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Cloudflare vs IBM NS1 Connect comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.9
Cloudflare increases ROI by enhancing security, reducing costs, and boosting performance, benefiting e-commerce, small businesses, and projects.
Sentiment score
5.9
IBM NS1 Connect enhances uptime, optimizes traffic, and reduces costs with automation, boosting performance and customer experience for users.
For the small project I was working on, using the basic tier provided a huge improvement at zero cost.
Security Specialist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
In terms of return on investment with Cloudflare, it costs my time to set them up, but basically once they're set up, it's done.
Owner at Hga consulting
The return on investment for me is significant as time is the critical aspect.
Senior Network and Security Expert at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
I have definitely seen a return on investment with IBM NS1 Connect as it has given our organization more control and flexibility in managing DNS at a global scale, which almost was impossible before.
Senior Software Engineer at PwC
Regarding return on investment, this automation saves eight engineer hours per month, which at $40 per hour translates to about $320 monthly and approximately $3,840 annually.
Associate Software Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
I had high downtime before its implementation and now achieve 99% uptime, a significant improvement for my customer.
Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Cloudflare's customer service excels for paying users, while others face slow responses and rely on effective self-serve resources.
Sentiment score
7.6
IBM NS1 Connect support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, though complex issues may require higher plans for faster solutions.
Cloudflare does not offer hands-on technical support to fix customer problems but rather a self-service model.
Senior Consultant CDN at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the technical support with Cloudflare as excellent every time I've had to call them.
Owner at Hga consulting
We use other solutions where support is available through Slack channels and is more interactive, with someone responding within a couple of minutes or seconds.
General Manager at bKash Limited
The customer support for IBM NS1 Connect is very proactive and responsive twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Senior Software Engineer at PwC
You raise a PR, and then it takes several weeks for them to respond.
Assosiate Director at TIAA
I believe subscribing to a higher plan would ensure immediate support to prevent losing too many customers, particularly premium customers.
Associate Software Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cloudflare is praised for its high scalability, adaptability, and efficiency in DNS management, content delivery, and security.
Sentiment score
6.4
IBM NS1 Connect excels in scalable query handling, offering reliability and adaptability for high traffic and dynamic environments.
The tool offers very good performance, even during high-traffic periods.
Engineer at SITMEXICO
Cloudflare's scalability is quite good; it is very easy to scale whenever we want to include multiple domains.
Senior Network and Security Expert at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Using NS1 with a low TTL capability to propagate DNS updates globally in under five seconds is highly commendable.
Dns architect at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
When the number of users increases, it can distribute traffic automatically across multiple servers, clouds, or regions.
Especialista De Produtos at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
IBM NS1 Connect's scalability is very high, managing scenarios with a large volume of queries by distributing load among free nodes.
Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cloudflare is praised for its reliable DNS services and global uptime, despite occasional downtime and minor implementation challenges.
Sentiment score
8.4
IBM NS1 Connect is highly reliable, demonstrating excellent stability, scalability, and consistent uptime, even during high traffic and DDoS attacks.
The service is very stable with no impacts during high-traffic periods.
Engineer at SITMEXICO
Cloudflare's reliability and uptime has met my expectations; it has been quite good in general.
Senior Network and Security Expert at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
IBM NS1 Connect is very stable as I have not experienced any lagging or downtime.
Senior Software Engineer at PwC
 

Room For Improvement

Cloudflare needs improvements in UI speed, support, customization, security features, documentation, geographical presence, and clearer pricing structures.
IBM NS1 Connect needs UI, reporting, cost, training enhancements, better automation, AI integration, and user-friendly design improvements.
Customers do not have options to modify any configuration parameters in Cloudflare, whereas other competitor solutions, such as F5 Distributed Cloud, allow customers to tune configurations according to their requirements.
General Manager at bKash Limited
Cloudflare could be improved by introducing a mid-tier pricing option.
Security Specialist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Protection against creating duplicated DMARC entries would be beneficial, along with setting permissions to restrict modification of DMARC or SPF records.
Senior Security Engineer at ManpowerGroup
IBM NS1 Connect has a very steep learning curve in terms of learning the custom filter chains and the complex multi-region setup, which requires a specialized DNS expert and can be difficult for beginners.
Dns architect at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Pricing can be more transparent, especially when dealing with tight budgets.
Senior Software Engineer at PwC
I think the support for upcoming technical updates in IBM NS1 Connect could be improved as they are not up to the mark, and their development or new enhancements are very slow.
Data Protection Specialist at CompuCom
 

Setup Cost

Cloudflare offers competitive pricing options from a free tier to $1,500 monthly, suitable for varying enterprise needs.
IBM NS1 Connect pricing is seen as fair and competitive, balancing cost with functionality and reliability for enterprise buyers.
I find it to be cheap.
Engineer at SITMEXICO
However, the enterprise price for small projects is a bit high.
Security Specialist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cloudflare are a bit on the higher side overall.
Senior Network and Security Expert at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Other competitors have offered a very low price compared to IBM, and that aspect is very tough for us to convince clients.
Data Protection Specialist at CompuCom
Licensing poses a more challenging part since the cost depends on the plan, DNS query volume, check monitors, filter limits, and additional capabilities.
Associate Software Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
The essentials plan is very affordable, costing less than 100 a month.
Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cloudflare enhances website security and performance through automatic features, robust caching, and optimized content delivery, improving user experience.
IBM NS1 Connect enhances performance with DNS automation, intelligent routing, API-driven features, security, and improved uptime and efficiency.
Most of our DNS records that are presented to the internet are proxied whenever possible, providing another layer of defense from our perspective.
Senior Security Engineer at ManpowerGroup
Cloudflare has positively impacted our organization by giving us flexibility to manage the DNS part, being quite fast, and allowing us to manage everything from a single dashboard.
Senior Network and Security Expert at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Cloudflare has recently implemented AI Crawl Control. From their panel, we can control which AI to allow on our domain and which AI to block.
IT Manager at a consumer goods company with 51-200 employees
The intelligence criterion directs the user to the best server based on latency and availability with 100% SLA for DNS resolution, and the API makes automation easier and reduces manual errors, plus it detects failures and redirects users.
Especialista De Produtos at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
We can host our application wherever our presence is, supporting disaster recovery situations and automated failover scenarios with 99.99% uptime.
Dns architect at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The API-first automation automates DNS configurations and changes through APIs and infrastructure as code workflows, reducing repetitive manual work and the risk of human error.
Associate Software Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cloudflare
Ranking in Managed DNS
1st
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
CDN (1st), WAN Optimization (5th), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (8th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (2nd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (15th)
IBM NS1 Connect
Ranking in Managed DNS
4th
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
9th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Managed DNS category, the mindshare of Cloudflare is 23.1%, down from 33.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM NS1 Connect is 3.1%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed DNS Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cloudflare23.1%
IBM NS1 Connect3.1%
Other73.8%
Managed DNS
 

Featured Reviews

M.A. Faisal - PeerSpot reviewer
General Manager at bKash Limited
Advanced protection has secured critical web workloads and provides clear traffic visibility
From a security perspective, there remains a security loophole, as some browsers in the market can bypass the Turnstile solution, which requires approximately 40 seconds to do so. From a performance perspective, this is acceptable. We also tried Google reCAPTCHA, and that can also be bypassed. From a security perspective, I would say neither solution is completely secured. Regarding uptime, we have faced a couple of incidents due to Cloudflare in recent years, so I cannot say we receive 100% uptime for our region. We sometimes face challenges, including downtime and other issues. As a result, we are not receiving 100% uptime from Cloudflare's solution. Since most of our customers are in this region, we need alternatives. We need something more competitive than Cloudflare. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh, Cloudflare has three points of presence already, and we cannot find any other solution provider in Bangladesh as an alternative, which presents another challenge. Competitor solutions have more attack signatures, which ensure better security compared to Cloudflare's predefined configurations. Customers do not have options to modify any configuration parameters in Cloudflare, whereas other competitor solutions, such as F5 Distributed Cloud, allow customers to tune configurations according to their requirements. Cloudflare could improve in this area. Additionally, regarding visibility, Cloudflare has static visibility, but they could adopt dynamic graph features for their customers.
reviewer2889387 - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Software Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
Intelligent traffic steering has improved uptime and now needs simpler policies and support
The best features IBM NS1 Connect offers include the authoritative DNS filter chain, traffic steering policies, and endpoint health monitoring, along with its API-first automation and DNS reporting, which are all some of the most valuable features. Out of those features, I find myself relying on the traffic steering policies the most because we detect the endpoints and steer new DNS responses towards healthy alternatives. This is very helpful because whenever there is a massive amount of requests coming into the region or to the server, and for a better user interface and customer experience, we should not show the user that the server is down. We can reroute the request to the server nearest to that region, making it an important capability. The authoritative DNS ensures DNS queries for domains and reliable DNS resolution are essential for users, particularly to discover application endpoints, but it alone does not guarantee this. The API-first automation automates DNS configurations and changes through APIs and infrastructure as code workflows, reducing repetitive manual work and the risk of human error. The DNS reporting and analytics help teams understand query volume, traffic distribution, and unusual behavior under the support of troubleshooting and capacity planning.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business47
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise26
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise16
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GRE tunnels. We have decreased site load times on Mobile 3G from 8 to 1,6 seconds ...
Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?
Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service that offers great redundancy and advanced security with built-in unmetered and ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare DNS?
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cloudflare are a bit on the higher side overall.
What needs improvement with NS1 Managed DNS?
IBM NS1 Connect has a very steep learning curve in terms of learning the custom filter chains and the complex multi-region setup, which requires a specialized DNS expert and can be difficult for be...
What is your primary use case for NS1 Managed DNS?
IBM NS1 Connect serves as our managed authoritative DNS and traffic steering service, which is highly reliable, and its performance is excellent for a global Anycast network. For a specific example...
What advice do you have for others considering NS1 Managed DNS?
Regarding IBM NS1 Connect's AI capabilities, I think its governance and security are great as it's a SaaS-based solution, and the governance is also good. While we haven't had a very close connecti...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS
NS1 Managed DNS, NS1
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.
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 Cloudflare vs. IBM NS1 Connect and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.