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Akamai Edge DNS vs IBM NS1 Connect comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Akamai Edge DNS
Ranking in Managed DNS
10th
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM NS1 Connect
Ranking in Managed DNS
6th
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
9th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Managed DNS category, the mindshare of Akamai Edge DNS is 2.2%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM NS1 Connect is 2.9%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed DNS Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM NS1 Connect2.9%
Akamai Edge DNS2.2%
Other94.9%
Managed DNS
 

Featured Reviews

YA
Head of Service Delivery at onme
Ensures global distribution and DDoS protection while offering seamless integration and low latency DNS responses
For user experience, Akamai Edge DNS should allow notes to be added for each record, as this is something Infoblox supports. Without notes, managing changes in DNS records can be difficult, especially for large companies with over 1,000 records, as they may not know who requested changes without proper documentation. I requested this feature two years ago, but it has not been added yet. Akamai Edge DNS could also improve its AI capabilities.
Kidone Morgan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at PwC
Smart traffic routing has boosted performance and has saved significant time through automation
The best features that IBM NS1 Connect offers include routing based on user verification, endpoint switching based on latency, DNS response time, real-time monitoring, intelligent traffic routing capabilities, API-driven functionality, HTTPS redirects, secondary DNS, and API integrations. It helps to connect for external DNS and HTTPS redirects. The ability to have a diverse secondary DNS server is also key. It has been a solid platform for us and we have not experienced any significant issues. IBM NS1 Connect has positively impacted my organization by providing controlled downtime, reduced downtime, and time saving through automation, as approximately forty to fifty percent of our time is saved through automation and enhanced visibility. The metrics and real-time monitoring are probably the most powerful features. Automation has really saved us time because this tool is able to automate most of the repetitive and time-consuming tasks. We are able to save time because of the automation.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I recommend Akamai Edge DNS because it is distributed globally and prevents DDoS attacks."
"I haven't had any problems with the stability of Akamai Edge DNS in the past five years."
"We can maintain control of the configuration, and it seems to be covering the use case that we need."
"It is a very stable solution since it has a security feature that allows you to recover zone files if you accidentally delete them."
"The high availability of Akamai Edge DNS is impressive due to their numerous POPs, which help in supporting all attacks, including DDoS counterattacks."
"For starters, it integrates with Terraform and a lot of our infrastructure is effectively built out using Terraform. That makes all this stuff extremely easy... when we deploy, all the entries are created and configuration is done."
"The fact that it's an API-first platform for DNS and application traffic management is one of the reasons we looked into NS1. We use it for a lot of automation and metrics gathering and it's been great."
"The solution's stability is absolutely perfect."
"The best benefits of using IBM NS1 Connect are the performance and availability of the product towards the cloud, and when comparing the performance with other products, I believe it is above par, as it is really helpful and gives me at least a 20 to 30% improvement in functionality."
"The auto DNS traffic routing helps during deployment or incidents by providing more reliability and faster performance."
"It massively speeds things up. Today, we allow developers to deploy services and have externally facing DNS scrapers that are created automatically without the addition of human intervention."
"NS1 gives us a nice flat line, because it's always performant and fast and that's what we want to see."
"IBM NS1 Connect's API-driven architecture has helped my organization with digital transformation as it is an open standard."
 

Cons

"Akamai Edge DNS is expensive, and the pricing is higher compared to Infoblox."
"The solution has a fairly complex setup with our cloud vendors, including Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle."
"The only area that needs improvement is the pricing for DNS zones. The price is higher than competitors, and Akamai should offer a better pricing model."
"CNAME flattening is a feature that Akamai does not support."
"There could maybe be additional ways to manage traffic. There are no major improvements we're looking for. It's a very complete solution."
"When we first deployed, we flipped the switch, and it didn't work as well as we expected."
"The Filter Chain setup is a bit hard to grasp at first."
"We care about monitoring and telemetry work, and NS1 provides a pretty good system for monitoring. We can monitor our endpoints and points of presence around the world. If there are any issues, we can easily remove them from our network, but this area needs some improvement because it is not always reliable in NS1. In the past, we had a number of false-positive cases when the monitoring system told us about some problems in our infrastructure that were not true. NS1 is improving the system, and we are constantly talking about this with them. I know that they are releasing a new version of their monitoring system, which is really important for us, but this is a different area where we would expect them to improve."
"Pricing can be more transparent, especially when dealing with tight budgets."
"I would love to see improvement in the testing capabilities they provide."
"We use the geo load balancing functionality and there are a couple of things that are helpful there. But the language itself is something we had to get used to a little bit. Some of my folks made a few mistakes in rolling out the Filter Chain...The Filter Chain setup is a bit hard to grasp at first. It would also be nice to have a way to simulate changes in addition to staging."
"The technical support is slow. You raise a PR, and then it takes several weeks for them to respond."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Since Akamai is the industry leader, I imagine the solution would be a little more expensive than some other vendors."
"Everything can always be cheaper, but as it is today the pricing is fair."
"The cost of this product is one of the reasons that we chose it."
"NS1's pricing is much more aggressive than its competitors in the market and you get more value out of what you pay for it."
"From a cost standpoint, it's certainly not the most expensive out there, and it's also not the cheapest, but it does well to balance the cost and the functionality/reliability."
"We pay about $30,000 a month. We used to pay about $20,000 with Dyn every month, for lower volume than we're doing right now, but it had none of the features that we have available with NS1, so it was worth it for us. It seems competitive for us, given that we're doing 4.5 billion requests."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise13
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Akamai Edge DNS?
For user experience, Akamai Edge DNS should allow notes to be added for each record, as this is something Infoblox supports. Without notes, managing changes in DNS records can be difficult, especia...
What is your primary use case for Akamai Edge DNS?
As a reseller company for Akamai, my typical use case for Akamai Edge DNS is its distribution worldwide, providing DDoS attack prevention which is crucial in current times.
What advice do you have for others considering Akamai Edge DNS?
I recommend Akamai Edge DNS and rate the overall solution a ten out of ten. Akamai Edge DNS should improve its AI more to enhance the product's capabilities.
What needs improvement with NS1 Managed DNS?
I believe IBM NS1 Connect can be improved in several ways. The main concern I identified is the cost, which is higher than other solutions despite its uses. Additionally, they could improve their h...
What is your primary use case for NS1 Managed DNS?
My main use case for IBM NS1 Connect is handling DNS traffic and routing traffic. A specific example of how I use IBM NS1 Connect to route traffic is routing the API, the websites' API, and the app...
What advice do you have for others considering NS1 Managed DNS?
Regarding IBM NS1 Connect's AI capabilities, the accuracy and reliability of output involve least privileged API keys, API key rotation, secret management, and monitoring and alerting, with alerts ...
 

Also Known As

Akamai Fast DNS
NS1 Managed DNS, NS1
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Otto Group
Avast Software, Bloomberg L.P., BBC, Carfax, CNBC LLC, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Disney Streaming, Dropbox, EBAY Inc, Gannett Media Corp, Salesforce, Wayfair, Workday
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai Edge DNS vs. IBM NS1 Connect and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.