That makes Cloudflare an attractive alternative—not a universal speed champion. For Windows users, the important distinctions are lookup latency, data retention, encrypted DNS, and whether the service blocks unwanted domains. Those are separate questions, and a fast answer to one does not settle the others.
What the Windows DNS test actually establishes
Singh says he used DNS Speed Tester from the Microsoft Store rather than relying on a browser-based benchmark. Cloudflare returned faster results on both network connections, while the difference between Ethernet and Wi-Fi was small.
However, the account does not disclose the test location, number of trials, domain list, cache conditions, application version, or the transport used by the app. The measurements are therefore best understood as one writer’s results on one connection, not a reproducible ranking of public DNS services.
Google’s troubleshooting documentation supports that caution: network distance to the resolver directly contributes to lookup time, and routing can send queries to a more distant location. It also warns that ordinary ping and traceroute measurements are not DNS-resolution benchmarks. A server answering a ping quickly is not necessarily answering domain queries equally quickly.
The report also provides no ISP-resolver measurements to substantiate its broader assertion that almost any alternative beats the ISP’s service. That is a candidate for testing, not a safe starting assumption.
Faster DNS is not faster everything
DNS translates a hostname into information a device needs to connect, typically an IP address. Lookup delays can contribute to page-loading time, especially when a page draws resources from multiple domains. They are nevertheless only part of the connection process. Google’s performance documentation identifies network congestion, packet loss, server load, and caching among the factors affecting resolution.
Consequently, these results do not demonstrate that switching resolvers will eliminate Netflix buffering, improve download throughput, or reduce an established game session’s latency. The test measured DNS responses, not those outcomes.
The takeaway: Cloudflare won this particular lookup comparison. The evidence does not turn a DNS setting into a broadband upgrade.
Privacy: Cloudflare has an advantage, with qualifications
The strongest distinction is not the few milliseconds between the results. It is how the providers describe handling query data.
Cloudflare’s public-resolver policy says it does not sell users’ personal data or use it for advertising. It commits to deleting public-resolver logs within 25 hours, subject to limited sampling exceptions. Its policy also describes exceptional packet sampling for troubleshooting and denial-of-service mitigation, limited anonymized-data access for APNIC research, and aggregate data that may be retained indefinitely. Cloudflare says it has retained a top-four accounting firm to audit its practices and publish a report. Calling this simply “no logging” loses important detail.
Google’s Public DNS policy says temporary logs contain both the requesting IP address and query information and are subject to deletion processes within 24–48 hours. Information may remain longer solely to resolve security or abuse issues. Sampled permanent logs remove the IP address and substitute city- or region-level location while retaining technical information such as requested domains, timestamps, and response codes. Google also says Public DNS personal information is not used to target advertisements.
Cloudflare’s published approach is a reasonable reason to prefer it if minimizing identifiable query retention is the priority. That is an assessment of documented commitments, however—not independent proof that either provider’s operation has been exhaustively examined here.
The takeaway: There is a meaningful policy difference, but “Cloudflare keeps nothing” and “Google uses your DNS history for ads” would both misrepresent the documentation.
Encryption matters whichever resolver you choose
Changing a DNS address and encrypting DNS traffic are not the same action.
Google documents support for DNS over HTTPS, or DoH, and DNS over TLS, or DoT. Its guidance explains that traditional DNS over UDP or TCP is unencrypted; the encrypted alternatives protect the connection between the client and resolver.
Cloudflare likewise publishes DoH and DoT endpoints and recommends encrypted transport where possible to protect queries across the last-mile network. Entering 1.1.1.1 in a settings box does not, by itself, establish that encrypted transport is active.
This also limits what the benchmark can tell us. Without knowing its transport and connection conditions, the reported timings cannot settle how the providers compare under every encrypted-DNS configuration.
The takeaway: Choose both a resolver and a transport. One determines who answers; the other helps determine who can observe the question along the way.
Cloudflare’s filtering options are a practical distinction
Cloudflare offers separate resolver addresses for different filtering levels:
| Cloudflare service | Primary IPv4 | Secondary IPv4 | Documented filtering |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 1.1.1.1 | 1.0.0.1 | No content filtering |
| Families: malware | 1.1.1.2 | 1.0.0.2 | Malware and phishing domains |
| Families: adult content and malware | 1.1.1.3 | 1.0.0.3 | Adult content, malware, and phishing domains |
Cloudflare’s network-operator documentation confirms these pairs and corresponding encrypted endpoints. The practical implication is straightforward: users wanting Families filtering must select the appropriate variant, not the standard unfiltered resolver.
Singh also highlighted Cloudflare’s dedicated applications as a convenience advantage. Cloudflare’s WARP documentation lists Windows alongside macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, confirming that its client ecosystem extends beyond manually entering resolver addresses. That convenience is distinct from the benchmark’s speed result.
What Windows users should do with the result
A sensible next step is a reversible, device-level comparison rather than immediately changing the entire household network.
Cloudflare’s Windows 11 instructions begin by recording existing DNS settings. They then direct users through Settings → Network and Internet, selecting the relevant adapter, and editing DNS server assignment. Manual configuration includes separate IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Its Windows 10 instructions instead use the adapter’s Internet Protocol properties. These are version-specific routes, not interchangeable screenshots.
For evaluating the providers, the editorial recommendation is to compare like with like: use the same domains and transport, repeat measurements, include the existing resolver, and record failures as well as response times. Keep Ethernet and Wi-Fi results separate rather than blending them into a single impressive-looking number.
The final verdict is less theatrical than “it wasn’t a competition,” but more useful. Cloudflare won XDA’s local test and offers documented privacy and filtering advantages. Google’s documentation establishes encrypted-DNS support and an explicit prohibition on using Public DNS personal information for ad targeting. Neither choice should be judged solely by a handful of milliseconds.
Choose the policy and controls that fit your needs, then measure performance on your own connection. The stopwatch deserves a vote—not the entire election.