NOC DNS Smart Routing review
A low-cost DNS failover service with practical routing and health-check options.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
NOC DNS Smart Routing is a cloud DNS feature for website owners and teams operating multiple origin servers. It checks endpoint health and applies routing policies before returning healthy server addresses in DNS responses. The service supports HTTP/HTTPS and TCP checks, active-passive and active-active failover, priority-based failover, weighted routing, round-robin distribution, and least-connections routing. It fits teams that need straightforward DNS-based resilience without adopting a broader managed DNS platform.
Pricing is simple: the Pay As You Go plan costs $5 per site per month with monthly billing. It includes CDN performance, WAF security, Host DNS, and Monitoring. A 14-day free trial is available, but there is no free plan. The plan structure keeps entry pricing easy to understand for a small number of sites, while teams comparing broader DNS providers should weigh the narrower feature and integration set. Configuration is available through the NOC dashboard and REST API, with web and API access supported.
The routing toolkit is the main reason to consider NOC DNS Smart Routing. Active-passive failover suits a primary-and-backup design, while active-active failover and multiple routing methods support more distributed origin setups. Priority-based policies offer another way to control traffic behavior, and REST API configuration can support programmatic management. Terraform management is available through the API. Choose it for simple, low-cost DNS failover around origin servers; choose an alternative if you need a wider managed DNS ecosystem or deeper integrations.
NOC DNS Smart Routing pros and cons
- Where it wins
- HTTP/HTTPS and TCP health checks
- Active-passive and active-active failover
- Weighted, round-robin, and least-connections routing
- Where it doesn't
- Limited feature breadth versus managed DNS platforms
- Fewer integrations than higher-tier alternatives
- Paid service with no free plan
NOC DNS Smart Routing fact sheet, pricing and score →
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