Real-Time Updates in Web Apps: Why I Chose SSE Over WebSockets
Modern web apps need real-time communication—whether it's a chat app, stock ticker, or live sports commentary. There are multiple ways to implement it: HTTP Polling WebSockets Server-Sent Events (SSE) In this blog, I’ll walk you through why I picked SSE for my commentary app, how it works, and how you can implement it using React and Node.js. First, let’s understand that all the methods we use for real-time updates—Polling, WebSockets, and SSE—are based on the principles of Event-Driven Architecture (EDA). So before comparing them, it's important to know what EDA is and how it shapes real-time communication.

Modern web apps need real-time communication—whether it's a chat app, stock ticker, or live sports commentary. There are multiple ways to implement it:
- HTTP Polling
- WebSockets
- Server-Sent Events (SSE)
In this blog, I’ll walk you through why I picked SSE for my commentary app, how it works, and how you can implement it using React and Node.js.
First, let’s understand that all the methods we use for real-time updates—Polling, WebSockets, and SSE—are based on the principles of Event-Driven Architecture (EDA). So before comparing them, it's important to know what EDA is and how it shapes real-time communication.