Skip to main content
In this lesson we cover Amazon Route 53 — AWS’s managed Domain Name System (DNS) service. You’ll learn what Route 53 does, its main capabilities, how hosted zones work, and a short conceptual example to tie the concepts together.

​
What is Route 53?

  • Amazon Route 53 is a fully managed DNS and domain registration service on AWS.
  • It provides domain registration (similar to services like GoDaddy or Namecheap), DNS record management, and traffic routing to application endpoints.
  • Route 53’s control plane is global — it isn’t limited to a single AWS region, which helps provide low-latency DNS resolution worldwide.

​
Key capabilities

Route 53 combines registrar functions, DNS features, health checks, and advanced routing policies. The table below summarizes the primary capabilities and common use cases:

​
Hosted zones

A hosted zone is a container for the DNS records for a specific domain (for example, kodekloud.com). When Route 53 manages DNS for a domain, you create a hosted zone that holds all records for that domain.
  • Each hosted zone contains the domain’s DNS records (A, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, SOA, etc.).
  • When you create a hosted zone, AWS assigns four authoritative name servers for that zone.
  • If you register the domain through Route 53, those NS records are configured for you automatically. If you register the domain with a third-party registrar, update the registrar’s NS records to the four Route 53 name servers to delegate DNS resolution.
A diagram showing Amazon Route 53 hosted zones: two domains (kodekloud.com and fastcars.com) linked to Route 53 and to their respective hosted zones which distribute to multiple backend servers. It notes that a hosted zone is a collection of DNS records and is allocated four nameservers by AWS.

​
Example scenario (conceptual)

  • Create a hosted zone for kodekloud.com. That hosted zone will contain all DNS records for kodekloud.com, and Route 53 will assign four authoritative name servers.
  • Create a separate hosted zone for fastcars.com. It receives its own set of DNS records and a different set of four name servers.
  • Each domain’s DNS records are stored and managed inside its respective hosted zone; the assigned name servers are what external registrars use to delegate DNS queries to Route 53.

​
Summary

  • Route 53 is AWS’s managed DNS service with global control-plane scope.
  • A hosted zone is a collection of DNS records for a single domain.
  • AWS assigns four authoritative name servers per hosted zone; update your domain registrar to point to these name servers if you registered the domain outside Route 53.
Remember: public hosted zones respond to queries on the internet; private hosted zones resolve names only within one or more VPCs. If your domain is registered outside of Route 53, update the registrar’s NS records to the four name servers Route 53 assigns for your hosted zone.

Watch Video