AWS Route 53 Explained: Everything About Domains, DNS, and Hosted Zones
5 min read
After successfully launching his first website, Arjun’s confidence was soaring. His manager came over with a new mission:
“Great work, Arjun. This time, we want to host our site on AWS. Set up the domain using Route 53.”
“Route what?” Arjun blinked.
That’s when Arjun was introduced to AWS Route 53—Amazon’s powerful but beginner-friendly DNS web service. Let’s follow his journey to understand what Route 53 does and how it makes website domains work smoothly.
🌍 What is AWS Route 53?
Arjun learned that Route 53 is Amazon’s service for managing domain names and DNS records.
Just like other DNS services, it translates domain names (like greatstartup.com) into IP addresses, so browsers know where to go. But it’s also:
A domain registrar (you can buy domains)
A DNS service (manage records like A, CNAME, MX, etc.)
A traffic router (direct users globally to the closest servers)
A health checker (routes traffic only to healthy endpoints)
💡 Fun fact Arjun discovered:
It’s called Route 53 because DNS uses port 53 on the internet.
🏗️ Step 1: Buying or Connecting a Domain
Arjun had two options:
Buy a domain directly in Route 53
Use a domain bought elsewhere, like GoDaddy or Namecheap, and connect it to Route 53
He already owned greatstartup.com from an earlier project. So he chose option 2—connecting it.
📦 Step 2: Creating a Hosted Zone
“Okay, what’s a Hosted Zone?” Arjun asked.
A Hosted Zone is like a container for all your DNS records in Route 53. Think of it as a record-keeping file for a specific domain.
There are two types:
| Hosted Zone Type | What It’s For |
| Public Hosted Zone | For domains accessible on the internet |
| Private Hosted Zone | For internal DNS within a VPC (AWS cloud) |
Since Arjun wanted to make his site publicly available, he created a Public Hosted Zone for greatstartup.com.
🧾 Step 3: Understanding the Records Inside the Zone
Inside his hosted zone, Route 53 automatically created two default records:
NS (Name Server) – Tells the internet which Route 53 servers manage the domain
SOA (Start of Authority) – Metadata like version and admin info
Then Arjun added the usual suspects:
A record to point
greatstartup.comto the server's IP addressCNAME record for
www.greatstartup.comMX records for email routing
TXT records for domain verification and email SPF
📘 Analogy:
“The hosted zone is like a whiteboard, and DNS records are sticky notes telling internet traffic where to go.”
🔄 Step 4: Pointing the Domain to Route 53
Since Arjun’s domain was still managed by GoDaddy, he had to go to GoDaddy’s settings and replace the default name servers with the ones provided by Route 53 in the NS record.
Once he saved the changes, Route 53 officially became the DNS manager for his domain.
🚦 Step 5: (Optional) Adding Health Checks
Route 53 offers health checks, which Arjun could use to:
Monitor his website or app
Automatically switch traffic to a backup server if the main one went down
For example, if
greatstartup.comhosted in Mumbai failed, Route 53 could reroute users to a backup site in Singapore.
💡 “It’s like traffic police for your domain—making sure people only go to working roads.”
🌐 Step 6: (Optional) Routing Policy Magic
Arjun discovered Route 53 could do more than just direct to a single IP. It supports powerful routing policies:
| Policy Type | What It Does |
| Simple | Basic single-IP routing |
| Weighted | Split traffic between servers (e.g. 70% to server A, 30% to server B) |
| Latency-based | Send users to the nearest/fastest server |
| Failover | Send users to a backup if the primary is down |
| Geo-location | Send traffic based on the user's country |
He didn’t need them yet—but it blew his mind.
“This is DNS + smart traffic management. That’s epic!”
🧠 Summary: What Arjun Learned About Route 53
| Concept | What It Means |
| Route 53 | AWS’s DNS and domain service |
| Hosted Zone | A container for all DNS records of a domain |
| Public Zone | Used for websites people access on the internet |
| NS Record | Connects the domain to Route 53’s DNS |
| Health Checks | Ensures traffic goes to working servers |
| Routing Policies | Smart traffic direction based on location, latency, or weights |
🎉 The Launch
By the end of the day, Arjun had:
✅ A domain connected to Route 53
✅ DNS records set up
✅ His website live on AWS
✅ Confidence in managing domains like a pro
📘 Final Thoughts: Why Route 53 Rocks
Route 53 is more than just a DNS service—it’s a full-fledged domain management tool that gives you:
Speed (it’s hosted on AWS’s global infrastructure)
Flexibility (custom routing, health checks)
Simplicity (easy to use even for beginners)
If you’re hosting a website on AWS or want full control of your domain, Route 53 is your go-to tool.