Google Cloud DNS alternative
A Google Cloud DNS Alternative for Zones Nobody Is Watching
Google Cloud DNS charges $0.20 a month per managed zone for the first 25 and $0.40 per million queries (October 2026), and it supports managed DNSSEC. For a team that already works inside a Google Cloud project, it is a natural home. For a business whose DNS sits there because an agency once set it up, the cloud console is an odd place to go to add one TXT record.
With Cascadia you get
- Changes within two business days
- A zone copy before every change
- Records checked every morning
- 90 days of daily history
- Changes made for you
- Your zone, your account
Cascadia vs Google Cloud DNS at a Glance
Three Questions That Decide It
Do Your Systems Run in Google Cloud?
Do You Need Private Zones or Routing Policies?
Who Would Make the Next Change?
Side by Side
| Google Cloud DNS | Cascadia | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.20 a zone plus $0.40 per million queries (October 2026) | –$15 a month per domain |
| Who makes changes | –You, inside a Google Cloud project | We do, within two business days |
| Copy before a change | ×Yours to export | Whole zone copied first, back in seconds |
| Daily drift check | ×Yours to build | Live records compared every morning |
| Change history | –Audit logging in the project | 90 days of record history, day by day |
| Private zones | Served to your VPC networks | ×Not part of this service |
| Routing policies | $0.70 per million routing policy queries (October 2026) | ×Not part of this service |
Price
Who Makes Changes
Copy Before a Change
Daily Drift Check
Change History
Private Zones
Routing Policies
What Ships in the Standard Plan Here
With Cloud DNS you get public and private zones, managed DNSSEC, routing policies, and audit logging inside a Google Cloud project. Making the change, keeping a copy first, and checking tomorrow that it held are still yours to do.
- Record changes made for you within two business days of asking
- A copy of the whole zone taken before anything is touched
- That copy put back in seconds if a change goes wrong
- Live records compared every morning with what we last set
- A ticket naming the record when something moves outside the portal
- Ninety days of history for every record, day by day
- Email and verification records set up by people who know your zone
- Nameservers, proxy, and TTL settings checked and kept sensible
- Every record visible in your portal whenever you want to look
- No per-change fee and no ticket allowance to count against
Where Cascadia Goes Further
The difference is not the name server. It is the morning check, the copy before every change, and a person who makes the edit so you do not have to.
Edits Without a Cloud Project
Adding a verification record in Cloud DNS means signing in to the right project with the right permissions. Here you ask for it, and it is in place within two business days.
A Copy Before, a Comparison After
Every change starts with a copy of the whole zone and ends with a check against what it was meant to do. If it goes wrong, the copy goes back in seconds.
Drift Is Caught the Next Morning
Cloud DNS serves whatever the zone holds. We compare the live records daily with what we last set, so an unexpected edit reaches you as a ticket rather than an outage.
History in Plain Terms
Ninety days of record history, day by day, readable in your portal. Nobody has to go digging through project logs to learn what a record said last month.
Who This Comparison Is For
Cheap, and Cheaper at Scale
Zones past the first 25 drop to $0.10 a month, and Google's own worked example puts five zones and ten million queries at $5 a month (October 2026). For a large portfolio run by engineers, that pricing is hard to argue with.
Private Zones and Routing Policies
Cloud DNS can serve private zones to your VPC networks and offers routing policy queries at $0.70 per million (October 2026). If you need DNS inside your cloud network, that is something we do not offer.
The Project Outlives the People Who Built It
Zones end up in a project created for a launch years ago. The records keep answering, the access belongs to someone who left, and nobody remembers why half of them exist.
Choose Google Cloud DNS if
- Your workloads already run in Google Cloud
- You need private zones or routing policies
- Engineers on staff manage the project
Choose Cascadia if
- Your DNS sits in a project nobody opens
- You want changes made for you, not a console
- You want the records checked every morning
Moving Your Zone from Google Cloud DNS in Four Steps
Most of the work happens before anything is switched. By the time the nameservers change, every record has already been checked twice.
- 1
We Read the Managed Zone
Every record set, what it points at, and which are still in use. Anything that relies on a routing policy gets flagged, since it needs a plain equivalent first.
- 2
We Rebuild and Verify It
The zone goes up on the platform we run, in an account in your name, and each record is compared with the Cloud DNS original before any nameserver moves.
- 3
The Nameservers Change
Once the copy matches, the nameservers are switched at your registrar. Cloud DNS keeps answering for anyone still holding the old ones, so the move happens without downtime.
- 4
The Old Zone Can Go
When you are satisfied, the managed zone can be deleted from the project. From then on, changes go through us and the records are checked every morning.
What Clients Say About Working with Cascadia
“I’ve always dreaded website management, but Cascadia has done an incredible job with my WordPress site, making it one less thing for me to worry about.”
“I’ve worked with Cascadia for several years now. They are always ready to help in any way I ask and can implement my ideas with ease. A company that values their clients!”
“Cascadia has been great to work with! We recently needed some updates, and Cascadia was quick to get them completed! We highly recommend Cascadia Web Services.”
“Cascadia is very responsive and we’re happy with them as our primary IT vendor.”
“They do great work, been using for years. Prompt responses to requests.”
Ready to Move from Google Cloud DNS?
Talk to us about your setupAsk us
Google Cloud DNS Alternative Questions
Straight answers about switching, pricing, and what moves with you.
See Managed DNSStill have a question?
What is a Google Cloud DNS alternative?
Any other place to host the zone, or any other way to look after it. That includes Amazon Route 53 and Azure DNS on the cloud side, specialists such as DNSimple, ClouDNS, and NS1 Connect, your registrar's own DNS, and managed services like this one. Cloud DNS is one of the cheapest options there is. We sell the work around a zone rather than a cheaper place to keep it.
How is Cascadia different from Google Cloud DNS?
Cloud DNS is a name service you operate from a Google Cloud project. We make the record changes you ask for, copy the whole zone before each one, compare the live records every morning, and keep 90 days of history you can read in your portal.
Is Google Cloud DNS cheaper?
Yes. A managed zone is $0.20 a month for the first 25, and queries are $0.40 per million for the first billion (October 2026). Managed DNS is $15 a month per domain. What the difference buys is people doing the edits and watching the records, not a faster name server.
Doesn't Cloud DNS keep audit logs?
It supports audit logging, which tells you about actions taken in the project, and it is worth having switched on. Logs tell you what someone did. Our daily comparison tells you whether the records still say what they should, and our copy before every change lets us put them back in seconds.
We run workloads on Google Cloud. Should we move?
Probably not, especially if you use private zones for your VPC networks or routing policies to steer traffic. Those are real features we do not replace. We suit businesses whose public DNS sits in Google Cloud for no particular reason and gets edited a few times a year.
Can you move us off Cloud DNS without downtime?
Yes, when it is planned properly. Records are copied across and verified before the nameservers change, and Cloud DNS keeps answering throughout. The managed zone is only deleted once you have seen the new one working.
What do you need from us to start?
Access to the account your zone will live in, and a note of anything that must not be touched. Nothing is installed on your website, and no access to the site itself is needed. We read the current Cloud DNS zone as part of the move.
Do we lose control of our DNS?
No. Leaving Google Cloud DNS does not mean handing the zone to us. It sits in an account in your name, every record is visible in your portal at any time, and you are asking us to do the work rather than giving up ownership.
What counts as a change we can ask for?
Anything in the zone. A records, CNAMEs, MX, TXT, and SRV, the verification record a new service asks for, a subdomain for a staging site. There is no per-change fee and no ticket allowance, so nobody has to ration requests.
Will you tell us about changes we did not make?
Yes. Every morning the live records are compared with what we last set. Anything that moved becomes a ticket naming the record, what it says now, and what it said before.
What is not included?
Private zones, routing policies, and health checks. Domain registration, which is Domain Management. Mailboxes. We will set up the records your mail provider and your other services need, and keep them correct.
Can we stop at any time?
Yes. It is monthly, and the zone is yours. If you leave, the records stay exactly where they are and our access simply ends. The first change after that is yours to make, so it is worth knowing who that will be.
Ready to take DNS out of the cloud console?
Fifteen dollars a month per domain, changes made within two business days, a copy of the zone first, and a check every morning that the records still say what we set.