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This is a follow up question to DNS Hosting Services - hopefully it's okay that I post like this.

I'm running a business app where users move their site to our platform, and looking for a better solution for DNS hosting.

Does anyone recommend a DNS hosting service which is good for managing 100+ domains?

I'm currently using virtualmin and hosting my own DNS server - which I definitely don't want to do moving forward. It's automated now since we're using virtualmin, but it's not a good idea to host DNS on the same server as our web server.

DNSMadeEasy and other solutions like it make you manually create each record one at a time - which won't be possible for me since I'm looking to host 100-200 domains. Looking for a service that lets me create records via API or lets me directly edit the records file.

I wonder why so many hosts and DNS services make you enter in each DNS record one-at-a-time through a gui...

Thanks all!

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In the last week I've looked closely at all the services out there. I'm between DNSMadeEasy, DynDNS SMB, and Amazon Route 53. Amazon Route 53 is particularly attractive because their rates are so low - $1/domain/month including 1 billion queries. DynDNS has excellent customer service and a nice API. DNSMadeEasy is launching an API soon. – Alex Cook Jan 8 '11 at 19:42

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Sounds like Amazon Route 53 should suit perfectly your requirements:

  • it is a webservice so you can automate it using API
  • as with every other Amazon AWS it will automatically scale for you with traffic
  • Route 53 is a relatively new service by the time of writing this so I cannot say how reliable it is but from my experience with other amazon aws products it should be great

See: http://aws.amazon.com/route53/

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Oh yeah! I forgot about Route 53 - thanks for the reminder. I'll be checking it out and report back! – Alex Cook Jan 6 '11 at 4:07
Played around with it for a while. But, (from what I can see) you have to add records via Perl or Python. That might work well for some, but I can't get the req Perl/Python modules to place nice... and I'd rather not spend hours on it. Too bad Amazon doesn't give you any gui at all - at least for getting started. Thanks again for the heads up! – Alex Cook Jan 6 '11 at 6:02
@Alex Cook: You're using a web service call to add records. The Perl and Python wrappers are just there to help you get started. If you create a nice component for Route 53 management for your project, then I would bet you could even sell that component alone to others. – Jesper Mortensen♦ Jan 6 '11 at 11:19
@Alex Cook: As far as I know Amazon they rapidly deploy new features. I would not be surprised if the ports to other languages will be available soon. Same goes for UI - I am guessing that within a month or so it should be done. – Radek Jan 6 '11 at 15:29
Ha! Good point. I was thinking that! If I do build something I'll just post the source on my blog. Yep, hopefully Amazon releases something - Route 53 was just released so it's understandable. Perl/Python dependencies aren't playing nice for me now. When I figure out a solution I'll let you know. – Alex Cook Jan 7 '11 at 5:43
up vote 2 down vote

Well, if you want a straightforward rest api, zerigo is a possibility. Dyn's dynect soap api is also good. Or use dbndns + mysql and program your own.

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Looked at zerigo and I like it alot. Concerned, though, that they've only been around for 2 years... last thing I want to do is sign up and have them go under. You using them now? – Alex Cook Jan 5 '11 at 4:54
Just checked out dynect. They seem to be more reliable - many larger brands are using them - dyndns.com/services/dynectsmb – Alex Cook Jan 5 '11 at 5:05
Dyn's offering has been out longer and is a larger, dns focused company. I've used them before but they are not cheap (start @ 200/month). – jimg Jan 5 '11 at 5:37
You get what you pay for. I use Dynect for various needs and they are top-notch. – alphadogg Jan 5 '11 at 17:22
Cool - I think I'm going to give Dynect, since many of the leaders on the web are using them. $3/mo/domain is not bad, especially for businesses sites. – Alex Cook Jan 5 '11 at 17:48
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up vote 1 down vote

Many registrars (companies that sell domains) offer that for free. Your existing one may be offering that already. Ask him.

I use Gandi and OVH to manage hundreds of domains. Gandi has an extensive API. I aslo use opensrs a lot.

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+1 I like Gandi too, and their pricing is generally very attractive. Especially, they don't charge a per-domain annual fee for basic DNS hosting, as most others do. One small minus perhaps, AFAIK all Gandi's DNS resolvers are in France. So for US end users, it will take ~100 milliseconds longer to resolve a domain than it would with a globally distributed network of DNS resolvers like Amazon Route 53 or DynDNS Dynect. – Jesper Mortensen♦ Jan 5 '11 at 12:43
Good point. I read somewhere that hosting your DNS at the same place as your registrar isn't the best solution, but I might be wrong about that. I also like that idea, but since many of the domains I'm hosting are registered at different registrars, that could be a logistical problem. – Alex Cook Jan 5 '11 at 17:49
@Alex: what I do is avoid having DNS server on the same network of my website. Let's say I have a website hosted at OVH, then I'll put the DNS server at Gandi. – user3997 Jan 5 '11 at 18:11

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