Do you want to improve your domain availability? A free DNS hosting is a great way to go. While having a free DNS hosting might be a bit limiting, it is an awesome first step to learn more about the DNS. You can use it to experiment, see the improvement and understand better what you want.
The DNS hosting, even a free DNS hosting, could improve the domain’s speed and provide redundancy to the system, so you experience less downtime.
Here we have created a list of a few good free DNS hosting providers that could be ideal for your DNS beginning.
Cloudns
Cloudns.net has a very decent Free DNS plan. The limits that you will have will be up to 4 DNS servers, 1 DNS zone, 50 DNS records, and a good amount of monthly DNS queries – 500k. You will be able to use different types of DNS records, not just the basics, and there are some extras like Dynamic DNS that could come in very handy. Additionally, you will have statistics about your DNS traffic and live-chat support, which is great for a free plan. If you outgrow it, you can upgrade to a paid plan later.
Namecheap
Namecheap.com is another DNS provider that has paid and free DNS plans. Inside its free DNS plan, it offers a few nice surprises, like the possibility to use a Secondary DNS. You can use it for a backup and better redundancy. It has a good set of DNS record types like A, AAAA, MX, NS, ALIAS, CNAME, Web redirects, and more. Here you will also find Dynamic DNS. It has 24/7 tech support. Namecheap.com and Cloudns.net are very alike in their free tier DNS, so if you are thinking about one of them, it could be a good idea to see their premium plans, too, for the future.
GeoScaling
GeoScaling has one great ace up its sleeve for a totally free service – GeoDNS. It can understand the incoming traffic and redirect the visitors based on their location. That is incredibly useful and rare in a free-tier DNS. Apart from that, it has a good limit of 1M DNS queries per month and good support of DNS record types. Another nice addition is the Dynamic DNS support. The team behind the organization is not as big as in the previous two, but it is an attractive offer nevertheless.
Buddyns
This free DNS provider offers a free Secondary DNS service, and it is betting on security. It has DNSCurve for encrypting DNS queries for free. Free DNS security is another uncommon feature that is very welcome. You will also benefit from a free DNS monitor, good uptime, and the possibility to use AAAA records. It comes a bit short is the monthly limit of 300K DNS queries, and there is no customer support too, but it offers paid plans.
Dns4
The last of this list will be the Dns4.pro. It offers interesting features like Anycast DNS and DNSSEC for free. Its shortcomings are that its free plan works with up to 5 domains, no statistics, and 500K DNS queries per month. There is a paid option, but they are not transparent enough about the price, so it might be good to use it just for a smaller project.
Conclusion
Now, there are a lot more DNS providers, and many have free plans. The free DNS plan is a good hook into the world of DNS. Seeing the improved performance very often leads you to desire more. We can recommend you to think about your needs, current and future ones, and then think about which one of the free DNS hosting providers you would like to try.