Real-Time Features That Update Instantly Across Thousands of Connections

Live dashboards, collaborative editing, chat systems, and notification streams require fundamentally different architecture than request-response applications. We build real-time features with WebSockets and Server-Sent Events that scale reliably and handle connection failures gracefully.

973x

more frequent deployments by elite teams, enabled by event-driven architectures that decouple real-time features from the request-response cycle

DORA State of DevOps

Real-Time Applications

Real-time features with WebSockets and Server-Sent Events for live dashboards, chat, collaboration tools, notification streams, and live data feeds.

What's Included

Everything you get with our Real-Time Applications

Real-Time Architecture Design

WebSocket or SSE protocol selection, connection management strategy, message schema design, and scaling architecture for your specific concurrency requirements

Real-Time Feature Implementation

Server-side event broadcasting, client-side connection management with automatic reconnection, and message handling with optimistic updates and conflict resolution

Scaling and Monitoring

Redis pub/sub or dedicated message broker for multi-server broadcasting, connection monitoring, and load testing under realistic concurrency patterns

Our Real-Time Application Process

1

Protocol and Architecture Selection

We evaluate your real-time requirements: bidirectional vs unidirectional, concurrency targets, message frequency, and latency requirements. We select WebSocket or SSE and design the connection and message architecture.

2

Server-Side Implementation

We build the event broadcasting system, connection management, authentication for WebSocket connections, and the message routing layer. We integrate with your existing API and database.

3

Client-Side Integration

We implement the client-side connection manager with automatic reconnection, message handling with optimistic updates, and UI components that react to real-time data.

4

Load Testing and Deployment

We load-test with realistic concurrency patterns, verify reconnection behavior, and deploy with monitoring that tracks connection counts, message throughput, and error rates.

Key Benefits

Instant data delivery

Data reaches connected clients within milliseconds of the event occurring. No polling delay, no wasted requests, no stale data. Users see changes the moment they happen.

Horizontal scaling

Redis pub/sub or a dedicated message broker ensures that events broadcast to all connected clients regardless of which server they are connected to. Add servers to handle more connections without architectural changes.

Graceful degradation

Connection management handles network interruptions, server restarts, and client suspensions. Automatic reconnection with exponential backoff, event replay for missed messages, and fallback to polling when WebSocket connections are blocked by corporate firewalls.

Research & Evidence

Backed by industry research and proven results

State of DevOps Report

Elite teams deploy 973x more frequently, and event-driven real-time architectures enable independent scaling and deployment of real-time features without affecting the core application

DORA (2022)

Web Performance Impact

100ms of latency costs 7% in conversions, and real-time data delivery eliminates the polling latency that degrades user experience in dashboard and monitoring applications

Akamai (2017)

Frequently Asked Questions

Should we use WebSockets or Server-Sent Events?

WebSockets for bidirectional communication like chat and collaborative editing where clients send and receive data. Server-Sent Events for unidirectional streaming like live dashboards and notification feeds where the server pushes data to clients. SSE is simpler, works over standard HTTP, and reconnects automatically.

How many concurrent connections can you handle?

A single server typically handles 10,000 to 50,000 concurrent WebSocket connections. With Redis pub/sub and horizontal scaling, we can support hundreds of thousands of concurrent connections. We size the architecture based on your specific requirements.

What happens when a connection drops?

The client automatically reconnects with exponential backoff. Missed events during the disconnection period are replayed from a server-side buffer. The user experience is seamless even through network interruptions.

How long does real-time feature development take?

Adding real-time features to an existing application takes 3 to 6 weeks. Building a real-time-first application like a chat system or collaborative tool takes 8 to 14 weeks.

Add Real-Time Features That Your Users Will Notice Immediately

Describe the real-time features you need. We will design the architecture that delivers instant updates at your scale.