Paid Plans vs Pay As You Go

DNScale offers two pricing models: subscription plans with a fixed monthly or annual fee, and Pay As You Go (PAYG) with usage-based billing. Both give you access to the same reliable DNS infrastructure, including anycast routing and Global DNS Resolution Balancing. This guide helps you decide which is right for you.

How Subscription Plans Work

With a subscription plan (Nano, Pro, Pro Plus, or Scale), you pay a fixed fee each month or year. In return, you get a generous allowance of DNS zones, queries, and records. If your usage exceeds your plan's included queries, you pay a small fee for each additional million queries beyond your allowance.

Annual billing is available on all plans and saves you two months compared to paying monthly.

How Pay As You Go Works

With PAYG, there is no monthly base fee. Instead, you pay for exactly what you use:

• A small per-zone fee for each active DNS zone
• A per-query fee based on how many DNS queries your zones receive

At the end of each billing period, your usage is totalled and you're charged accordingly. There is no commitment and no minimum spend. You can track your usage in real time via the DNS query usage panel in your dashboard.

Feature Comparison

The following table summarizes what is available at each tier. All plans include the same core DNS infrastructure — anycast DNS, full record type support, API access, and DNSSEC.

Comparing the Two Models

Subscription Plans

Advantages:

• Predictable costs. You know your bill before the month starts. Budgeting is straightforward, especially with annual billing.
• Lower per-query cost. Subscription plans include a large query allowance, and even excess query rates are lower than PAYG rates. The more traffic you have, the more you save.
• Higher limits. Subscription plans offer more zones, more records per zone, and higher API rate limits. The Scale plan supports up to 250 zones and 1.5 billion queries per month.
• Better support. Higher-tier plans include priority email support or dedicated support, giving you faster response times when you need help.
• Advanced features. Features like detailed analytics and SLA availability are included with Pro plans and above.
• Annual savings. Paying annually gives you two months free, reducing costs further for long-term use.

Considerations:

• You pay the same fee whether you use your full allowance or not. If your traffic is well below your plan's included queries, you may be paying for capacity you don't need.
• Changing plans requires a plan switch, though you can upgrade or downgrade at any time.

Pay As You Go

Advantages:

• No commitment. There is no fixed fee and no contract. You only pay for what you use, making it easy to start and stop.
• Cost-efficient for low traffic. If you only have a few zones with light traffic, PAYG can be cheaper than the smallest subscription plan.
• Scales with usage. Your bill adjusts automatically as your traffic changes. No need to monitor usage against plan limits or worry about excess query charges.
• Simple to understand. Per-zone and per-query pricing is transparent. You can estimate your costs easily based on your current traffic.

Considerations:

• Per-query rates are higher than subscription plans. As your traffic grows, costs can exceed what you would pay on a fixed plan.
• Costs can be less predictable if your traffic fluctuates significantly from month to month.
• Zone and record limits are lower than subscription plans.
• Community support only, without the priority or dedicated support available on higher subscription tiers.

Cost Examples

To help illustrate the crossover, here are some typical usage scenarios:

Scenario 1: Personal blog (1 zone, 500K queries/month)

A personal blog with a single DNS zone and modest traffic. You have a few A records, a CNAME for www, and MX records for email.

• PAYG cost: Very low — likely under a euro per month
• Nano plan cost: Fixed monthly fee regardless of low usage
• Verdict: PAYG is more cost-effective

Scenario 2: SaaS startup (5 zones, 25M queries/month)

A growing SaaS product with five domains — production, staging, marketing site, API, and docs. Traffic is moderate and growing.

• PAYG cost: Per-query charges add up at 25M queries
• Nano plan cost: Fixed fee with queries well within allowance
• Verdict: Nano subscription saves significantly over PAYG

Scenario 3: Agency managing client domains (40 zones, 200M queries/month)

A web agency hosting DNS for 40 client domains with substantial combined traffic. Needs detailed analytics and priority support.

• PAYG cost: Not viable — exceeds PAYG zone limit of 10
• Pro plan cost: 50 zones included, detailed analytics, priority support
• Verdict: Pro subscription is the only option and provides good value

Scenario 4: Enterprise infrastructure (150 zones, 800M queries/month)

A large organization with hundreds of domains, microservice infrastructure relying on SRV records, HTTPS records, and DNSSEC across all zones.

• Pro Plus or Scale plan: Needed for zone count, SLA guarantees, and dedicated support
• Verdict: Scale plan with annual billing for maximum savings

Which Option is Right for You?

PAYG is a good fit if you:

• Have one or a few domains with relatively low DNS traffic
• Want to try DNScale without committing to a monthly fee
• Have seasonal or unpredictable traffic and prefer to pay only for actual usage
• Are running a personal project, hobby site, or early-stage startup with minimal DNS needs

A subscription plan is a better fit if you:

• Manage multiple domains and need higher zone limits
• Have consistent, moderate-to-high DNS traffic where a fixed plan is more economical
• Need priority or dedicated support for business-critical domains
• Want predictable monthly costs for budgeting purposes
• Require advanced features like detailed analytics or SLA guarantees
• Run an agency or business where DNS reliability and support response times matter

When PAYG Costs More Than a Plan

As a general rule, once your monthly PAYG bill consistently approaches or exceeds the cost of a subscription plan, it makes sense to switch. For example:

• If you're running 5 zones with around 25 million queries per month, a Nano subscription at EUR 4.95/month is significantly cheaper than paying per-zone and per-query on PAYG.
• If you're managing 10+ zones, you'll need a Pro plan or higher regardless, since PAYG is limited to 10 zones.

The crossover point depends on your zone count and traffic volume, but subscription plans are designed to offer better value as your usage grows.

Use the DNS query usage panel in your dashboard to review your actual traffic over the past months. This data makes it easy to compare your current PAYG costs against what a subscription plan would cost.

Switching Between Models

You can switch from PAYG to a subscription plan (or vice versa) at any time from your dashboard. When upgrading to a subscription plan, your new allowances take effect immediately. When moving to PAYG, you'll start being billed based on usage from the next billing cycle.

If you need to update your payment method before switching, you can do that from the Settings page.

All Plans Include

Regardless of which pricing model you choose, you get:

• Full anycast DNS with Global DNS Resolution Balancing
• Support for all 14 DNS record types
• DNSSEC key management
• Zone import via file upload or AXFR
• REST API access
• Dashboard with zone and record management
• IPv4 and IPv6 support
• Multi-user account access

Still Not Sure?

If you're uncertain about your DNS traffic levels, starting with PAYG is a low-risk way to begin. Once you have a few months of usage data, you can compare your actual costs against the subscription plans and switch if a plan would save you money. You can review your usage trends at any time in the Usage tab of your dashboard.

For help choosing the right option, visit the Support page.