Preconnect
W3C, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United StatesThe rel="preconnect" attribute on 
HTML <link> elements instructs browsers to establish early connections to external origins before resources are requested.
It is used to reduce latency by opening DNS lookup, TCP handshake, and TLS negotiation in advance for critical third-party domains such as CDNs, font providers, and analytics services.
According to our data, Preconnect is the third most popular performance optimization technology on the web.
It has 40.1% of the performance optimization market share and is present on 22.8% of all websites.
- 🏠 Website
- 🔗 Links
📊 Rankings and Market Share
- Performance Optimization
- Rank: 3
- Market share: 40.1%
- Standards
- Rank: 8
- Market share: 25.3%
🏆 Preconnect Awards
- 🥇 Most popular in Thailand in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Korea in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Cyprus in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in the British Virgin Islands in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Cambodia in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in El Salvador in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Seychelles in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Guernsey in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in Palau in the Performance Optimization category.
- 🥇 Most popular in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Performance Optimization category.
⚡ Sites Using Preconnect
We have data on 805,981 websites that use Preconnect performance optimization technology. Here is a list of some of the top ranked ones.
The highest rated site using Preconnect is 
microsoft.com.
| # | Website | Rank | Country | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | microsoft.com |
#3 | United States | American English |
| 2 |  wikipedia.org |
#11 | United States | English |
| 3 |  x.com |
#12 | English | |
| 4 |  github.com |
#13 | United States | English |
| 5 | bing.com | #14 | United States | English |
| 6 |  pinterest.com |
#15 | English | |
| 7 | #16 | United States | American English | |
| 8 |  tiktok.com |
#18 | Cayman Islands | English |
| 9 |  spotify.com |
#22 | Sweden | English |
| 10 |  vimeo.com |
#23 | United States | English |
| 11 | #24 | English | ||
| 12 |  reddit.com |
#25 | United States | American English |
| 13 | #30 | United States | American English | |
| 14 |  yahoo.co.jp |
#31 | Japan | Japanese |
| 15 |  flickr.com |
#32 | English | |
| 16 | #38 | United States | English | |
| 17 |  vk.com |
#39 | Russia | English |
| 18 |  medium.com |
#41 | English | |
| 19 |  twitch.tv |
#42 | United States | English |
| 20 | #44 | Australia | English |
📈 Usage Statistics
Most of the sites that use Preconnect:
- 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 Preconnect are from the United States and the United Kingdom.
- United States 25.7%
- United Kingdom 6.5%
- France 4.2%
- Germany 3.9%
- Japan 3.9%
- Netherlands 3.5%
- Spain 3.4%
- Australia 3.3%
- India 3.1%
- Other 42.5%
Most Preconnect users speak English, Spanish, or French.
- English 60.9%
- Spanish 5.4%
- French 3.8%
- German 3.3%
- Japanese 3.2%
- Portuguese 2.9%
- Italian 2.3%
- Dutch 2.2%
- Russian 1.9%
- Other 14.1%
Preconnect performance optimization technology is especially popular on .com and .org top-level domains.
- .com 49%
- .org 6%
- .net 2.5%
- .co.uk 2.4%
- .de 2.1%
- .com.au 2%
- .com.br 1.9%
- .it 1.7%
- .fr 1.5%
- Other 30.9%
The primary market segments for websites utilizing Preconnect include business, online shopping, and marketing and merchandising.
- Business 16.6%
- Online Shopping 11.9%
- Marketing/Merchandising 11.1%
- Blogs/Wiki 6.5%
- Internet Services 5%
- Education/Reference 4.9%
- Entertainment 3.8%
- General News 3.2%
- Health 3.2%
- Other 33.8%
🕵️ Similar Technologies
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CSS
Flying Pages💬 Frequently Asked Questions
What is the company behind Preconnect?
Preconnect is owned by World Wide Web Consortium, Inc., headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
Which country uses Preconnect the most?
The majority of Preconnect users are from the United States.
Who uses Preconnect?
According to our data, Preconnect is used on thousands of sites, including microsoft.com, wikipedia.org, and x.com.
Is Preconnect used on government websites?
In total, we found Preconnect on 438 government sites in the United States.
Do academic institutions use Preconnect?
Yes, quite a few! Overall, we know of 1,267 academic websites in the United States that use Preconnect.
How does Preconnect stack up against its competitors?
Preconnect is one of the most popular performance optimization technologies, second only to DNS Prefetch and ⏳ Lazy loading.
What are the alternatives to Preconnect?
Alternatives and possible competitors to Preconnect may include DNS Prefetch, 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 3,531,009 websites.
- Statistics were last calculated on .
- For more details, see our methodology and disclaimer.