🌐 Amazon CloudFront Now Supports HTTPS DNS Records – What It Means (Made Simple)

🧩 What's the Announcement?

Amazon CloudFront now supports HTTPS DNS resource records with Amazon Route 53.
This allows DNS lookups to return more than just IP addresses — they also tell your browser or app:

✅ What HTTP protocols are supported (like HTTP/3)
✅ What port number to use
✅ Whether encryption is required

🤔 Why Does This Matter?

Let’s say a user opens your website 👉 https://myapp.com (served via CloudFront):

Before

DNS gives the IP address
Browser connects, but has to figure out which protocol to use (HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, HTTP/3)
That means extra round-trips and slower load time

Now (with HTTPS DNS records)

DNS gives IP address + protocol info (e.g., supports HTTP/3)
Browser connects immediately using HTTP/3
⏱️ Less delay, faster load times

🧪 Real Example (DNS Record)

You can now define this in Route 53:

myapp.com.   60   HTTPS   1 . alpn="h3,h2"

This says:

"Hey browser, this domain supports HTTP/3 and HTTP/2. Use one of those!"
So your browser skips the guessing game and uses HTTP/3 right away

🛠️ Benefits

⚡ Faster initial page load
🔐 More secure connection from the start
🌍 Better for regions with poor connectivity
💸 Lower cost: Free HTTPS record queries with CloudFront alias records

💡 Summary

Amazon CloudFront + Route 53 = Smarter, faster DNS

✅ Less handshake time
✅ Protocol info baked into DNS
✅ No extra config needed on your browser

Thanks to this update, you can boost performance for your global users — without changing a line of app code.

for more information - Boost application performance: Amazon CloudFront enables HTTPS record

🗣️ What do you think about this feature? Are you already using HTTP/3 with CloudFront?

Drop your thoughts 👇

DEV Community