1.1.1.1 Vs 8.8.8.8 cloudflare or google which is faster?

We take advantage of the pull that Cloudflare is giving with its DNS service and its new Warp application for iOS and Android, to compare 1.1.1.1 vs. 8.8.8.8. We are going to confront these two DNS services, the first one offered by CloudFlare and the second one offered by Google to see which is the fastest, as well as its pros and cons.

Index of contents

There are many users who have never used a DNS server on their computers, either PC or Smartphone, either because they are unaware of its existence, or because it seems to them that they enter into the network properties to assign a preferred DNS server instead of using the ISP's own or your own router's.

But what does a DNS do?

A DNS or Domain Name System is a protocol by which a domain name can be associated with an IP address. What we are doing is translating the names of the URL addresses that we write in the browser, to addresses that can be understood by the network protocol and the connection systems, that is, to a numerical address such as IP. For example "profesionalreview.com" would be the name that we would place in the browser, and the address 213.162.214.40 would be the address that our router would understand.

This is normally done automatically on any device, be it a PC or a Smartphone, since the network adapter, or in its case the router itself carries with it a certain configuration to resolve Internet domain names and thus save us the work. By default, the domain name server of our PC can be the router itself, which accesses and resolves the names through the ISP's own DNS that facilitates the connection.

So why do we want to configure a DNS server

Well, because DNS will largely determine the speed of access to Internet web pages, that is, latency, something that online players know well. Obviously it is not going to improve coverage or expand our bandwidth, but it can make the latency in the connection less, by solving the addresses we access earlier.

There are many free DNS servers available and it is quite easy to configure them on our PC to be used instead of the one designated automatically.

In this sense, the fastest DNS servers have almost always been the US Level 3 servers with truly low latencies. Although surely the one you have heard the most is Google's DNS, since Googles is even in soups and the truth is that it is not at all one of the fastest DNS of the moment.

That is why Cloudflare also decided to enter this world of free DNS with its 1 ⁴ or what is the same the IP address 1.1.1.1 Who would not remember it? And best of all, it has positioned itself as one of the fastest DNS services, surpassing its most direct free rivals, including Level 3. But of course, this is very easy to say without having tangible data, so that's why we are going Let's see first hand if these daring claims are true or not. For this we are going to face 1.1.1.1 vs. 8.8.8.8 and also 1.0.0.1 and 8.8.4.4. Primary and secondary DNS of each giant. Let's go there.

1.1.1.1 vs 8.8.8.8

In this comparison we will use some of the best known programs to test the speed of each DNS service. Of course we will check the solvency of both the primary and secondary DNS, since it is normal to use both simultaneously.

What are we looking for? Well, we mainly look for one thing, speed and less latency in the connection establishment time. It is what we normally know as the connection ping. Although all the tests are in equal conditions, the latency will also depend a lot on the network connection we have, the location and the ISP server.

DNS Benchmark

The first program that we will use is called DNS Benchmark and is capable of checking the speed of any DNS that we introduce into it. We will not need to install it and it is also a completely free program that already brings with it a large list of DNS servers.

Since we are only interested in these two, we are going to eliminate all of them, and place the two that we will compare. We will only click once on the benchmark button and we will show the results obtained in this single test.

Well, at least in this program, we see that Cloudflare's DNS service is indeed faster than Google's on its two servers. The difference is not too much, so in this sense, both will be perfectly valid

Let's better explain these results (less is better):

Red bar: This is a test in which the DNS server searches for the domain name in the cache. All DNS have a name cache to make searching faster. In this regard, 1.1.1.1 wins 8.8.8.8 easily. Green bar: This test forces DNS to look for an uncached domain name. We also see that the speed of Cloudflare's servers is higher. Blue bar: This is to search the DotCom servers for the IP address associated with the domain names. And in this case, we see that the four are very even, although 8.8.8 is slightly faster than the rest.

DNS Jumper

This is another one of the most used free programs to test the latency of the main world DNS servers. In this we have left the complete list of servers to see what is the latency in milliseconds of each one. Similarly, we have carried out just one test, without seeking any specific result, after all, none of them pay us anything to do this.

And we see that CloudFlera is again the lowest latency DNS server. We honestly did not expect it to be at the top of the list with only 20 milliseconds of response time. 8.8.8.8 is mid-list with an access of 53 milliseconds, which is 23 milliseconds more. For practical purposes, this will not greatly influence web browsing, but we could notice it more in e-Sport and online games, in which every millisecond counts to obtain the lowest possible LAG.

DNSperf (Web)

To finish, we will also test the global latency of the DNS provider with servers spread across the entire geography. In this case, what we are going to do is configure our Windows 10 with each of the servers to be checked to see their performance. Obviously we will use profesionalreview.com as an element to be solved in each case.

This case is much more complicated to study, since the latency results are widely distributed between both services. What we do see clearly is that there are more green signs in the USA in the case of Cloudflare than in Google. Similarly, we also see somewhat lower values overall on servers in Europe and Australia.

It is then more than proven that for our specific connection, Malaga / Spain, Cloudflare's DNS server is a better option than Google's.

Main features of 1.1.1.1 vs 8.8.8.8

Well, we have already seen who wins in terms of speed, but we have not yet given a too detailed description of these two DNS servers which are free as we can imagine. But for us to see these characteristics in a more graphic way, the best thing will be to do it in a list, faster and easier to understand.

Cloudflare DNS:

One of the fastest DNS services today It is free You do not need a user account to work It offers an Android application that activates 1.1.1.1 one-touch (Warp) It works through its global VPN network It offers a Premium service to acquire even more speed (Warp +) Support for IPv4 and IPv6 networks Support for DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-HTTPS (encrypted point-to-point connections)

There may be the possibility that some application does not work due to being inside a VPN.

Google DNS:

It's free You don't need a user account to work recently You have recently implemented DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-HTTPS Servers spread all over the world Good speed in DotCom service Support for IPv4 and IPv6 networks

Higher latency Does not have specific application, although from Android 9 Pie it can be configured as dedicated DNS They do not allow the user to configure the block list

Conclusion on the comparison 1.1.1.1 vs 8.8.8.8

Well, we have already seen first hand that Cloudflare continues to be the fastest DNS server in the world, at least with our connection and location. We recommend that you try these programs yourself depending on your location, and tell us the results you have obtained. That's what the comment box is for, as always.

Both services are quite similar, with the new Google implementation with DoT and DoH making it a service that is finally more secure, which was one of the giant's pending big assignments.

If you want more information about Cloudflare's DNS and how to install and activate Warp on your mobile to enjoy its DNS and VPN, we have what you need.

We also take this opportunity to recommend you our list of the best DNS servers