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Recently I've found out of Server-Sent events as a much simpler alternative to WebSockets for doing push from the server. Most places that compare them (like here, here and here) say that if you don't need full duplex communications between client and server, then WebSockets is overkill and SSE are good enough.
My question is what would be the downside of using SSE when you do need bidirectional communications (like a chat for example), using regular ajax requests for sending messages from the client and the server stream for receiving them? Considering that I have to do little to no configuration on the server side to use SSE, it seems to be a much more appealing option.
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SSE is best used when it's not necessary to send data from client to server. For example, in status updates and push notification applications, the data flow is from the server to the client only. This is what SSE is designed for, so WebSocket would be overkill. It's always wise to use the best tool for the job.
WebSockets generally do not use 'XMLHttpRequest', and as such, headers are not sent every-time we need to get more information from the server. This, in turn, reduces the expensive data loads being sent to the server. WebSocket connections can both send and receive data from the browser.
Obviously, the major difference between WebSockets and Server-Sent Events is that WebSockets are bidirectional (allowing communication between the client and the server) while SSEs are mono-directional (only allowing the client to receive data from the server).
BIDIRECTIONAL. Whereas HTTP relies on a client request to receive a response from the server for every exchange, WebSockets allow for full-duplex bidirectional communication. This enables the server to send real-time updates asynchronously, without requiring the client to submit a request each time.
Differences Obviously, the major difference between WebSockets and Server-Sent Events is that WebSockets are bidirectional (allowing communication between the client and the server) while SSEs are mono-directional (only allowing the client to receive data from the server).
WebSocket communication is a separate communication protocol from HTTP, introducing new problems in the network layer, as I should soon find out. But there is an alternative: Server Sent Events (SSE).
Server Sent Events win 3:0. The better performance is noticable in all browsers, especially in Safari though, which seems to have a less-than-ideal WebSocket implementation. This was actually super simple to implement, it took much longer to write this blog post than to implement a working solution using Server Sent Events.
As the name suggest, server-sent events are a push technology that allows the client to receive data automatically from the server through an HTTP connection. In this case, after an HTTP connection has been established between the server and the client, the server can send automatic updates.
SSE Advantages over WebSockets:
SSE Disadvantages compared to WebSockets:
References:
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