The Internet of Things (IoT) era is driving up demand for wireless connectivity, changing the tech sector. The creation of a compact, inexpensive, and effective antenna is crucial for supporting IoT devices. In this study, a hybrid strategy (HS)-based dense rectangular patch antenna for future Internet of Things applications (IoT) is demonstrated. A slotted patch and a partial ground with defected ground structure (DGS) are combined to create HS, leading to in a small antenna with a large impedance bandwidth, good impedance matching, increased radiation efficiency, and high gain. The antenna is designed on an FR4_epoxy substrate with a compact size of 30 × 20 × 0.8 mm3, a dielectric constant of 4.4, a thickness of 0.8 mm, a loss tangent of 0.02 and fed by a 50 Ω microstrip feed line. It is analyzed and simulated at the operating frequency of 5.2 GHz for ultra-wideband (UWB) (3.1–10.6 GHz) applications using high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS) software. The simulation results reveal that the antenna offers a broad bandwidth of 19.9 GHz (3.10 GHz to 23 GHz), a gain of 7.97 dB with an efficiency of 0.9651 (96.51%). The radiation pattern is bidirectional in both the E-plane and H-plane. Hence, the proposed antenna is very promising for future IoT applications due to its compact size and wide bandwidth characteristics. It also enhances connectivity and performance, lowers interference, opens up new applications, and encourages the widespread use of IoT technology, ultimately leading to the development of a more sophisticated and connected society.