Beyond request-response
HTTP was built for request-response. You ask, the server answers, the connection closes. But modern applications demand more: live chat, real-time notifications, collaborative document editing, live sports scores, stock tickers, multiplayer games. Polling every second is wasteful and laggy. Server-Sent Events work for one-way streams but can't handle bidirectional communication. WebSockets open a persistent, full-duplex connection between client and server — and they change everything.
Not as scary as it sounds
The implementation isn't as scary as it sounds. Socket.IO remains the most popular library for good reason: it handles connection fallbacks, automatic reconnection, room-based broadcasting, and binary data out of the box. For simpler use cases, the native WebSocket API is sufficient. On the server side, libraries like ws (Node.js) or uWebSockets.js handle thousands of concurrent connections with minimal overhead. The real complexity isn't the WebSocket itself — it's managing state across connections.
Scaling stateful connections
Scaling WebSockets requires a different mindset than scaling HTTP. Each WebSocket connection is stateful — the server remembers who's connected. When you add a second server, you need a way to broadcast messages across all instances. Redis Pub/Sub is the standard solution: when Server A receives a message for a user connected to Server B, it publishes to Redis, and Server B picks it up. For larger deployments, dedicated real-time infrastructure like Ably, Pusher, or Soketi handles the scaling for you.
Start simple
Start simple. Not every feature needs WebSockets. If your data updates every 30 seconds, polling is fine. If you need sub-second updates for a small number of users, Server-Sent Events might be enough. Reserve WebSockets for genuinely interactive features: chat, collaborative editing, live dashboards, and multiplayer experiences. And always implement graceful degradation — if the WebSocket connection drops, fall back to polling until it reconnects. At steezr, we've built real-time features for dashboards, notification systems, and live collaboration tools. The key is choosing the right tool for the right problem.