Google Cloud DNS
Managed DNS providers software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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$0.20 per managed zone per month
Free Trial
Free version unavailable
Small
Medium
Large
- Transportation and logistics
- Manufacturing
- Information technology and software
What is Google Cloud DNS
Google Cloud DNS is a managed authoritative DNS service on Google Cloud Platform used to publish and manage DNS zones and records for internet-facing and internal resources. It targets teams running applications on Google Cloud or operating hybrid environments that need programmatic DNS management and integration with cloud networking. The service supports public and private zones, DNSSEC, and API-driven automation through Google Cloud tooling and IAM-based access control.
Deep Google Cloud integration
Cloud DNS integrates with Google Cloud IAM for access control and auditing, and it fits common Google Cloud workflows (projects, service accounts, and APIs). It works with public zones for internet domains and private zones for internal name resolution within Google Cloud networks. This makes it practical for organizations standardizing on Google Cloud for networking and infrastructure automation.
API-first DNS management
The service provides a managed control plane with REST and gcloud interfaces for creating zones and updating records. This supports infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD patterns where DNS changes are part of deployments. Compared with DNS services oriented around registrar-style UIs, Cloud DNS is designed for programmatic operations and role-based access.
DNSSEC support for zones
Cloud DNS supports DNSSEC for signing public zones to help protect against DNS spoofing and cache poisoning. Key management and signing configuration are handled within the service, reducing the operational burden compared with self-managed authoritative DNS. This is useful for organizations with security or compliance requirements around DNS integrity.
Best fit for GCP users
Cloud DNS is most straightforward when the rest of the stack already runs on Google Cloud. Organizations centered on other cloud providers may find the surrounding tooling, identity model, and billing less aligned with their existing operations. Multi-cloud DNS management can require additional abstraction or third-party tooling.
Limited edge security features
Cloud DNS focuses on authoritative DNS hosting and does not function as a full edge security and performance platform. Capabilities such as integrated application-layer protections, advanced traffic steering, or bundled CDN/WAF features typically require separate Google Cloud services or other vendors. This can increase architectural complexity for teams seeking an all-in-one edge stack.
DNS operations require expertise
The product assumes familiarity with DNS concepts (zones, record sets, TTLs, delegation, and DNSSEC). Misconfiguration can still cause outages or resolution issues, and the service does not eliminate the need for careful change control. Teams without DNS experience may prefer providers that emphasize guided workflows and simplified management.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Pay-as-you-go Free tier/trial: No permanent free tier (see note below). New Google Cloud customers receive $300 in free credits that can be used for Cloud DNS.
Pricing details (official Google Cloud DNS pricing page):
- Queries:
- 0–1 billion: $0.40 per million queries per month (regular queries)
- 0–1 billion: $0.70 per million queries per month (routing policy queries)
- Over 1 billion: $0.20 per million queries per month (regular queries)
- Over 1 billion: $0.35 per million queries per month (routing policy queries)
- Managed zones (applies to all zone types; aggregated across public/private/forwarding):
- 0–25 managed zones: $0.20 per managed zone per month
- 26–10,000 managed zones: $0.10 per managed zone per month for each additional zone after 25
- Over 10,000 managed zones: $0.03 per managed zone per month for each additional zone over 10,000
- Health checks (optional):
- Internal fast health checks: $0.50 per health check per month
- Internal premium health checks: $2.00 per health check per month
- Notes from the official page: pricing is prorated by hour for managed zones that exist only part of a month; queries/pricing are proportional to usage; domain-forwarding queries may incur query charges to resolve forwarding targets; Cloud DNS usage does not result in data transfer out charges; for very high-volume users, contact sales for custom arrangements.
Example costs (from vendor examples):
- Small site: 5 zones (5 * $0.20 = $1.00) + 10M queries (10 * $0.40 = $4.00) = ~$5.00/month
- Enterprise example: 200 zones and 50M queries = example total shown on vendor page ($42.50/month)
- Very large scale example: 100,000 zones and 100M queries = example total shown on vendor page (~$3,742.50/month)
Discount/options: Contact sales for custom quotes and high-volume needs. Prices listed in USD; if you pay in another currency, Cloud Platform SKUs/prices for that currency apply.
Free plan: Unavailable (official page: “Note: There is no free tier for Cloud DNS.”) Free trial: Available — new Google Cloud customers receive $300 in free credits which can be used on Cloud DNS (platform-level free credits/trial).
Seller details
Google LLC
Mountain View, CA, USA
1998
Subsidiary
https://cloud.google.com/deep-learning-vm
https://x.com/googlecloud
https://www.linkedin.com/company/google/
