Best DNS Servers in Canada

The internet is changing daily life at a rapid pace across the globe and the demand for higher-performing, faster online products and services are rising as well. Canada, in particular, has a long history of widespread internet usage. In 2012, 83% of the Canadian population were already regular internet users—including 48% of its seniors. By 2018, the percentage had grown to 91%. It’s probably safe to say that post-pandemic, Canada may be teetering around the 100% mark.

Canada Online Trends and Behavior

One thing is clear: with the overwhelming majority of Canadians being internet users, a strong DNS strategy is a must. Here are some statistics from Cira that further prove this point. For instance, one in five Canadians don’t go more than eight hours without some online interaction, and in fact, 3 in 4 users spend a minimum of 3 and 4 hours on the web each day. What’s more, at least 46% of Canadians admitted to using their phone to get online while using the restroom, and 3 out of 4 people surf the net while they watch TV.

If we were to analyze stats from other regions, such as the U.S. or the U.K., the numbers would no doubt be similar. This is why DNS is such an important part of an organization’s business plan. While the average user just hops online without even thinking about how it’s possible to do so, it’s a must for businesses to know in order to provide the best user experience.

Fun fact: Toronto is the financial capital of Canada and contributes an average of CDN$322 billion to the country’s economy.

What is a DNS Server?

While it may seem like it, DNS isn’t magic. The domain name system operates by means of DNS nameservers that are strategically positioned around the world. These servers are what store all native files and DNS records for websites, and in turn, allows the servers to point domains to IP addresses.

The purpose of DNS servers is not just to store domain information, they also act as translators for devices by converting human-readable domain names into addresses machines can decipher. These addresses are either in IPv4 (the current standard) or IPv6 format, and are akin to a postal address, but for websites. This is why many people compare DNS to a phonebook.

Tip: To learn more about DNS, watch our easy-to-digest DNS Explained video, which breaks it down into simple terms anyone can understand.

Best DNS Servers (Canada)

As mentioned earlier, there are DNS servers all over the globe. Interconnectivity and access to high-performing DNS is crucial in today’s digital climate. As Toronto is the e-commerce hub of Canada, it’s even more important for providers to have a point of presence (PoP) at this location. 

The Equinix Toronto Metro data facility houses business hubs for over 235 companies and more than 50 network service providers with direct access to the Toronto Internet Exchange (TorIX). Among the providers with PoPs in TorIX are Akamai, Amazon, Cloudflare, Fastly, and Google. Tiggee LLC, parent company of DNS Made Easy and Constellix, expanded into Toronto in June 2021. This recent expansion gives Tiggee customers in Toronto the competitive edge they need in today’s market.  

Fastest DNS

The competitive edge that DNS Made Easy and Constellix bring to Toronto is superior performance and lightning-fast DNS speeds. With DNS, every millisecond counts! Not only does speed play a large role in SEO page ranking, but just a one-second delay in load time for a website can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.

Another factor that can impact DNS speed is when providers offer multiple services. While this can be convenient in some cases, it also means your DNS is competing with other services on the same network—not to mention vendor lock-in (but that’s another topic altogether). This can result in degraded execution. Slow or mediocre DNS speeds could be costing your business more than you realize.

DNS Speed Comparison

DNS provider speeds are largely due to their infrastructure, but there are other things that impact DNS efficiency. Location is one of them. For instance, while some cloud and CDN providers have massive foundations and a presence in prominent cities like Toronto, their servers are often located outside of the data center. What’s the big deal? It’s simple—time. Each query must reach a PoP, and when the point of presence is housed at an external location, queries have one additional step before a record can be provided. 

Here are just a few examples of how speeds compare between providers in Canada and how they match up against the DNS Made Easy and Contellix network.

Akamai

Akamai is one of the largest CDN providers and has a peering capacity of 200 Gpbs, whereas the Tiggee network has 10 Gpbs. While Akamai’s peering is larger, they have been 1,000% slower in Canada than the DNS Made Easy and Constellix network since Tiggee’s expansion into Toronto.

AWS/Amazon Route 53

Amazon is one of the biggest brands in the world and they offer a multitude of services, including cloud, storage, virtual private networks, and content delivery networks, among their DNS service Route 53. As shown by PerfOps, Amazon Route 53 has 375% slower speeds.

Cloudflare DNS

Another large, multi-service provider is Cloudflare. Within the most recent timeframe analyzed, the DNS Made Easy and Constellix network speed was 6.49 milliseconds in Canada versus 6.51 milliseconds at Cloudflare. This number may fluctuate and while it isn’t a large difference, it does demonstrate how competitive the Tiggee network is in comparison to even the largest providers.

Did you know?: DNS Made Easy and Constellix have an 11-year track record of zero downtime? 

Dynect/Oracle

Oracle Dyn, another large provider, came in at 125% slower when comparing its Canadian speeds. This company also offers DNS and multiple cloud-based services. 

NS1

PerfOps also showed that NS1 had speeds 66% slower in Canada than that of the Constellix and DNS Made Easy network since Tiggee added a PoP in Toronto.

UltraDNS

When analyzing speeds in Canada, Neustar UltraDNS was 100% slower. This provider also provides a plethora of cloud-based services, as well as DNS.

History of Provider Outages

Along with slower speeds, most of the aforementioned providers have experienced multiple outages throughout the years—some have even had multiple outages in 2021 alone. For example, Akamai just had an outage last week, and while it was brief, the outage resulted in chaos for global banks and airlines. Cloudflare had two major outages in 2020, as well as several network performance and congestion issues this year and Oracle Dyn and UltraDNS had DNS-related outages this year. Amazon has perhaps one of the longest outage histories, dating back as far as 2008. Constellix and DNS Made Easy, on the other hand, have a 11+-year history of 100% uptime.

DNS Benchmark Tools

It’s always good to check your DNS provider’s speeds occasionally. And luckily, there are online and downloadable tools at your disposal, most of which are free. Keep in mind, however, that each utility uses its own methods for testing speed, so results can vary. Because of this, we recommend checking DNS performance on multiple platforms. 

DNS Speeds and Uptime Matter

With businesses and individuals relying on the internet more than ever, it’s vital that your company’s DNS is competitive and reliable. Toronto is an integral part of the Canadian economy, which was a top deciding factor for why Tiggee added a PoP to TorIX—to benefit its Canadian customs.

DNS Made Easy and Constellix are some of the few providers that solely focus on DNS. This is one of the reasons why we have consistently faster speeds across the industry. With an extensive, company-owned infrastructure that is continually expanded, Constellix and DNS Made Easy’s customers have reaped the benefits, including unparalleled uptime.