DNS Routing vs Application Load Balancing

Developers should learn DNS Routing when building scalable, high-availability applications that require efficient traffic management across distributed servers or cloud regions meets developers should learn and use application load balancing when building scalable, highly available web applications, especially in cloud-based or microservices architectures, as it handles traffic spikes, prevents server overload, and provides seamless failover during outages. Here's our take.

DNS Routing

Nice Pick

Developers should learn DNS Routing when building scalable, high-availability applications that require efficient traffic management across distributed servers or cloud regions

Pros

• It is essential for use cases like reducing latency by routing users to the nearest data center, balancing loads to prevent server overload, and ensuring failover by redirecting traffic to backup servers during outages
• Related to: domain-name-system, load-balancing

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Application Load Balancing

Developers should learn and use Application Load Balancing when building scalable, highly available web applications, especially in cloud-based or microservices architectures, as it handles traffic spikes, prevents server overload, and provides seamless failover during outages

Pros

• It is essential for applications requiring features like HTTP/HTTPS routing, session persistence, or integration with auto-scaling groups, such as e-commerce sites, APIs, and content delivery networks, to maintain performance and reliability under varying loads
• Related to: aws-elastic-load-balancing, nginx

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. DNS Routing is a concept while Application Load Balancing is a platform. We picked DNS Routing based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

DNS Routing wins

Based on overall popularity. DNS Routing is more widely used, but Application Load Balancing excels in its own space.