What is NS1 used for?

NS1, now IBM NS1 Connect, is a managed authoritative DNS and traffic steering platform with API-first automation and automated failover. It is a good fit for steering users to the best-performing endpoint, building multi-provider DNS resilience and automating DNS changes through an API.

How much does NS1 cost?

Paid plans for NS1 start at $99 per month, and there is no free plan. A free trial is available.

No. NS1 is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to NS1 include CoreDNS, Technitium DNS Server and PowerDNS.

What are some alternatives to NS1?

NS1 competes with Amazon Route 53, Cloudflare and DNSimple. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source NS1 alternatives.

NS1: features, pricing and alternatives

About NS1

NS1 is a managed DNS and traffic management service, now sold by IBM as NS1 Connect. It acts as a real-time decision layer for DNS, answering queries based on performance, availability and user geography rather than static records alone.

The service runs on a global anycast network and provides intelligent traffic steering, automated failover and API-first automation. It can also be run alongside other providers, for example by synchronizing zones with Amazon Route 53 so traffic keeps flowing if one provider has an outage, and a DNS Insights add-on offers extra analytics.

NS1 Connect is a commercial, hosted product with a free trial and demos, aimed at engineering and network teams that want resilient, programmable DNS and fine-grained control over where users are routed. Plans are listed on the IBM product page.

Key features

Managed authoritative DNS on anycast network
Real-time traffic steering by performance and geography
Automated failover between endpoints
API-first automation of DNS records
Multi-provider DNS with Route 53 sync
DNS Insights analytics add-on

Good fit for

→Steering users to the best-performing endpoint
→Building multi-provider DNS resilience
→Automating DNS changes through an API

Tags: dns; traffic-management; anycast; failover; ibm; api; managed-dns

NS1: questions and answers

What is NS1 used for?: NS1, now IBM NS1 Connect, is a managed authoritative DNS and traffic steering platform with API-first automation and automated failover. It is a good fit for steering users to the best-performing endpoint, building multi-provider DNS resilience and automating DNS changes through an API.
How much does NS1 cost?: Paid plans for NS1 start at $99 per month, and there is no free plan. A free trial is available.
Is NS1 open source?: No. NS1 is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to NS1 include CoreDNS, Technitium DNS Server and PowerDNS.
What are some alternatives to NS1?: NS1 competes with Amazon Route 53, Cloudflare and DNSimple. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source NS1 alternatives.