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Updated at: 2025-04-22 01:42
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Public Authoritative DNS Resolution is available in one free edition and three paid editions. This topic compares the free edition with the paid editions.

Edition comparison

The following table describes the differences between the free edition and paid editions of Public Authoritative DNS Resolution.

Important

  1. We recommend that you purchase the Domain Name System (DNS) protection feature to increase the maximum number of DNS requests per second. This avoids DNS resolution failures as much as possible.

  2. For scenarios where DNS records need to be frequently changed in batches, we recommend that you use the DNS data backup feature to ensure quick restoration of DNS records in case of errors.

  3. The number of domain names bound to a Public Authoritative DNS Resolution instance is the number of primary domain names that are bound to the Public Authoritative DNS Resolution instance. Subdomain names that are independently hosted by Public Authoritative DNS Resolution are also counted into such primary domain names.

Note

Alibaba Cloud DNS supports the smooth upgrade of DNS instance. For more information, see Upgrade, downgrade, bind, or unbind instances.

Feature

Free Edition

Personal Edition

Enterprise Ultimate Edition

Feature

Free Edition

Personal Edition

Enterprise Ultimate Edition

Applicable website

Business scenario - test

Websites of individual users and small and micro-sized enterprises. These websites have requirements for service level agreement (SLA) and have no special requirements for DNS performance, such as the effective time of DNS settings, DNS record backup, and intelligent DNS resolution.

Websites of Internet technology enterprises, financial institutions, and multinational enterprises. These websites have the highest requirements for DNS performance, such as the effective time of DNS settings and custom services.

SLA-guaranteed availability

Not supported. After-sales support is not provided.

Monthly availability at 100%

Monthly availability at 100%

Maximum number of DNS nodes

4 in the Chinese mainland

12 in the Chinese mainland

15 outside the Chinese mainland

12 in the Chinese mainland

15 outside the Chinese mainland

Number of subdomain hosting levels

16

16

16

Maximum number of DNS records for a primary domain name

100,000

100,000

100,000. If you want to add more subdomain names, submit a ticket to apply for a larger upper limit.

Maximum number of subdomain levels

10

20

20

Minimum TTL period (seconds)

600

600

1

Intelligent DNS resolution

  • Region

    • Lines for regions in the Chinese mainland

    • Lines for regions outside the Chinese Mainland

  • ISP

    • Supported ISP lines：China Unicom, China Telecom, China Mobile， and China Education and Research Network (CERNET).

  • Search engine

    • Supported engine lines: Google, Baidu, Bing, Sogou, Qihoo, and Youdao.

  • Region

    • Lines for regions in the Chinese mainland

    • Lines for regions outside the Chinese Mainland

  • ISP

    • Supported ISP lines: China Unicom, China Telecom, China Mobile， CERNET, China Broadcasting Network (CBN), and Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group.

  • Search engine

    • Supported engine lines: Google, Baidu, Bing, Sogou, Qihoo, Youdao, and Yahoo.

  • Region

    • Province-level lines in the Chinese Mainland

    • Country-level lines outside the Chinese Mainland

  • Cloud service provider

    • Alibaba Cloud in the Chinese Mainland

    • Alibaba Cloud outside the Chinese Mainland

  • ISP

    • Supported ISP lines: China Unicom, China Telecom, China Mobile， CERNET, CBN, Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group, China Science and Technology Network (CSTNET), WEXCHANGE, Founder Broadband, Topway Video, WASU Broadband, Oriental Cable Network (OCN), China Internet Exchange (CNIX), and Beijing Gehua CATV Network (BGCTV).

  • Search engine in and outside the Chinese Mainland

    • Supported engine lines: Google, Baidu, Bing, Sogou, Qihoo, Youdao, and Yahoo.

  • Custom line

Line type switching (ISP lines and regional lines)

Not supported

Not supported

Supported

Maximum number of URL forwarding records (for a single domain name)

2

5

10

Weight configuration (A, CNAME, and AAAA records)

Supported

Supported

Supported

Maximum number of IP addresses that are used for load balancing in a single line of a domain name

10

100

100

Statistics on the number of requests (accurate to subdomains)

Not supported

Supported

Supported

IPv6 DNS

Supported

Supported

Supported

Secondary DNS

Not supported

Not supported

Supported

DNS record backup

Not supported

Not supported

Supported (backup by hour, restoration with only a few clicks)

DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC)

Not supported

Supported

Supported

Maximum number of domain names that can be bound to an Public Authoritative DNS Resolution instance

-

1 by default, the maximum is 100,000

1 by default, the maximum is 100,000

Maximum number of DNS queries per second

20,000

200,000

200,000

DNS protection

Public Authoritative DNS Resolution Free Edition does not support DNS protection. The following table describes two protection levels.

Protection level

Basic DNS attack defense

Advanced DNS attack defense

Protection level

Basic DNS attack defense

Advanced DNS attack defense

Service scope

Public Authoritative DNS Resolution provides basic protection against DNS attacks for domain names bound to Public Authoritative DNS Resolution instances. A maximum of 10 million requests can be handled per second for each domain name.

Public Authoritative DNS Resolution provides advanced protection against DNS attacks for domain names bound to Public Authoritative DNS Resolution instances. More than 100 million requests can be handled per second for each domain name to ensure normal DNS resolution under DNS flood attacks.

FAQs

For more information about Alibaba Cloud DNS, see FAQ.

  • Can I degrade a DNS instance?

    You cannot degrade an instance in the Alibaba Cloud DNS console. You can change the instance bound to a domain name to an instance with lower specifications. For more information, see Bind a domain name to another instance section in the "Upgrade, downgrade, bind, or unbind instances" topic.

      If you want to change the instance bound to a domain name to an instance with lower specifications, you can unbind the domain name from the original instance and then bind the domain name to an instance with lower specifications.

      You can use the preceding method if you want to downgrade the DNS protection level and decrease the number of bound domain names.

    Note

    After you bind the domain name to another instance, you can unsubscribe from the original instance. For more information, see Unsubscription.

  • What are the cluster nodes where Public Authoritative DNS Resolution is available？

    Global cluster nodes are as follows:

    Public Authoritative DNS Resolution is available in the following nodes: US (Virginia), US (Silicon Valley), Indonesia (Jakarta),Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Singapore, Japan (Tokyo), SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region), UAE (Dubai)，Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London), Thailand (Bangkok), South Korea (Seoul), Philippines (Manila), Hong Kong (China), China (Beijing), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Hangzhou), China (Qingdao), China (Chengdu), China (Nanjing), China (Dalian), China (Xi'an), China (Tianjin), China (Taiyuan), China (Zhengzhou).

    The number of nodes may be increased with the development of Alibaba Cloud infrastructures and the proceding nodes do not guarantee any availability for the SLA.

  • What is the maximum number of domain names that can be bound to an Public Authoritative DNS Resolution instance?

    By default, each Public Authoritative DNS Resolution instance can be bound to one domain name, such as example.com. If you want to bind domain names, such as example.cn and example.net, to an domain name, the maximum number of domain names that can be bound to the instance is 100,000.

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