Infrastructure Decisions · judgement tool

Do I need WebSockets?

Do I need WebSockets? Answer a few real conditions and get a Not yet / Probably yes / Yes-priority verdict — every factor tagged official fact, calculation, StackSays rule or estimate. No fabricated industry threshold.

A judgement tool, not a tool ranking · thresholds are StackSays rules, not industry standards · official facts verified 2026-07-17 · share the URL to share your answers

How to read this: every factor below is tagged by where it comes from — official fact official/documented · calculation math on your inputs · StackSays rule our decision logic · StackSays estimate our judgement. The verdict cut-points are StackSays rules, not an industry threshold — there is no universal traffic number for these decisions.

Your situation

The recommendation updates as you answer. Share the URL to share it.

Bidirectional, low-latency messagingclient and server both push, sub-secondPresence / collaborationwho's online, live cursors, multiplayerOnly server→client updatesnotifications, live feed, progress — one directionServerless / edge hostingno always-on server to hold a socket

Recommendation

Not yet

Based on the factors you set — 0 pushing toward adopting, 2 against.

Why it might be premature

-16 Server-push only — If updates flow server→client only, Server-Sent Events (SSE) over plain HTTP are simpler and auto-reconnect (official web standard)official fact
-8 Serverless hosting — Serverless/edge doesn't hold long-lived sockets well; a managed realtime service or SSE avoids that (our judgement)StackSays estimate

When to reassess

Add WebSockets when you truly need low-latency two-way messaging or presence; until then SSE or polling is usually enough.

Minimal implementation

For server→client only, use SSE (EventSource) or short polling. For true realtime, a managed service (Pusher/Ably/Supabase Realtime) avoids running socket servers.

Risk of not doing it

None if updates are one-directional; if you genuinely need bidirectional realtime, polling adds latency and load.

Cost & complexity once adopted

Persistent connections need sticky routing/scaling and reconnection logic; a managed realtime service offloads most of it.

This is a judgement tool, not a leaderboard. The StackSays rule and StackSays estimate factors are StackSays logic and opinion; the official fact factors link to official sources below. No industry-standard threshold is implied — the answer is driven by the conditions you set.

Official facts cited

Source	Verified
MDN — Server-Sent Events (official web docs)	2026-07-18
MDN — WebSockets API (official web docs)	2026-07-18

Only the factors tagged “official fact” rest on these sources; rules and estimates are StackSays logic and are labeled as such.

Next decision

WebSockets vs SSE vs polling — which realtime transport? →Do I need Redis? →