How Much Does Managed DNS Cost?

Any time you are deciding on a product or service—whether as a customer or a business—one question is always top of mind.

Cost.

DNS is no different. That said, the infamous answer that everyone usually gives (and everyone hates getting) in this industry is that—you guessed it—it depends.

And it really does “depend.”

But in this blog, we’re going to break down the pricing of our Business tier package and explain why it depends. You’ll get to billing examples based on some of our actual customers’ costs. This way, you can make easier, more informed DNS decisions.

DNS Business Plan Pricing and Requirements

DNS Made Easy has always been upfront and transparent about our pricing, but your domain needs and goals will ultimately determine your true monthly costs.

We’ll get into pricing specifics shortly, but before we do that, take a moment to read over these common DNS factors that affect cost at every provider.

• How many domains do you have?
  Our packages include a set amount of domains with the option to add more at any time. It is common practice across DNS providers to charge based on the number of domains in your account.
• Monthly query count
  Knowing your query count is important as most providers, including DNS Made Easy allot for a certain number of queries each month. In our experience, many businesses either underestimate or overestimate their counts, which can cause you to overpay each month or to receive an invoice for unexpected overages. Tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, or Similarweb can tell you how many hits your website is getting, but don’t forget to account for email and other services that generate a DNS lookup. If you use a service that calculates queries per second (QSP), here’s a helpful calculator that will convert your QSP to QPM.
• How many DNS records do you use or are planning to need?
  Another commonality in the DNS industry is to include a set amount of DNS records at specific tiers. 
• Are you running mission-critical systems?
  While every domain is important, those that run internal or external mission-critical systems typically require specialized features, such as Failover, Secondary DNS, advanced traffic routing, health/performance monitoring, and security features.
• Are you a local/regional business, nationwide, or worldwide?
  Depending on where your users are at, you may need GeoDNS services like Global Traffic Director for better user experiences.
• How important is avoiding IT downtime to your business?
  Outages are costly and can have far-reaching effects on your organization. Protecting from internal and provider-related downtime is something any organization should factor into the cost of its online strategy. Here’s an Outage Calculator that can help you determine how much an outage would really cost your business. Services such as Failover and Secondary DNS prevent downtime and can add to the overall price.
• How important is speed to your website or application?
  It’s common knowledge that internet users expect fast-loading web pages, and a DNS provider’s speed plays a large role in that. However, it isn’t a provider’s own speed that affects pricing. It’s specialized traffic routing services that can add to the costs of your DNS package.
• What type of compliance policies (if any) applies to your business?
  If your organization or specific industry requires adherence to compliance policies, you may need additional users and permission-based functionality. If needed, this can add to the price of your managed DNS package. 
• What types of security do you need for domain and/or account?
  While every domain is concerned about security, certain industries or organizations need additional layers of security for their account or domains, such as DNSSEC and SAML, etc. These types of services are not included in some pricing tiers (if at all) or may increase costs if needed for multiple domains. 
• Is your industry prone to threats like DDoS and other DNS-related attacks?
  Any domain can be a target of an attack, but some industries and companies are more prone to attacks than others. Real-time monitoring, threat detection, or disaster recovery options are all things that can increase DNS costs.
• Do you use API integrations?
  API plays a large role in many companies across industries. If your organization relies heavily on API integrations, you’ll need to factor in additional API costs at your DNS provider.
• How important are query logging and DNS analytics to your business?
  Google Analytics is the gold standard for measuring your website performance, but it doesn’t give you insight into what is happening at the DNS level. DNS Made Easy is the only provider that offers advanced query logging, and for domains that need or want access to a large number of logs, this can increase your costs.
• Do you require migration or configuration support?
  Not all companies have a dedicated IT team that can migrate DNS services to a new provider. If you need help, including white glove service, you’ll need to factor this into your overall budget.
• Will you need ongoing, dedicated support after onboarding?
  Springboarding off the previous topic, it’s helpful to know how much support your company will need on a regular basis, especially if your organization uses advanced features and has complex record configurations.

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Knowing the answers to these questions will help you get the answers you need faster and without a lot of extra rigmarole. 

Basic Managed DNS Services

Okay, now that you know what types of things play into overall DNS pricing, let’s talk cost specifics.

At DNS Made Easy, we offer tiered packages that help make it easy to decide which tier is right for you.

Free 30-day DNS trial:

We offer a free, no-obligation trial for any business that wants to make sure we’re a great fit for them. Here’s what our trial includes:

3 Domains

900 Records

Unlimited Queries

1 Failover Record

5 Query Logs /month

Two Factor Auth

100% SLA-backed

DNS Analytics

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Cost: Free for 30 days

Business Tier DNS Plan Pricing

After your 30-day trial, you would choose one of our paid plans. Our Business tier includes the following: 

• 25 Domains
• 7,500 Records
• 10M Queries /month
• 3 Failover Records
• 5 Query Logs /month
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• Two Factor Authentication
• 100% SLA-backed
• DNS Analytics
• Rest API Access

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Cost: $6.25 mo / $75 billed annually

What can drive DNS costs up?

This is where the “it depends” part comes in, as every business is different and has unique requirements. 

Note: These examples are in addition to the yearly cost of the DNS Made Easy Business plan.

Adding more domains

Our Business tier includes 25 domains. If you need to add more, pricing is as follows:

• $1.95 per domain / year
• 1000+ domains at $1.50 per domain per year
• 2000+ domains at $1.20 per domain per year

Billing example with additional domains:

Single domain add-ons (with no other additional services):

• 2 extra domains x $1.95 = $3.90 + $75 = $78.90

Large volume of domains (with no other additional services):

• 2500 extra domains x $1.20 = $3000/year + $75 = $3075 annually

Additional Failover records

If you need Failover for more than 3 records:

• $4.95 per A record per year
• $45.95 10-pack of A records per year

Billing example with additional Failover records:

Single record add on (with no additional services):

• 3 added failover records x $4.95 = $14.85 + $75 = $89.85 annually

Two Failover 10-packs (20 added failover records with no additional services):

• 45.95 x 2 = 91.90 + $75 = $166.90 annually

Global Traffic Director

Our Business tier does not include Global Traffic Director (smart traffic routing and optimization). The cost for GTD is:

• $660.00 per domain per year

Billing example with GTD (no additional services):

• 2 domains with GTD = $660 x 2 = 1320 + $75 = $1395 annually

Higher Query Volume

Another factor that can increase DNS costs is your query volume. Our Business tier includes a generous 10 million queries per month, but additional queries can be purchased if needed or  if you expect to receive more.

• 1M each month $37.95 / year ($3.13 per million queries)
• 10M each month $299.95 / year ($2.50 per million queries)
• 20M each month $524.95 / year ($2.19 per million queries)

Billing example with pre-purchased query add-on (no additional services):

Additional 1 million queries per month = $37.95 + $75 = $112.95

Additional Sub-Users

Business tier accounts only include one account user by default, but sub-user accounts can be added on at any time.

• $14.95 for each account / year
• $134.95 for 10 accounts / year

DNS Billing example with added sub-users (no additional services):

• 4 sub-users = $14.95 x 4= $59.80 + $75 = $134.80 per year

Real-time Traffic Anomaly Detection (RTTAD)

Our Real-time Traffic Anomaly Detection service is for domains that are prone to DDoS, Carding, or other related attacks, or for oganizations that want an extra layer of security and protection. RTTAD is not included in our packages, and must be purchased separately.

• Anomaly Detection (City level) - $600 per domain per year
• Anomaly Detection (Regional level) - $600 per domain per year
• Anomaly Detection (World level) - $600 per domain per year

Billing example with RTTAD (no additional services):

• Anomaly Dection (city level) for 1 domain and Anomaly Detection (world level) for 1 domain - $600 x 2 = $1200  + 75 = $1275 per year

Query Logging Events

DNS Made Easy’s Business tier includes five query logs per account, per month. Additional logs are available in packages of five.

• Add 5 query-logging events per month - $60.00 per year

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Billing example with additional Query Logs (no additional services):

• Three 5-packs of query logs (15 total) - $60 x 3 = $180 + $75 = $255 per year

Vanity IP Services

Another factor that can affect cost is if your organization requires dedicated IPs for nameservers with reverse DNS configured.

Vanity nameserver IPs - $300 per IP per year

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Billing example with Vanity IP service (no additional services):

• Two Vanity IPs - $300 x 2 = $600 + $75 = $675 per year

DNS Support plan

Pre-scheduled support plans are an additional cost for Business tier members.

$150 / hour

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Billing example with Support (no additional services):

• 5 hours of support - $150 x 5 = $750 + $75 = $825 per year

DNS Migration Assistance

Migration assistance is one of the services that truly vary for every business. Factors include the complexity of your configurations, any additional services you may be using, and the length of time it takes to onboard.

• Migration assistance starts at $700

If you have any questions reach out to one of our DNS experts to see if the Business ($6.25 per month) or Corporate ($145 per month)  tier plan would be an ideal fit for your organization. We also offer a risk-free 30 day complimentary trial so you can see for yourself how easy it is!