According to the official announcement of CloudXNS, the free DNS resolution service will be discontinued on July 16, 2019. Currently, the registration button of CloudXNS has been disabled. It is recommended that you make migration preparations in advance. Xiaoz has compiled a list of several free domain name resolution services currently available in China for your reference.

Regarding CloudXNS, Xiaoz would like to say a few more words. Among the free domain name resolution services he has used, CloudXNS has the most comprehensive and complete features, comparable to many paid DNS services. However, based on the fact that CloudXNS stopped resolving for unverified users last year and will soon be shutting down its free service, it seems that CloudXNS does not attach much importance to individual users.

Chinese DNS or foreign DNS?

In the early article "Those foreign free domain name DNS resolution services", Xiaoz shared some foreign DNS resolution services for comparison. The advantages and disadvantages of Chinese DNS and foreign DNS are as follows:

Chinese DNS: Low latency, fast speed, support for EDNS (which means resolving according to the operator's line) is almost standard, and a few support GEODNS (which means resolving according to the user's region). Chinese services are subject to censorship, so they generally do not allow illegal or borderline services. If you are engaged in such businesses, it is better not to choose Chinese DNS.

Foreign DNS: The conditions are relatively loose, but most free DNS services do not support EDNS/GEODNS, and the latency is relatively high compared to China. Foreign DNS is suitable for targeting overseas users or some more sensitive businesses.

EDNS

Due to the special nature of the domestic network, the network is basically controlled by the three major operators: China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom. However, the interconnection between the three major operators is not very good in some regions. EDNS can solve this problem. EDNS can resolve mobile users to mobile nodes, China Unicom users to China Unicom nodes, and China Telecom users to China Telecom nodes. The premise of ENDS is that the authoritative DNS (which is the domain name resolution service) needs to support resolution according to the mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom lines, and your local DNS (recursive DNS) also needs to support EDNS (currently provided by Tencent's "119.29.29.29").

GeoDNS

GeoDNS refers to resolution based on regions. For example, there are East China, South China, Central China, North China and other regions in the country. If GeoDNS is supported, resolution can be performed based on different regions.

DNS.LA

DNSLA was founded in 2005. The free version supports EDNS, does not limit the number of queries, and the minimum TTL is 300s. It supports downtime detection, which is very practical. For example, for a resolution, you can set a primary IP and a backup IP. When the primary IP is detected as down, it will automatically resolve to the backup IP to ensure the normal use of the service. Currently, among the free DNS versions, besides CloudXNS and DNS.LA, no other service providers have been found to provide free downtime switching.

DNS.COM

DNS.COM, founded in 2012, supports GeoDNS in the free version, and the minimum TTL is 600s. There is no particularly prominent advantage among the free DNS versions.

Huawei Cloud DNS

Currently, Huawei Cloud DNS is quite reliable and there is no charge for resolution services. Therefore, Huawei Cloud DNS is completely free. It supports EDNS and GeoDNS, and you can customize the TTL effective time, with a minimum of 1s.

Aliyun DNS

As the largest cloud computing service provider in China, Alibaba Cloud acquired Wanwang, and domain names are one of its important businesses. Domain names are inseparable from DNS resolution, so the stability and functionality of Alibaba Cloud DNS are relatively mature. The free version supports EDNS, and the minimum TTL is 600s, but the free version does not guarantee availability SLA.

DNSPOD

DNSPod is an old domain name resolution service provider in China, and it is relatively mature and stable. After being acquired by Tencent, its functionality has not been significantly upgraded. The free version supports EDNS, supports D monitoring (which can achieve downtime switching), and the minimum TTL is 600s.

JD Cloud DNS

JD Cloud has just started this business, and Xiaoz has not used it for a long time, so it is not clear about the stability of the cloud resolution. JD Cloud DNS supports EDNS, and the free version does not guarantee SLA. However, many students have used the enterprise version of JD Cloud DNS before, which has richer functionality than the free version. If you have the enterprise version of JD Cloud DNS, you can give it a try.

Comparison of free domain name resolution services in China

To facilitate your selection, Xiaoz has made a comparison of the above-mentioned domain name resolutions (note: only the free version is compared, the paid version is not included).

In summary, if you need downtime switching functionality, you can choose DNS.LA. Among the free versions, Huawei Cloud DNS has the most comprehensive features. If you need lower TTL and GeoDNS functionality, you can consider Huawei Cloud DNS. Then other free DNS versions have similar features, so the stability should be the key factor to consider. (Note: All the above services need to be verified before they can be used normally). If there are any deficiencies or errors, please leave a comment to correct them.