The availability and performance of a website play a crucial role in the success of online businesses. Among the many elements that contribute to effective site management, the DNS (Domain Name System) holds an essential place.
While most hosting plans include basic DNS services, there are also Premium DNS services that offer additional features. But are they worth the investment? Here are some points to consider.
What is DNS?
A DNS The DNS acts like the Internet's directory: it translates website names into IP addresses that computers understand, so users can access the sites they want without knowing their exact IP address.
In other words, the DNS converts easy-to-remember domain names, like “www.yourbusiness.com”, into IP addresses, which are the real identifiers used by servers on the Internet.
What are the benefits of a Premium DNS?
Why should you consider adopting a Premium DNS when your host provides DNS included in your hosting package? Simply because a Premium DNS offers considerable advantages in terms of reliability, performance and security for your site, which can have a direct impact on your revenue.
More reliability
Premium DNS services generally offer better availability and reliability compared to free DNS options, notably thanks to the provision of secondary DNS servers.
For example, IONOS DNS Pro allows anyone with an existing DNS server to use IONOS as a secondary DNS provider.
A secondary DNS is a backup copy of the primary DNS. It regularly synchronizes with the primary DNS to obtain the latest domain information. In the event of a primary DNS failure, the secondary DNS takes over to ensure users can still access your website or online service.
The secondary DNS acts as a safety net to ensure the availability and continuity of your online presence.
Enhanced security
Premium DNS services can provide additional security features compared with standard DNS offerings.
For example, Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) add an authorization layer to protect your DNS records.
This digital signature prevents attackers from tampering with your DNS records and redirecting requests to fraudulent or malicious sites, where they could, for example, claim ownership of your domain and collect your users' banking data.
If security is a priority for your online assets, a Premium DNS service can provide extra peace of mind: only you can control your domain and all the data associated with it.
Better performance
Premium DNS services often have robust infrastructure and global networks, which can improve DNS resolution speed and performance, and therefore your site's performance.
Many DNS use the Anycast routing. Anycast is a routing and addressing method that allows a single IP address to be used by multiple servers, rather than using one IP address per server. By using servers configured in an Anycast cluster, your projects benefit from redundancy and globally distributed DNS sites, enabling faster response times, better availability, and greater reliability.
The difference between Anycast and Premium Anycast comes from the DNS infrastructure configuration. While basic Anycast often relies on a few points of presence (PoPs), a service like IONOS DNS Pro relies on 40 PoPs, that is to say physical locations with a name server for a domain.
Did you know? A name server is a computer responsible for managing the data that maps domain names to IP addresses.
Thus, Premium Anycast ensures the reliability and stability of your websites and improves the delivery time of your domains, and therefore your sites' speed.
Free DNS or Premium DNS — how to choose?
First, assess your budget. If your site is not a revenue source or isn’t strategic for your business, is it necessary to allocate a budget to secure it and improve its performance? Although Premium DNS offerings are reasonably priced, they still represent an additional cost for your business.
IONOS offers its DNS Pro for €1 excl. VAT/month for the 1first year, then €2.50 excl. VAT/month.
If the security of your domain and your users' data is a crucial concern for your company, investing in a Premium DNS seems obvious. Indeed, a Premium DNS greatly reduces the risks of DNS hijacking, spoofing and DDoS attacks, thereby protecting your users.
Similarly, if you have a complex domain architecture and need high speed on your sites, an Anycast-equipped Premium DNS will improve your domain's performance. Don't forget that the site performance is now taken into account by Google for SEO!
Finally, a Premium DNS will protect you from service outages on your site, thanks to secondary DNS and backups included in Premium plans. This can be particularly valuable if your website is critical to your business operations, especially if it is your main source of revenue.
However, if you only have a personal blog with modest traffic, basic DNS services or even free alternatives may be sufficient.
It is essential to assess your needs, your budget, and the value you assign to the factors mentioned above before deciding whether a Premium DNS service is relevant for your business.
