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    DNScale vs Bunny DNS — 2026 modern EU DNS comparison

    How DNScale and Bunny DNS compare on EU jurisdiction, pricing, IaC support, and the CDN-bundled vs DNS-only positioning. A balanced 2026 comparison.

    Updated

    TL;DR

    Bunny DNS (part of bunny.net, Slovenia-based) and DNScale are both EU-jurisdictional anycast DNS providers — so 'EU sovereignty' alone won't separate them. Bunny wins if you're already on Bunny CDN or want the bundled CDN+DNS+storage product surface and aggressive pricing. DNScale wins on IaC parity (first-party Terraform + DNSControl), DNS-only focus with a smaller blast radius, and operational transparency. Pick Bunny if your stack is already bunny.net; pick DNScale if you want a focused EU DNS provider with first-class IaC and per-zone transparency.

    Bunny DNS is part of bunny.net, a Slovenia-based EU company that's built its reputation on aggressive CDN pricing and a developer-friendly product surface. DNS is one product in their broader edge platform (CDN, DNS, edge storage, edge scripting). DNScale is a focused EU DNS provider. This page is a balanced comparison from the DNScale engineering team for buyers evaluating both.

    Side-by-side at a glance

    DimensionDNScaleBunny DNS
    Headquarters / jurisdictionEU operationsSlovenia (EU)
    Anycast networkGlobal, EU-denseGlobal; bundled with bunny.net edge network
    Free tier14-day trialPay-as-you-go from very low entry
    Pricing modelTransparent per-zone, predictable query allowancesPer-query + per-zone; aggressive headline pricing
    DNSSECOne-click, ECDSA P-256 defaultSupported
    Terraform providerFirst-party, day-oneCommunity
    DNSControl providerFirst-partyCommunity / unofficial
    CDN integrationNone (focused DNS-only)Native — DNS, CDN, storage, scripting in one platform
    Edge scripting / Workers-equivalentOut of scopeYes (Magic Containers, edge scripting)
    API designModern REST, scoped keysModern REST
    DashboardModern, opinionatedModern, developer-friendly
    EU jurisdictionStructuralStructural

    Where Bunny DNS wins

    Bunny's strengths are real and especially relevant for some buyer profiles:

    1. Bundled CDN + DNS + storage + edge. If you're already on Bunny CDN, adding their DNS is essentially friction-free. Single dashboard, single billing relationship, native integration between CDN origin pulls and DNS records. For solo developers, agencies, and small teams that value this kind of bundling, Bunny is genuinely compelling.
    2. Aggressive pricing. Bunny has built their brand on per-query and per-GB pricing that undercuts most competitors. For very low-volume zones or developers running personal projects, it's hard to beat.
    3. Modern, developer-friendly product surface. The API is clean, the dashboard is well-designed, the documentation is accessible. They've invested in developer experience and it shows.
    4. EU jurisdiction. Slovenia-based, EU-jurisdictional. Same answer as DNScale on this dimension.
    5. Edge scripting and Magic Containers. Bunny offers Cloudflare-Workers-equivalent products. If your architecture wants edge compute alongside DNS, Bunny has it; DNScale does not.

    If you want a bundled EU edge platform (CDN + DNS + storage + edge compute) with aggressive pricing, Bunny is a strong pick.

    Where DNScale wins

    DNScale's wedge against Bunny is structural and product-shape:

    1. DNS-only focus, smaller blast radius. DNScale's product is authoritative DNS plus IaC integrations. Nothing else. A control-plane incident at bunny.net can affect CDN, DNS, storage, and edge scripting through shared infrastructure; DNScale has a smaller incident surface by design.
    2. IaC parity is day-one. First-party Terraform and DNSControl providers. Bunny's IaC story is community-maintained and shallower. If your ops standardises on Terraform / OpenTofu / DNSControl, DNScale is a closer fit.
    3. Operational transparency. AS numbers, peering, post-incident reports, security.txt are first-class — see DNScale infrastructure and EU operations. Bunny is a more product-marketing-driven company; deep operational disclosure is less their style.
    4. Procurement separation. Some buyers (regulated entities, audited environments, compliance-driven procurement) explicitly prefer separate DNS and CDN suppliers for resilience and audit isolation. DNScale fits that model; Bunny is structurally bundled.
    5. DNS-specific feature depth. Multi-provider DNS workflows, secondary DNS, multi-signer DNSSEC, scoped API keys — DNScale invests in DNS-specific surface. Bunny invests across CDN+DNS+storage+edge; depth-per-product is necessarily different.

    Decision framework

    You should pick Bunny DNS if…You should pick DNScale if…
    You're already on Bunny CDN or want bundled CDN+DNS+storage+edgeYou want a focused DNS-only provider with a smaller blast radius
    You want aggressive pay-as-you-go pricing for small workloadsYour ops standardises on first-party Terraform / DNSControl
    You value Bunny's specific edge-scripting / Magic Containers productsYou want operational transparency (public AS, security.txt, post-incident reports)
    Your team is small, fast-moving, and values product bundlingYou operate in a procurement environment that prefers separate DNS / CDN suppliers
    You don't need first-party IaC parityYou want a focused EU DNS provider, not an EU edge platform

    Both are EU-jurisdictional. Picking on EU sovereignty alone won't separate them. The decision is product shape and IaC fit.

    Migrating from Bunny DNS to DNScale

    1. Lower TTLs on the Bunny zone 24–48 hours before cutover. See TTL best practices.
    2. Export zone records from bunny.net via dashboard or API.
    3. Import into DNScale via dashboard, API, or your IaC tool. See zone import methods.
    4. Decouple DNS from CDN if needed. If your Bunny setup uses CNAME-flattening or ANAME records pointing at Bunny CDN, evaluate whether the DNS-only target on DNScale (with the CDN still at Bunny) makes sense, or whether you want to fully separate the suppliers.
    5. Validate with dig @ns1.dnscale.eu yourdomain before swapping NS.
    6. Update registrar NS to DNScale. Propagation begins.
    7. Optionally keep Bunny as a secondary if you want multi-provider redundancy.

    For zero-downtime migrations see DNS migration zero-downtime guide.

    What this comparison deliberately doesn't claim

    • Bunny is not insecure or low-quality. They've built a developer-loved product with real engineering investment.
    • "DNScale is faster" — both run anycast; resolver-side variance dominates.
    • "EU jurisdiction is a differentiator" — both are EU-based, so this is not a wedge between them.
    • "DNScale is always cheaper than Bunny" — for very small / pay-as-you-go workloads, Bunny's headline pricing can be lower.

    References

    • IETF RFC 1035 — Domain Names — Implementation and Specification
    • IETF RFC 4033/4034/4035 — DNSSEC core specifications
    • ENISA: NIS2 sectoral guidance for digital infrastructure

    Frequently asked questions

    Is Bunny DNS the same as bunny.net?
    Bunny DNS is part of bunny.net (also known as BunnyCDN), a Slovenia-based EU company offering CDN, DNS, edge storage, and edge scripting as a bundled platform. They're EU-jurisdictional and have built their reputation on aggressive pricing and a developer-friendly API.
    Is Bunny EU-jurisdictional?
    Yes — bunny.net is headquartered in Slovenia, an EU member state. So unlike DNScale-vs-Cloudflare or DNScale-vs-Route 53 comparisons, EU jurisdiction is not a structural differentiator here. The decision moves to product focus, IaC fit, pricing model, and how much of the bunny.net ecosystem you want to be in.
    Does Bunny DNS have a Terraform provider?
    Bunny.net publishes a public REST API and there are community Terraform providers, but the IaC story is shallower than DNScale's first-party Terraform and DNSControl providers. If your ops standardises on IaC, validate Bunny's coverage against your specific patterns.
    Bunny is cheap. Is DNScale competitive on price?
    Bunny's headline pricing is among the lowest in the market — they've built their brand on it. DNScale prices per zone with predictable allowances. For very small workloads, Bunny's pay-as-you-go model can be cheaper; for typical production zones with predictable query patterns, both are competitive. Don't pick on price alone — pick on product fit.
    Why would I pick a DNS-only provider over a CDN+DNS bundle?
    Two reasons: smaller blast radius (a CDN incident at bunny.net can affect DNS queries via the same control plane) and explicit purchasing scope (some procurement processes prefer separate DNS and CDN suppliers for resilience and audit reasons). If you want CDN bundled with DNS, Bunny wins. If you want a focused DNS-only EU provider, DNScale wins.
    Can I run both as a multi-provider DNS setup?
    Yes. Both EU-jurisdictional, both with public APIs. Defining your zone in Terraform or DNSControl and pushing to both is a workable pattern, particularly post-2025 when multi-provider DNS became table stakes for production. See multi-provider DNS deployment.

    Other comparisons

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