Current Free Domain Resolution Services Available in China
According to the official CloudXNS announcement Announcement on Stopping Free User Services, the free DNS resolution service will be discontinued on July 16, 2019. CloudXNS has already disabled the registration button. It is recommended to prepare for migration in advance. Xiaoz has compiled a list of currently available free domain resolution services in China for reference.
Regarding CloudXNS, Xiaoz would like to add a few words. Among the free domain resolution services used so far, CloudXNS offers the most rich and complete features, comparable to many paid DNS services. However, CloudXNS stopped resolution for unverified users last year and is now closing its free service, suggesting that CloudXNS does not seem to prioritize individual businesses.
Domestic DNS or Foreign DNS?
In the earlier article Those Foreign Free Domain DNS Resolution Services, Xiaoz shared some foreign DNS resolution services for comparison. The advantages and disadvantages of domestic and foreign DNS are as follows:
Domestic DNS: Low latency, fast speed, and support for EDNS (resolution based on carrier lines) is almost standard. A few support GEODNS (resolution based on user regions). Domestic services are subject to censorship, so illegal or borderline services are generally not allowed. If you are running such services, it is not recommended to choose domestic DNS.
Foreign DNS: Conditions are relatively relaxed, but most free DNS services do not support EDNS/GEODNS, and latency is relatively high within China. Foreign DNS is suitable for users overseas or for special sensitive businesses.
EDNS
Due to the special nature of the domestic network, the internet is basically controlled by the three major carriers: China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom. The interconnectivity between these carriers in some regions is not very good. EDNS can solve this problem. EDNS allows mobile users to be resolved to mobile nodes, Unicom users to Unicom nodes, and Telecom users to Telecom nodes. The prerequisite for EDNS is that the authoritative DNS (domain resolution service) must support resolution based on Mobile, Unicom, and Telecom lines, and your local DNS (recursive DNS) must also support EDNS (currently, Tencent's 119.29.29.29 supports this).
GeoDNS
GeoDNS refers to resolution based on regions. For example, the country is divided into East China, South China, Central China, North China, etc. If GeoDNS is supported, resolution can be performed based on different regions.
DNS.LA
DNS.LA was founded in 2005. The free version supports EDNS, does not limit query counts, and has a minimum TTL of 300s. It supports downtime detection, a very practical feature. For example, you can set a primary IP and a backup IP for a record. When the primary IP is detected as down, it will automatically resolve to the backup IP, ensuring normal business operations. Currently, among free versions, only CloudXNS and DNS.LA are known to provide free failover switching.
DNS.LA Official Website: https://www.dns.la/
DNS.COM
Xiamen Diansi Technology Co., Ltd. (DNS.COM) was established in 2012. The free version supports GeoDNS, with a minimum TTL of 600s. There are no particularly outstanding advantages in the free DNS.
Official Website: https://www.dns.com/
Huawei Cloud DNS
Huawei Cloud DNS is currently very user-friendly. There are no paid resolution packages, so Huawei Cloud DNS is completely free. It supports both EDNS and GeoDNS, allows custom TTL validity times, with a minimum of 1s.
Official Website: https://www.huaweicloud.com/product/dns.html
Aliyun DNS
As China's largest cloud service provider, Aliyun acquired Wangwang, making domain names an important business. Since domains rely on DNS resolution, Aliyun DNS's stability and functionality are quite mature. The free version supports EDNS, with a minimum TTL of 600s, but the free version does not guarantee availability SLA.
Official Website: https://wanwang.aliyun.com/domain/dns
DNSPOD
A well-established domestic domain resolution service provider, known for stability and maturity. After being acquired by Tencent, there have not been significant upgrades to its features. The free version supports EDNS, supports D Monitoring (which enables failover switching), with a minimum TTL of 600s.
Official Website: https://www.dnspod.cn
JD Cloud DNS
JD Cloud is just starting this business. Xiaoz has not used it for a long time, so the specific stability of the cloud resolution is unclear. JD Cloud DNS supports EDNS. The free version does not guarantee SLA. However, many users previously utilized the enterprise version of JD Cloud DNS, which offers richer features than the free version. If you have the JD Cloud enterprise version, it is worth trying.
Official Website: https://www.jdcloud.com/cn/products/jd-cloud-dns
Comparison of Domestic Free Domain Resolution Functions
To facilitate your choice, Xiaoz has compared the domain resolution services mentioned above (Note: Only the free versions are compared; paid versions are not included).
| Feature/Provider | DNS.LA | DNS.COM | Huawei Cloud DNS | Aliyun DNS | DNSPOD | JD Cloud DNS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EDNS | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported |
| GeoDNS | Not Supported | Not Supported | Supported | Not Supported | Not Supported | Not Supported |
| Website Monitoring | Supported (Failover) | Not Supported | Not Supported | Not Supported | D Monitoring (Failover) | Not Supported |
| Minimum TTL | 300s | 300s | 1s | Unknown | 600s | 120s |
| SLA | 99% | Unknown | Unknown | Not Guaranteed | Unknown | Not Guaranteed |
Summary
In summary, if you need failover switching functionality, choose DNS.LA. Among the free versions, Huawei Cloud DNS offers the most rich features. If you need lower TTL and GeoDNS functionality, consider Huawei Cloud DNS. The other providers' free versions have similar features; under equal conditions, stability becomes the deciding factor. (Note: All the above services require real-name verification to be used normally). If there are any deficiencies or errors, please leave a message to correct them.