| CNAME |
ALIAS |
| Route 53 charges for CNAME queries |
Route 53 doesn't charge for alias queries to AWS resources |
| You cannot create a CNAME record at the top of a DNS namespace (zone apex) |
You can create ALIAS record at the zone apex (You cannot route to a CNAME at the zone apex) |
| A CNAME can point to any DNS record that is hosted anywhere |
An alias record can only point to a CLoudFront distribution,Elastic BeanStalk,ELB,S3 bucket as a static site or to another record in the same hosted zone that you are creating the alias record in |