A comparative performance analysis of NextDNS, Quad9, and Cloudflare reveals that DNS resolution speeds fluctuate significantly based on local network conditions, ISP peering, and specific geographic routing paths.

Key Points

• Testing compared DNS resolution speeds for Cloudflare, Quad9, and NextDNS across two distinct network environments using a standardized PowerShell script.
• Cloudflare demonstrated the most consistent performance across both café and home networks, despite not always achieving the fastest individual resolution times.
• Quad9 showed high variability, ranging from the slowest performer on public Wi-Fi to the fastest during home network testing.
• NextDNS experienced significant reliability issues on public Wi-Fi but performed competitively with a 7.5ms average on a stable home connection.
• All three providers utilize anycast routing, which directs traffic to the network-closest server rather than the geographically nearest one, causing inconsistent results.

Why it Matters

DNS performance is highly dependent on individual network infrastructure and ISP routing, meaning there is no single "fastest" provider for every user. Choosing a DNS service should prioritize reliability, security features like malware blocking, and custom configurability over generalized speed benchmarks.