Amazon Route 53 vs Cloudflare DNS
Default scenario: At 50 hosted zones, 1B queries / month, estimated bills are $0/yr for Cloudflare DNS and $5,100/yr for Amazon Route 53. That’s a $5,100 difference before accounting for different features or operating costs.
The services may differ in features, performance, support and the work you need to do yourself. Read the notes and test what matters to your setup.
Your selected usage
50 hosted zones, 1B queries / month
- Amazon Route 53: $5,100/yr estimated
- Cloudflare DNS: $0/yr estimated
Estimated costs at different usage levels
| Usage | Amazon Route 53 | Cloudflare DNS |
|---|---|---|
| Startup5 hosted zones, 20M queries / month | $126/yr$2.50 zones + $8.00 queries | $0/yr$0 zones + $0 queries |
| Mid-size50 hosted zones, 1B queries / month | $5,100/yr$25 zones + $400 queries | $0/yr$0 zones + $0 queries |
| Large500 hosted zones, 10B queries / month | $51,000/yr$250 zones + $4,000 queries | $0/yr$0 zones + $0 queries |
Uses each vendor’s first paid tier; volume discounts (e.g. Route 53 zones past 25, queries past 1B) lower real bills further. Try your own numbers against all dns providers.
Side by side
| Amazon Route 53 | Cloudflare DNS | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AWS's managed authoritative DNS service, billed per hosted zone and per query with no plan fee. | Anycast authoritative DNS included in all Cloudflare plans, per-zone plans with unmetered queries. |
| Headquarters | 🇺🇸 United States | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Parent jurisdiction | 🇺🇸 United States (Amazon) | 🇺🇸 United States |
| EU self-serve plan | Available; check eligible plans and regions | No / not documented |
| GDPR DPA | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | payg | free |
| Free tier | — | Free plan includes authoritative DNS with unmetered queries. |
| Open source | No | No |
| Source last checked | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-06 |
| Pricing evidence | Published rates | Published rates |
Which should you choose?
Cloudflare DNS has the lower estimated bill at every usage level we tested, from 5 hosted zones, 100M queries / month to 5,000 hosted zones, 100B queries / month.
Choose Amazon Route 53 if…
- you need EU data residency on a self-serve plan
Choose Cloudflare DNS if…
- it has the lower estimated bill at Startup, Mid-size and Large usage
- you want to start free (Free plan includes authoritative DNS with unmetered queries)
Based on estimated list-price bills and the facts above. Features, performance and support aren’t scored.
Amazon Route 53 pricing
Calculated from the listed vendor rates; exclusions still apply.
| Zone / month | 1M DNS queries |
|---|---|
| $0.5 | $0.4 |
$0.50/hosted zone/month for the first 25 zones, $0.10/zone after that. Standard queries $0.40/M for the first 1B/month, $0.20/M above. Latency-based routing $0.60/M, geolocation/geoproximity $0.70/M. Alias queries to AWS resources (ELB, CloudFront, API Gateway, S3, etc.) are free. EU residency: Route 53 is available in the AWS European Sovereign Cloud (Germany) partition with dedicated name servers; the standard commercial Route 53 is a global service. GDPR DPA via the AWS DPA.
Amazon Route 53 plan limits, full rates and cheaper alternatives · official pricing page
Cloudflare DNS pricing
Calculated from the listed vendor rates; exclusions still apply.
| Base fee / month |
|---|
| $0 |
Modelled on the Free plan, which includes authoritative DNS with unmetered queries. Paid plans are per zone (domain) and add proxy/WAF features, not DNS capacity: Pro is $20/mo billed annually ($25 billed monthly); Business is $200/mo annually ($250 monthly); Enterprise is contract-based. DNS queries are not metered on any plan. EU residency only via the Data Localization Suite (Enterprise add-on). DPA applies to self-serve and enterprise customers.
Cloudflare DNS plan limits, full rates and cheaper alternatives · official pricing page
Frequently asked questions
Is Amazon Route 53 cheaper than Cloudflare DNS?
Cloudflare DNS has the lower estimated bill at every usage level we tested, from 5 hosted zones, 100M queries / month to 5,000 hosted zones, 100B queries / month. At 50 hosted zones, 1B queries / month, the estimates are $5,100/yr for Amazon Route 53 and $0/yr for Cloudflare DNS. Estimates use list prices and leave out features, support and operating costs.
Do Amazon Route 53 and Cloudflare DNS offer EU data residency?
Amazon Route 53 offers EU data residency on a self-serve plan. Cloudflare DNS doesn’t document it on a self-serve plan.
Do Amazon Route 53 and Cloudflare DNS have a free tier or trial?
Cloudflare DNS: Free plan includes authoritative DNS with unmetered queries. Amazon Route 53 has no free tier or trial in our data.
Where are Amazon Route 53 and Cloudflare DNS based?
Amazon Route 53 is headquartered in the United States and owned by Amazon (the United States). Cloudflare DNS is headquartered in the United States.