Choosing the Right Realtime Technology
Compare WebSockets, SSE, long polling, and WebRTC across latency, direction, and complexity so you can pick the right tool for each use case.
No Single Best Choice
Realtime is not one technology. The right pick depends on data direction, latency needs, scale, and how much complexity you can afford.
The Contenders
The main realtime options are polling/long polling, Server-Sent Events, WebSockets, and WebRTC. Each fits a different shape of problem.
All lessons in this course
- The Evolution of Web Communication
- Polling, Long Polling, and SSE
- Introducing WebSockets: A New Era
- Choosing the Right Realtime Technology