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 53% of the performance optimization market share and is present on 30.1% of all websites.
- 🏠 Website
- 🔗 Links
Wikipedia📊 Rankings and Market Share
- Performance Optimization
- Rank: 2
- Market share: 53%
- Standards
- Rank: 6
- Market share: 33.3%
🏆 DNS Prefetch Awards
- 🥇 Most popular in the United Kingdom in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Japan in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Italy in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Australia in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Canada in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Turkey in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Vietnam in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Greece in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in South Africa in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Argentina in the Performance Optimization category.
⚡ Sites Using DNS Prefetch
We have data on 1,057,609 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 
microsoft.com.
| # | Website | Rank | Country | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | microsoft.com |
#3 | United States | American English |
| 2 |  github.com |
#13 | United States | English |
| 3 | bing.com | #14 | United States | English |
| 4 | #16 | United States | American English | |
| 5 |  vimeo.com |
#23 | United States | English |
| 6 | #24 | English | ||
| 7 | #26 | United States | English | |
| 8 | #30 | United States | American English | |
| 9 |  yahoo.co.jp |
#31 | Japan | Japanese |
| 10 |  soundcloud.com |
#40 | Germany | English |
| 11 |  twitch.tv |
#42 | United States | English |
| 12 |  paypal.com |
#45 | United States | American English |
| 13 | #49 | English | ||
| 14 | #55 | English | ||
| 15 | #56 | American English | ||
| 16 | #67 | United States | English | |
| 17 | #74 | Brazil | Brazilian Portuguese | |
| 18 | #77 | English | ||
| 19 | #88 | Switzerland | English | |
| 20 | #89 | United States | American 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 21.8%
- United Kingdom 6.7%
- Japan 5.6%
- Germany 4.6%
- France 4.4%
- Spain 4.2%
- Italy 4%
- Australia 3.5%
- Netherlands 3.3%
- Other 41.9%
Most DNS Prefetch users speak English, Spanish, or Japanese.
- English 55.6%
- Spanish 6.2%
- Japanese 4.7%
- French 4.2%
- German 4%
- Italian 3.2%
- Portuguese 2.6%
- Dutch 2.4%
- Russian 2%
- Other 15.1%
DNS Prefetch performance optimization technology is especially popular on .com and .org top-level domains.
- .com 47.4%
- .org 6.7%
- .net 2.8%
- .de 2.5%
- .co.uk 2.4%
- .it 2.2%
- .com.au 2.1%
- .nl 1.7%
- .com.br 1.5%
- Other 30.7%
The primary market segments for websites utilizing DNS Prefetch include business, marketing and merchandising, and blogs and wiki.
- Business 16.9%
- Marketing/Merchandising 11.1%
- Blogs/Wiki 9.3%
- Online Shopping 9.1%
- Education/Reference 5.5%
- Internet Services 4.6%
- Entertainment 4.2%
- Travel 4%
- Health 3.4%
- Other 31.9%
🕵️ Similar Technologies
These are some of the best DNS Prefetch alternatives.
🆚 Compare Alternatives
Compare DNS Prefetch to…
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- 🔎 All options
CSS
Instant.Page💬 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 microsoft.com, github.com, and bing.com.
Is DNS Prefetch used on government websites?
In total, we found DNS Prefetch on 436 government sites in the United States.
Do academic institutions use DNS Prefetch?
Yes, quite a few! Overall, we know of 1,574 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 Preconnect, Preload, and 
Speculation Rules.
👉 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 3,511,995 websites.
- Statistics were last calculated on .
- For more details, see our methodology and disclaimer.