
The number of bound domains 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

Cloud DNS supports smooth instance upgrades. For more information, see Instance upgrade/detachment/replacement/downgrade.

Feature/Edition	Free Edition	Paid Edition
Feature/Edition	Free Edition	Personal	Enterprise Ultimate
Use case	Service testing	Individual users and small businesses who require an SLA for resolution services but do not have special requirements for change propagation time, backups, or smart DNS resolution lines.	Internet technology companies, financial institutions, and multinational corporations that have high standards for DNS change propagation time and customization.
Availability SLA	No availability guarantee or expert technical.	100% monthly availability	100% monthly availability
DNS nodes	4 in the Chinese mainland	12 in the Chinese mainland. 15 outside China	12 in the Chinese mainland. 15 outside China
Subdomain hosting levels	16	16	16
Number of DNS records per primary domain	100,000	100,000	100,000 (To increase the limit, submit a ticket.)
Subdomain levels	10	20	20
Minimum TTL	600 seconds	600 seconds	1 second
Intelligent Resolution	Region China Outside China Carrier Supported: China Unicom, China Telecom, China Mobile, CERNET Search engine Supported: Google, Baidu, Bing, Sogou, Qihoo, Youdao	Region China 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 China (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 (Chinese mainland and outside China) Supported: Google, Baidu, Bing, Sogou, Qihoo, Youdao, Yahoo Custom lines
URL forwarding (per domain)	2	5	10
Weight configuration (A, CNAME, AAAA records)	Supported	Supported	Supported
Load balancing (IP address capacity per domain per line)	10	100	100
Request volume statistics (by subdomain)	×	Supported	Supported
IPv6 DNS	Supported	Supported	Supported
Secondary DNS	×	×	Supported
DNS record backup	×	×	Supported (hourly backups), one-click restore
DNSSEC	×	Supported	Supported
Number of domains attached to an instance	Not applicable	1 by default, up to 100,000	1 by default, up to 100,000
Peak DNS queries	Up to 20,000 queries per second (QPS)	Up to 200,000 QPS	Up to 200,000 QPS

DNS security

The Free Edition of public authoritative DNS resolution does not support DNS security protection. Paid DNS editions support security protection capabilities, which you can purchase according to security levels.

Security level	Basic DNS attack defense	Full DNS attack defense
Service Scope	Provides basic DNS attack defense for domains bound to public authoritative DNS resolution instances, with a defense limit of no more than 10 million times per second per domain	Provides full DNS attack defense for domains bound to public authoritative DNS resolution instances, with attack defense capabilities exceeding hundreds of millions of times per domain, ensuring normal DNS resolution during flood QPS attacks

FAQ

Q: What is "intelligent resolution"?
"Intelligent resolution" supports intelligent return of resolution results based on the user's geographic location and ISP, thereby reducing resolution latency and improving website access speed. It includes ISP lines, ISP provinces, overseas lines, overseas continents, overseas continents/countries, custom resolution, and other lines. For more information, see Intelligent resolution.
Q: Does Cloud DNS support instance downgrade?
No, Alibaba Cloud DNS does not support instance downgrades. However, you can replace the instance to which a domain name is attached with an instance of a lower edition. 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 lower-edition paid instance.
- 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 a product.
Q: What cluster nodes are included in the global nodes of public authoritative DNS resolution?
The global cluster nodes for public authoritative DNS resolution 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 (Wuhan - Local Region), China (Nanjing - Local Region - Decommissioning).
- The clusters are subject to change based on the development of Alibaba Cloud's infrastructure and are not covered by the Service-level agreement (SLA).
Q: What does "number of domains that can be bound to an instance" refer to?
When you purchase a public authoritative DNS resolution instance, it supports one domain name by default (such as example.com). To support more domain names (such as example.cn, example.net, etc.), you can increase the number of domains in the instance, up to a maximum of 100,000 domains.