Cross-Host Resources in Polish Municipal Websites: An Analysis of Front-End Request Structure

Municipal websites are a primary channel for communicating with residents and providing access to public information and services. Their front ends may combine resources retrieved from the base host with resources delivered from other hosts, creating a complex structure of network requests. This study aimed to determine the extent and structure of requests made by Polish municipal websites to hosts other than the base host. A stratified random sample of 500 municipal websites was analyzed. HTTP/HTTPS requests were recorded during a single initial load of each homepage under standardized measurement conditions. In the sample, at least one request to another host was recorded for 88% of the websites, while no such requests were recorded for the remaining 12%. Requests to other hosts accounted for 18.8% of all recorded requests. A limited set of hosts associated with global digital services and solutions designed for the public sector recurred across many websites, including hosts serving typography resources, web analytics, content delivery networks (CDNs), digital accessibility components, and environmental monitoring services. The findings indicate that a hybrid front-end model is widespread: resources retrieved from the base host are used alongside resources delivered from other hosts. Characterizing this structure helps clarify the technical organization of municipal websites and provides a starting point for further research into their performance, reliability, resource management, and implications for user privacy.