Amazon CloudFront vs Amazon Route 53

Likelihood to Recommend

Amazon CloudFront is best suited when there is a need of speed in serving static and dynanic web contents of a web application. If the content is already in that edge location, CloudFront delivers it immediately. If the content is not currently in that edge location, CloudFront retrieves it from an Amazon S3 bucket or an HTTP server. Amazon CloudFront is not appropriate in case users can tolerate some delays or servers are present near to the location of user. It also Integrates through the W3 Total Cache plugin. Amazon CloudFront Pricing based on bandwidth usage that's the best part of it.

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Ashish Agarwal

Software Engineer

GenpactInformation Technology and Services, 1001-5000 employees

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With Amazon Route 53, one can create and manage public DNS records. Using the easy to use and simple web interface it lets you get started in minutes. One can provide controlled access to the hosted zone by using the AWS IAM service. IAM can be used to control who in the team can create and make changes to your DNS records.

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Corporate

Computer Software Company, 1-10 employees

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Pros

CloudFront, like other CDNs, is a very reliable content delivery network for delivering content like images, videos, HTML, and javascripts that are run on browsers across the world.
It provides secure hosting of content at no extra cost. AWS Certification Manager also provides the ability to create and manage custom SSL certificates at no extra cost for our websites.
It is secure, which means that it uses AWS Shield for Layer 3/4 DDoS mitigation and AWS WAF for Layer 7 protection. Hence seamlessly integrating with other AWS services. So you do not have to shop outside of AWS ecosystem

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Verified User

Team Lead in Engineering

Financial Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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Route53's UI is quite simple and can be understood and manipulated within minutes of introduction.
Route53 is globally scalable and customizable, allowing you to set intuitive fail overs and routing based on latency, location, random, or set policies.
With AWS-hosted infrastructure, Route53 allows for a special set of alias records with extended privileges to simplify your DNS solution.

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Dylan Cauwels

DevOps Engineer

CBREReal Estate, 10,001+ employees

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Cons

If price is the main concern, CloudFront is not the cheapest-in-class by a wide margin
Some of the settings are not obvious to new users, and the management dashboards could use work
Lacks fine-grained access controls and statistical reports for usage

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Joshua Dickson

Director of Engineering

NorthOutComputer Software, 51-200 employees

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Price, it is not expensive ... but you can find some cheaper and even free DNS solutions.
If you use non-AWS infrastructure, Route 53 doesn't have significant advantages on other services.
AWS Route 53 does not support forwarding or conditional forwarding options for domains used on an on-premise network.

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Verified User

Engineer in Other

Environmental Services Company, 11-50 employees

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Usability

Amazon CloudFront 9.0

Based on 1 answer

Easy way to integrate a CDN within the AWS infrastructure. It allows further customization based on company needs.

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Carlos Becerra

Senior Software Engineer & Project Manager

WiFiesta IncInformation Technology and Services, 11-50 employees

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Amazon Route 53 8.9

Based on 7 answers

Amazon Route 53 is designed well, with individual domains easily configurable, and with the current state available at a glance. The UI does have scaling issues, but they are at scales most companies will not encounter. The tooling surrounding Route 53 in AWS is very good and makes use of Route 53 for many features.

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Matthew Lauber

Senior Software Developer

DirectEmployers AssociationHuman Resources, 51-200 employees

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Support Rating

Amazon CloudFront 7.2

Based on 4 answers

CloudFront is a good CDN solution. It can be a bit complicated to implement depending on your needs, but AWS tech support is great. You get to avoid a ton of upfront costs by going with CloudFront. It works best in conjunction with other AWS services in your infrastructure. Once you set it up, you won't need to do much to maintain it. It just works.

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Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

E-Learning Company, 51-200 employees

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Amazon Route 53 8.4

Based on 9 answers

The product is simple enough that the docs and the UI stand on their own. Its one of the least confusing (/most intuitive) AWS products. As with all Amazon products, don't expect strong email or human support-- you're going to be using their documentation. If you need a human to guide you through the DNS process, you should consider a tool like CloudFlare or NameCheap; if you're a developer, Route53 is where you want to be.

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Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Computer Software Company, 11-50 employees

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Alternatives Considered

Amazon has always been creative and leading, and I have been using its services for years. They are very reassuring and have fast and responsive support--you can call them from any time zone to respond quickly. High security on servers, open hands on changes, and increasing and decreasing server resources and features.

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Ali Kazempour

Information Technology Manager

AzerexInformation Technology & Services, 1-10 employees

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GoDaddy is fine if you just want to have a domain and set up a few simple records. But if part of your business is transferring domains and constantly updating records for new websites, email changes, and security, then a registrar-based DNS service just won't cut it. Route 53 has the tools for an advanced user who wants more control to avoid pitfalls of transfer downtime.

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Verified User

Technician in Information Technology

Information Technology & Services Company, 11-50 employees

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Return on Investment

Our website loads much more quickly in other countries as a result of CloudFront. For example: loading cached assets from CloudFront in Australia is 4x as fast as it would be to load the same assets without CloudFront.
Very inexpensive service considering the value it brings.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Entertainment Company, 1-10 employees

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Kept our domains running, no issues with downtime or affecting our end customers.
Enabled us to save time running static websites via routing a domain to an S3 Bucket.
With various time to live settings, we're able to make DNS changes and have them go live pretty quickly.

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Kevin Van Heusen

Software Architect

SpringAheadInternet, 51-200 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Amazon CloudFront Editions & Modules

Edition

First 10TB	$0.09
Next 40TB	$0.08
Next 100TB	$0.06
Next 350TB	$0.04
Next 524TB	$0.03
Next 4PB	$0.03
Over 5PB	$0.02

none

Additional Pricing Details

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General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Amazon Route 53 Editions & Modules

Edition

Standard	$0.40¹
Queries	$0.60²

Per Zone Per Month
Per Million Queries

Additional Pricing Details

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