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Managed public and private DNS · by Microsoft Azure

Azure DNS

Azure's anycast DNS hosting for public and private zones at $0.50 per zone per month, managed with the same credentials, billing and support as other Azure services.

Visit azure.microsoft.com ↗ Alternatives Paid EU region
Azure DNS homepage
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Overview

Azure DNS hosts your DNS zones inside Azure, so records are managed with the same Entra ID credentials, Azure Resource Manager templates, billing and support contract as the rest of your Azure resources. Public zones are served by Microsoft's global anycast name servers, and new records are live within a few seconds.

Private zones resolve names inside virtual networks and can share a name with a public zone for split-horizon DNS. Azure DNS Private Resolver forwards queries between Azure and on-premises networks, and DNS security policies can filter queries from virtual networks.

Billing is per zone ($0.50 a month for the first 25, then $0.10) plus per million queries, prorated daily. There is no free tier, and you need a registrar elsewhere because Azure DNS does not sell domains.

Because Azure's public pricing page did not show numbers when read, check the Azure pricing calculator for your region and agreement. Private Resolver endpoints are the costly part at $180 a month per inbound endpoint, so hybrid designs should size them carefully.

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Pricing and plans

Plan Price What you get
Hosted zones $0.50/zone/mo First 25 zones, public or private; $0.10 per zone after
Queries Per million Private-zone queries $0.40 per million; public query rate not captured
DNS Private Resolver $180/mo per inbound endpoint Forwarding rulesets $2.50/mo

Azure's pricing page did not render prices when read; zone and resolver prices come from Microsoft's own Azure Retail Prices API (Zone 1, USD). The per-zone charge is calculated daily and prorated. The public-query price was not in the portion of the API response read, so it is left out. Azure DNS does not sell domain names.

Source: azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/dns/ · prices as published, excluding tax.

§3

What it does

Anycast public DNS
Queries route to the nearest Microsoft name server; new records propagate in seconds.
Private zones
Name resolution within and between virtual networks, with split-horizon support.
Private Resolver
Managed forwarding between Azure and on-premises DNS without running your own servers.
DNS security policy
Filter DNS queries from virtual networks against domain lists.
Azure integration
Same credentials, billing, templates and support contract as other Azure services.
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Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Low per-zone price with daily proration.
  • Public and private DNS in one service with split-horizon support.
  • Managed through Azure RBAC, ARM/Bicep and Terraform.
  • Records update within seconds.

Limitations

  • No free tier.
  • Cannot register domain names; use a separate registrar.
  • Private Resolver endpoints cost $180 a month each.
  • Advanced traffic steering needs separate products such as Traffic Manager or Front Door.
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Who it suits

Good for

  • Applications running on Azure
  • Hybrid networks with on-premises DNS
  • Teams using Azure RBAC for DNS changes

Look elsewhere if

  • Hobby projects wanting free DNS
  • Teams needing geo or latency routing inside the DNS service itself
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Alternatives to Azure DNS

Tool From Free option Stages
Amazon Route 53 Managed DNS and traffic routing
$0.5/mo Paid
DNSimple DNS hosting and domain management
$0.5/mo Paid
Google Cloud DNS Managed authoritative and private DNS
$0.2/mo Paid
INWX Domain registrar
$15.72/yr Paid
Amazon CloudFront CDN with bundled WAF and DNS plans
$15/mo Free tier
Cloudflare CDN, DNS, WAF and DDoS protection
$20/mo Free tier

All CDN, DNS and edge security →

§7

Questions

How much does Azure DNS cost?

$0.50 per zone per month for the first 25 zones, $0.10 after, plus per-million query charges.

Can I buy a domain with Azure DNS?

No. Microsoft states Azure DNS does not support purchasing domain names; use a registrar and delegate the zone.

Does Azure DNS support private zones?

Yes. Private zones resolve names within virtual networks and can share a name with a public zone.

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