Azure DNS vs. Cloudflare

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure DNS
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft offers Azure DNS, a managed network of name servers supplying availability, support for migration, and DNS security.
$0.10
per zone/per month
Cloudflare
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud is a unified platform of cloud-native services designed to help enterprises regain control over their IT environments. Powered by an intelligent, programmable global cloud network, it is built to offer security, performance, visibility, and reliability.
$20
per month
Pricing
Azure DNSCloudflare
Editions & Modules
Additional hosted DNS zones (over 25)
$0.10
per zone/per month
Additional DNS queries (over 1 billion)/month
$0.20
per million
First billion DNS queries/month
$0.40
per million
First 25 hosted DNS zones
$0.50
per zone/per month
Pro
$20
per month
Business
$200
per month
Free
Free
Enterprise
Contact sales team
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure DNSCloudflare
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure DNSCloudflare
Considered Both Products
Azure DNS
Chose Azure DNS
Azure is slightly better than the competition on ease of use and simplicity of the interface. On features , I think the competition has caught on. We selected Azure for it's reliability and speed.
Cloudflare
Chose Cloudflare
We use Cloudflare where we don't want to spend a lot of money, and can live with not so fast DNS speeds. NS1 is used when you need the top performance with the the DNS. Cloudflare has far more other features for which it is used alongside with NS1 as well.
Best Alternatives
Azure DNSCloudflare
Small Businesses
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 8.9 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 8.9 out of 10
IBM Cloud Internet Services
IBM Cloud Internet Services
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Google Cloud DNS
Google Cloud DNS
Score 10.0 out of 10
Akamai App & API Protector
Akamai App & API Protector
Score 8.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure DNSCloudflare
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(8 ratings)
9.0
(185 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(4 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(8 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.8
(149 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(2 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure DNSCloudflare
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Using Azure DNS, you can easily and quickly deploy and manage your domain DNS. It's been an excellent introduction to our web services requirements. It offers all services on a single platform and integrates with other applications. It not only offers DNS services for websites but also for your applications.
Read full review
Cloudflare
Cloudflare works well as security measure that gives peace of mind without needing to work too hard to get it functioning well. It provides great tools to customize the security experience as well. This is all the same for the caching tools as well. They have a lot of built in tools that make using the caching easy right out of the box, but they provide the customization options to get things just right for your site.
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • The Azure Private DNS has an option for automatic mapping which creates a DNS record automatically for all the resources in a particular Vnet, and adds new DNS entries for whenever a new resource is created.
  • The DNS entries can be shared between different VNets automatically and there is no need for manually populating it or syncing it with different networks.
  • The mapping or records is very easy as the target/source/backend is automatically populated and there is no need to keep those IP addresses handy instead you can map them using their name.
Read full review
Cloudflare
  • The best part is the content delivery network. Cloudflare has a large network of data centres around the world that helps cache and delivers content quickly to our customers.
  • Cloudflare offers us with a fast and reliable DNS service and with the world class features such as Cloudflare workers, SSL verification, certificate management and web application firewall. When all of these are combined together, it provides very strict security for our organization.
  • One of the most important feature that we use is the analytics and threat detection. It provides us with the real time insights of all the threats originating from multiple locations and landing on our websites.
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • Provides Name Resolutions using Microsoft Infrastructure
  • Not required to manage server to run this Azure Service
  • Simple DNS queries and fast apply
  • Secure & High Available
  • Custom DNS quires can possible . No complex policies
Read full review
Cloudflare
  • In some cases, using Cloudflare can actually lead to slower website speeds if the network is congested or if the website's traffic is particularly heavy.
  • Some website owners may find that the level of customization offered by Cloudflare is limited, especially in comparison to other solutions.
  • While Cloudflare is easy to set up and manage, it may be too complex for users who are not familiar with web technologies.
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cloudflare
lower cost
Read full review
Usability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cloudflare
Everything is extremely concise and all settings apply immediately and take effect globally. There is no reason to explicitly plan/think in terms of individual regions as one would have to traditional cloud offerings (AWS, OCI, Azure). All Cloudflare products integrate seamless as part of a single pipeline that executes from request to response.
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cloudflare
In 6+ years of relying on Cloudflare, I think we experienced one or two brief outages that were Cloudflare's fault.
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Performance
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cloudflare
Their Argo for the global network is the core feature we love.
Read full review
Support Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cloudflare
Excellent product, Cloudflare is a true pioneer of the modern Internet, providing tools, services, and expertise that vastly improve the performance and security of web services. Any issues are resolved quickly with detailed RCA and follow-ups published publicly. I'm thankful to Cloudflare and use their services both at work and at home.
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Implementation Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cloudflare
Very well executed implementation where our team was able to handle the implementation with guidance.
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
The implementation process was fairly easy, quick, and straightforward compared to other estimated timelines from competitors. The price is fair for the service, while the customer success team and engineers know what they are doing, making the entire process smooth and comfortable. Also, they are a big and known brand, which makes us more at ease with our choice
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Cloudflare
They have the most generous free offering, and after the free offering limit is reached - you're still getting plenty of value for the buck.
They have very good reputation.
They have an ever expanding list of tools that can support multiple scenarios under one roof.
Read full review
Scalability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Cloudflare
They are built for scale and have the capacity to handle all the traffic we could ever expect to get.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • since Azure DNS belongs to Azure Cloud environment, there is no positive impact
  • since Azure DNS belongs to Azure Cloud environment, there is no negative impact
  • there would be a negative impact if Azure DNS would be missing
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Cloudflare
  • Immediate ROI on Registrar and DNS hosting while giving a single plane of glass to managing both with domain registrations at cost, and no cost DNS hosting
  • WAF helped us move at risk servers/applications into a protected state allowing us to perform remediations at a measured pace and get them done right instead of band aide solutions.
  • CDN proxying increase the speed of our website while simultaneously reducing server load.
  • DMARC management and report interpretation allow use to identify weak points in our email systems, remediate and move to stricter policies without significantly increasing staff time spent managing it.
Read full review
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