DNS Prefetch
W3C, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United StatesThe rel="dns-prefetch" attribute on 
HTML <link> elements instructs web browsers to resolve domain names for external resources before those resources are requested.
It is commonly used for third-party domains serving scripts, fonts, analytics, advertisements, or media files, helping reduce DNS lookup latency and improve loading performance for external connections.
According to our data, DNS Prefetch is the second most popular performance optimization technology on the web.
It has 50.7% of the performance optimization market share and is present on 30.3% of all websites.
It appears on 42.5% of all websites in Spain, 41.6% in Australia, and 39.5% in Italy.
- 🏠 Website
- 🔗 Links
Wikipedia
developer.mozilla.org📊 Rankings and Market Share
- Performance Optimization
- Rank: 2
- Market share: 50.7%
- Standards
- Rank: 6
- Market share: 33.5%
🏆 DNS Prefetch Awards
- 🥇 Most popular in Japan in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Canada in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in South Africa in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in China in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Macedonia in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Malta in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Albania in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Fiji in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Bhutan in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Congo in the Performance Optimization category.
⚡ Sites Using DNS Prefetch
We have data on 1,226,917 websites that use DNS Prefetch performance optimization technology. Here is a list of some of the top ranked ones.
The highest rated site using DNS Prefetch is 
facebook.com.
| # | Website | Rank | Country | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | facebook.com |
#2 | United States | English |
| 2 |  microsoft.com |
#3 | United States | American English |
| 3 | #13 | United States | American English | |
| 4 |  github.com |
#14 | United States | English |
| 5 |  bing.com |
#16 | United States | English |
| 6 |  x.com |
#17 | United States | English |
| 7 |  vimeo.com |
#24 | United States | English |
| 8 | #26 | Cyprus | English | |
| 9 |  yahoo.co.jp |
#30 | Japan | Japanese |
| 10 | #32 | United States | American English | |
| 11 | #34 | United States | English | |
| 12 | #38 | United States | English | |
| 13 |  godaddy.com |
#42 | United States | American English |
| 14 |  paypal.com |
#45 | United States | American English |
| 15 |  reddit.com |
#46 | United States | American English |
| 16 | #61 | English | ||
| 17 |  baidu.com |
#62 | China | Chinese |
| 18 | #67 | United States | English | |
| 19 | #70 | United States | English | |
| 20 |  soundcloud.com |
#72 | Germany | English |
📈 Usage Statistics
Most of the sites that use DNS Prefetch:
- are located in the United States
- have content in English
- use the .com domain extension
- fall into the Business category.
Most of the sites using DNS Prefetch are from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
- United States 22.7%
- United Kingdom 6.8%
- Japan 5.7%
- France 4.4%
- Germany 4.3%
- Spain 4.2%
- Italy 4%
- Australia 3.4%
- Netherlands 3.1%
- Other 41.4%
Most DNS Prefetch users speak English, Spanish, or Japanese.
- English 55.5%
- Spanish 6.2%
- Japanese 4.9%
- French 4.4%
- German 4.1%
- Italian 3.1%
- Portuguese 2.6%
- Dutch 2.3%
- Russian 2.1%
- Other 14.8%
DNS Prefetch performance optimization technology is especially popular on .com and .org top-level domains.
- .com 47%
- .org 6.6%
- .net 2.6%
- .de 2.5%
- .co.uk 2.5%
- .it 2.2%
- .com.au 2.1%
- .nl 1.7%
- .fr 1.6%
- Other 31.2%
The primary market segments for websites utilizing DNS Prefetch include business, marketing and merchandising, and online shopping.
- Business 17%
- Marketing/Merchandising 11.2%
- Online Shopping 9.5%
- Blogs/Wiki 8.8%
- Education/Reference 5.4%
- Internet Services 4.5%
- Entertainment 4.1%
- Health 3.5%
- General News 3.2%
- Other 32.8%
🕵️ Similar Technologies
These are some of the best DNS Prefetch alternatives.
🆚 Compare Alternatives
Compare DNS Prefetch to…
- 🕵️ Similar technologies
- ⭐ Market leaders
- 💡 More alternatives
- 🔎 All options
💬 Frequently Asked Questions
What is the company behind DNS Prefetch?
DNS Prefetch is owned by World Wide Web Consortium, Inc., headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
Which country uses DNS Prefetch the most?
The majority of DNS Prefetch users are from the United States.
Who uses DNS Prefetch?
According to our data, DNS Prefetch is used on millions of sites, including facebook.com, microsoft.com, and cloud.microsoft.
Is DNS Prefetch used on government websites?
In total, we found DNS Prefetch on 536 government sites in the United States.
Do academic institutions use DNS Prefetch?
Yes, quite a few! Overall, we know of 1,758 academic websites in the United States that use DNS Prefetch.
How does DNS Prefetch stack up against its competitors?
DNS Prefetch is one of the most popular performance optimization technologies, second only to ⏳ Lazy loading.
What are the alternatives to DNS Prefetch?
Alternatives and possible competitors to DNS Prefetch may include 
Speculation Rules, Preconnect, and Preload.
👉 See Also
🗃️ About This Data
- We evaluate the popularity of technologies based on the number of websites where we detect their usage.
- Technologies without a detectable web footprint, and those we do not track, are not reflected in the calculated market share.
- This report is based on the analysis of 4,046,631 websites.
- Statistics were last calculated on .
- For more details, see our methodology and disclaimer.