Protective DNS Providers: How do you choose?

by Carmella Arroyo on Sep 10, 2021 12:00:00 AM

Why should you care about protective DNS?

Choosing the right protective DNS provider for your organization can keep your information secured from a number of threats—including ransomware, phishing, and botnet—and is the extra layer of security between you and unwanted content. A protective DNS solution (or PDNS solution) can secure your organization's important data and avoid the risk of a threat attack.

The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Cybersecurity of Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) made a statement together where they advised organizations to adopt PDNS guidelines and stated, “DNS was not built to withstand abuse from bad actors intent on causing harm.” They have both urged the importance of protective DNS and encourage users to combine this layer of security with your organization’s cybersecurity practices.

The next question is, “Which PDNS provider do I choose?” Here we will examine DNS provider comparisons by category to help you choose the right protective DNS provider for your company.

Comparing your options

There are plenty of options when choosing a protective DNS provider but when it comes to figuring out which one is best for your company, it’s best to compare what features perform the highest. Let’s dive into the G2 Comparison Report of Summer 2021 and see what DNS filtering service features you should be looking at:

Customer Satisfaction

Looking into how different PDNS providers compare with customer satisfaction rates is usually a given. Higher satisfaction rates obviously mean their customers are happier and fulfilled with their DNS protection. A good way to look into how the different PDNS providers compare is in their NPS, or net provider score. This is where Cisco Umbrella has fallen short with a score of 46 out of 100. On the other hand, DNSFilter is leading the pack with a score of 82.

Threat detection accuracy

DNSFilter is the only PDNS solution that is AI-driven. While other solutions in the DNS comparison report rely solely on threat feeds, DNSFilter leverages AI in addition to threat feeds to categorize and block malicious domains. Our AI-driven website categorization means we’re more accurate, and we catch threats far earlier than competitors—an average of 5 days faster. We are uniquely positioned to catch 0-day threats, and 76% of threats we do find, our competitors do not.

Easy Implementation

Some SaaS products are known for lengthy implementations, meaning you delay any product benefits for the length of the deployment. It might take months to get up and running! While 69% of DNSFilter customers can get their product live in less than a day, only 35% of Webroot DNS Protection’s customers can say the same. Our tool is so simple that 100% of customers who leave us a review on G2 are up-and-running in a month and not a day longer.

Fastest Resolver

The speed of DNS resolution is important. With a slower protective DNS provider, productivity will inevitably be impacted. Third-party tool DNSperf.com ranks the speed of DNS resolvers worldwide. When it comes to North America and Asia, DNSFilter is in the top spot. We are also No. 2 worldwide as of the writing of this article.

Cloudflare Gateway, their Cloudflare DNS product, is often towards the top of the pack as well. But in North America in particular, DNSFilter is roughly 2ms faster. So the websites you visit in your day-to-day will load faster in comparison.

Customer Support

Another feature that’s vital is responsive support from your provider. According to the G2 report, WebTitan has a decent score of 84% for quality of support, but DNSFilter still rises to the top with a 94% rating.

WebTitan has reselling resources, but DNSFilter has this and more. Besides resources for resellers, DNSFilter also has a product feedback portal, chat support, and a highly trained team of support specialists. DNSFilter takes pride in being the easiest DNS security provider to work with.

With most of the competition lacking in speed, implementation, customer satisfaction, and support, DNSFilter is the overall leader for protective DNS. At DNSFilter, we are always updating and innovating our product to keep you and your organization safe from security threats and block all unwanted content.

Want the full latest comparison report of all PDNS providers? Check out the DNS Security Benchmark Report of 2021 here!

Topics: Featured

2025 Cybersecurity Predictions: It’s Not Just AI, Here’s How Cybersecurity Will be Transformed in 2025

Earlier this month I joined Mikey Pruitt, our Global Partner Evangelist, on the DNSFilter podcast dnsUNFILTERED to discuss my 2025 cybersecurity predictions. We had a lot of fun and covered all of the points I’ll outline here, but I wanted to go deeper. My 30 years of cybersecurity experience have given me a strong sense of where we’re heading as an industry—the shift to the cloud in many ways is a precursor in the adoption of AI and the future...

From Reactive to Proactive: How to Create a DNS Security Strategy that Stops Attacks

Most businesses only think about DNS security after an attack has already occurred. By then, the damage is done - downtime, lost revenue, compromised data, and a tarnished reputation. In an environment where cyber threats are constantly evolving, a reactive approach to DNS security simply isn’t enough.

How MSPs Can Enhance Customer Experience with Technology

Customer experience is the secret sauce that sets successful Managed Service Providers (MSPs) apart from the rest. In a market teeming with competition, you need to offer more than the best technology or the lowest prices. It's about how clients feel when they interact with your services. A stellar customer experience can transform a one-time client into a loyal advocate, while a poor one can send them running to your competitors. According to a ...