HSTS

IETF, Fremont, California, United States

The HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) standard ensures that a user's browser always connects to a website using HTTPS.

According to our data, HSTS is the 4th most popular networking technology on the web.
It has 26.3% of the networking market share and is present on 24.1% of all websites.

📊 Rankings and Market Share

🏆 HSTS Awards

⚡ Sites Using HSTS

We have data on 802,385 websites that use HSTS networking technology. Here is a list of some of the top ranked ones.

The highest rated site using HSTS is facebook.com.

#WebsiteRankCountryLanguage
1 facebook.com #2 United States English
2 microsoft.com #3 United States American English
3 youtube.com #4 United States English
4 instagram.com #5 United States English
5 office.com #7 United States American English
6 apple.com #8 United States American English
7 linkedin.com #9 United States English
8 wikipedia.org #11 United States English
9 x.com #12 English
10 github.com #13 United States English
11 pinterest.com #15 English
12 yahoo.com #16 United States American English
13 bitly.com #17 American English
14 tiktok.com #18 Cayman Islands English
15 netflix.com #19 United States English
16 cloudflare.com #20 United States American English
17 telegram.org #21 United Kingdom English
18 spotify.com #22 Sweden English
19 vimeo.com #23 United States English
20 xhamster.com #24 English

📈 Usage Statistics

Most of the sites that use HSTS:

Most of the sites using HSTS are from the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

  • United States 23.9%
  • Germany 8.5%
  • United Kingdom 6.6%
  • France 4.5%
  • Netherlands 4.1%
  • Australia 3%
  • Japan 2.9%
  • Canada 2.7%
  • Russia 2.5%
  • Other 41.3%

Most HSTS users speak English, German, or French.

  • English 59.3%
  • German 7.4%
  • French 4.1%
  • Spanish 3.9%
  • Dutch 2.8%
  • Russian 2.6%
  • Chinese 2.5%
  • Japanese 2.3%
  • Portuguese 2.1%
  • Other 13%

HSTS networking technology is especially popular on .com and .org top-level domains.

  • .com 45.5%
  • .org 6.2%
  • .de 4.8%
  • .net 2.4%
  • .co.uk 2.3%
  • .nl 2.2%
  • .com.au 1.7%
  • .fr 1.6%
  • .ru 1.6%
  • Other 31.7%

The primary market segments for websites utilizing HSTS include business, online shopping, and education and reference.

  • Business 18.2%
  • Online Shopping 11.5%
  • Education/Reference 6.2%
  • Internet Services 5.1%
  • Blogs/Wiki 4.1%
  • Travel 3.5%
  • Health 3.3%
  • Entertainment 3.2%
  • Software/Hardware 3.2%
  • Other 41.7%

🕵️ Similar Technologies

These are some of the best HSTS alternatives.

RankName
1
TLS
Fremont, California, United States

A cryptographic protocol that provides end-to-end encryption of data transmitted over the Internet, ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and authentication between communicating systems.
2
HTTP 2+
Fremont, California, United States

An application-layer protocol used to transfer resources such as HTML documents, images, and other web content, forming the foundation of data communication in web browsers.
3
Cookies
Fremont, California, United States

Small pieces of data that a website sends to a visitor's web browser when they visit.
5
♯ ETag
Fremont, California, United States

An identifier for a specific version of a resource that is used for cache validation.
6
CSP
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

The Content-Security-Policy HTTP response header and meta tag are used to control what resources a given page can load.

🆚 Compare Alternatives

Compare HSTS to…

💬 Frequently Asked Questions

What is the company behind HSTS?

HSTS is owned by Internet Engineering Task Force, headquartered in Fremont, California, United States.

Which country uses HSTS the most?

The majority of HSTS users are from the United States.

Who uses HSTS?

According to our data, HSTS is used on thousands of sites, including facebook.com, microsoft.com, and youtube.com.

Is HSTS used on government websites?

In total, we found HSTS on 1,308 government sites in the United States.

Do academic institutions use HSTS?

Yes, quite a few! Overall, we know of 2,114 academic websites in the United States that use HSTS.

How does HSTS stack up against its competitors?

HSTS is one of the most popular networking technologies, second only to TLS, HTTP 2+, and Cookies.

What are the alternatives to HSTS?

Alternatives and possible competitors to HSTS may include TLS, HTTP 2+, and Cookies.

👉 See Also

Statistics were last calculated on .
For details, see our methodology and disclaimer.