In this paper, an X-shaped fractal antenna with defected ground structure (DGS) is presented for multiband and wideband applications. The X shape is used due to its simple design and DGS is utilized to achieve size reduction with multiband and wideband features in the frequency range of 1–7 GHz. The proposed structure is fabricated on FR4 substrate with 1.6 mm thickness. We have proposed two different antennas both are having X-shaped fractal patch with a slotted ground plane to have more impedance bandwidth and better return loss. Various parameters like scale factor, width of ground plane, number of slots with their dimensions and feed line length are optimized to have size reduction and for enhancing the performance of antenna. Reflection coefficient shows the multiband and wideband features of proposed antenna. One of the proposed antennas covers various applications like IEEE802.11y at 3.65 and 4.9 GHz, IEEE 802.11a at 5.4 GHz, 802.11P at 5.9 GHz. Other antenna covers applications like IEEE802.16 at 3.5 GHz; 5 cm band for amateur radio and satellite and future 5 G communication systems over 6 GHz. The antenna designing was done using CST software and simulation results were compared with experimental results (using E5071C network analyzer).