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Africa: DNS Provider Performance Checkup


In our last blog, we spotlighted the Oceania region and showed you how you can use DNSPerf and PerfOps to compare providers. Today, we’ll be focusing on Africa, the top providers there, and how you can use this data to make better DNS business decisions for your domain. This will give you greater insight into your current or potential provider’s performance.

You should have the fastest, highest-quality DNS for regions you cater to most.

Why DNS Speeds and Performance are Crucial Global Businesses

Africa currently makes up approximately 3% of the global GDP, but experts predict that there will be $5.6 trillion in business opportunities in Africa by 2025. The continent is home to over 1.2 billion people, the majority of which falls into the working-age demographic, and is one of the most resource-rich areas on the planet. With the rapidly growing telecommunications platforms and agribusinesses, organizations need to focus on DNS performance in this region more than ever before.

The Top 5 Strongest Countries in Africa based on GDP in 2021

When it comes to the world economy, Africa is exhibiting fast GDP growth in several markets. Below are the top 5 producers:

Nigeria - 514 billion

Egypt - 394 billion

South Africa - 330 billion

Algeria - 151 billion

Morocco - 124 billion

[embed Statistia bar graph here]

You already know you need fast DNS in Africa. We’re going to show you how to get it.

DNSPerf: Free DNS Provider Data Performance

DNSPerf is the leading source for free, easy-to-read DNS data. As soon as you hit the homepage, you’ll see a table of DNS providers ranked by raw performance/world by default.

But you need a more accurate picture of DNS performance in Africa.

To achieve this, all you need to do is choose Africa from the Location dropdown menu. Once you’ve done this, you’ll see provider query speeds for Africa only. Anything depicted in green is considered acceptable by industry standards. Orange denotes less than ideal speeds. Providers in the red are struggling with query resolutions in the region.

Of course, the lower the query speed the better, and providers in the top 10 are more likely to provide the best performing DNS in Africa. While there are other factors to consider, this is a good rule of thumb to go by when reviewing your current provider’s performance or when you’re shopping for a new one.

But you should have top DNS speeds and quality:

DNS Quality is Just as Important as Speed

Speed is just one aspect of your DNS performance. You also want to take the quality of DNS into consideration. To do this, just click on Quality in the menu bar. When you view by quality, rankings shift, as you’ll see in the gif below. For Africa, Limelight was ranked #1 in raw performance, but it dropped to #27 in terms of quality. Exoscale DNS, Constellix, and DNS Made Easy were the only providers that stayed in the top 10, with Exoscale rising from 10  to #1.

Uptime: 24/7 Reliability is Crucial for Your Domain

Okay, so we covered speed and quality. But there’s one more major factor to consider: Uptime. If your DNS provider isn’t reliable in Africa, where you conduct all, or a significant amount of your business, speed and quality means less.

The fact is, you should be able to count on your DNS provider to keep you online.

Let’s take a look at how sorting by Uptime gives you even greater insight into DNS providers’ performances in Africa. In the gif below, you’ll see yet another shift in rankings.

Another convenient feature of DNSPerf is that you can view historical data performance as well. Doing this will give you a better understanding of a provider’s performance over a significant period of time.

PerfOps: Premium DNS Data

If you need a higher level of detail, the ability to troubleshoot latency, or want to compare multiple providers, PerfOps offers the most comprehensive insights in the industry.

With PerfOps premium data, you can achieve faster speeds even if you’re struggling with your own network or that of your current provider.

See the difference for yourself:

The graph below compares the top 10 DNS providers in Africa (based on raw performance in the example above). This shows you the DNS performance by day for each of the providers for a 30-day window. If you hover over the graph, it also gives you a list of each provider’s speeds.

We grouped by data sources in this example, but you can also group by:

  • Continents
  • Countries
  • US States
  • Cities
  • ASN
  • ISP

Here’s an example of how it looks when grouped by continents:

Along with graphs that compare speed and performance, you can also view the raw data logs of each provider. This is invaluable for troubleshooting and identifying weak points for servers in a network.

There are a plethora of ways to view and sort the DNS data you need in PerfOps. And what we’ve shown you here is just the tip of the iceberg! But don’t worry, we’ll be releasing a full series of blogs breaking down how PerfOps can help you.

Top 10 DNS Providers for Africa

Here is a list of the top 10 performing DNS providers in Africa in the last 30 days of this writing (based on raw performance):

  1. Limelight DNS
  2. Gransy AnycastDNS
  3. Zilore
  4. Wordpress.com
  5. Rage4
  6. Constellix
  7. DNS Made Easy
  8. Cloudflare
  9. RcodeZero
  10. Exoscale DNS

H3 It Starts with the Data: Choosing the Best DNS Provider For Your Organization Shouldn’t Be a Guessing Game

PerfOps free and premium tools are an unbiased way to make DNS decisions. With data on speed, performance, uptime, and quality you can validate provider-made claims about their network and narrow down your choices based on the unique needs of your organization. With our premium options, you can troubleshoot latency issues, identify weak spots, and more. DNS is critical to the online marketplace. You should have all the information you need to make informed decisions and improve your DNS at your fingertips.  

Related Topics:

Why Africa is becoming a bigger player in the global economy  

Australia (Oceania): Have You Checked Your DNS Performance Lately?