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Multi-provider DNS vs secondary DNS
Managed DNS vendors (IBM NS1, Constellix, DNS Made Easy, DNSimple, Cloudflare Enterprise and others) offer redundancy as secondary DNS: one provider is the primary, the other pulls the zone by AXFR and NOTIFY. RedundantDNS writes the zone to every provider through its API instead, so no provider has to be the primary.
Side by side
| Aspect | Secondary DNS | RedundantDNS |
|---|---|---|
| How the copy is made | Zone transfer (AXFR/IXFR) from a primary | Each provider’s API: diff and apply, then verify |
| Providers you can combine | A primary that allows transfers and a secondary that accepts them | Any two or more of Route 53, OCI DNS, Google Cloud DNS, Azure DNS, Cloudflare |
| Route 53 and OCI DNS | Do not act as AXFR secondaries | Supported as full, independent copies |
| Monitoring of the other party | Each vendor watches its own side | Neutral probes query every nameserver of every provider |
| Lock-in | Both legs often tied to one vendor’s contract | Your own provider accounts, or managed accounts at cost plus 20% |
Facts about other products as of 2026-09-23. Tell us if something changed: we will fix it.
What secondary DNS costs
Public list prices collected on 2026-09-23. Check each vendor before relying on them.
| Product | Price |
|---|---|
| IBM NS1 Connect | Essentials from $99/month, Standard from $349/month; secondary/dedicated DNS only on Premium (custom price) |
| Constellix | Pay as you go: $5 for the first domain, $0.50 per domain for 2 to 25, $0.095 above; $0.395 per million queries |
| DNS Made Easy (DigiCert) | Free; DNS-5 $18.75/month; DNS-25 $56.25/month; DNS-50 $175/month; Enterprise custom. Secondary zones included in the domain plans |
| DNSimple | Solo free; Teams $29/month per account plus seats; primary or secondary zone $0.50 per zone per month plus $0.10 per million queries |
| Cloudflare secondary DNS | Enterprise plan only, custom price |
RedundantDNS: free for one zone on two providers, then from $29/month (draft pricing), plus what your providers charge: see pricing
Which one to choose
Choose secondary DNS when
You are already on an enterprise DNS vendor that includes secondary DNS and you are happy for both legs to live in its contract.
Choose RedundantDNS when
You want to keep the clouds you already use (for example Route 53 and OCI DNS, which cannot be AXFR secondaries) and have a neutral party verify both.
Put your zone on two providers
Start with one zone and two providers you already have. Free, no card.