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Real-time connection gateway
Holds long-lived WebSocket connections and pushes events (messages, locations, prices) to clients.
When to use
- Chat
- Live tracking
- Tickers and scoreboards
Pitfalls
- Needs a connection registry and cross-node pub/sub
- Reconnect storms after deploys
Options by provider
The first option is what diagrams show for that provider.
Amazon Web Services
- API Gateway WebSocket APIsManaged
- AWS AppSyncManaged
Google Cloud
- Self-hosted on GKE — no dedicated managed serviceSelf-hosted
Microsoft Azure
- Azure Web PubSubManaged
- Azure SignalR ServiceManaged
Open source / self-hosted
- Socket.IOSelf-hosted
- CentrifugoSelf-hosted
Third-party (works with any cloud)
- AblyManaged
- PusherManaged
Related concepts
Used in
- WhatsApp / Messenger
- Chat servers — Hold user connections; receive, store and push messages
- Uber
- Real-time gateway — Persistent connections for GPS pings, offers and live tracking
- Dropbox
- Notification service — Tells connected devices that their folders changed
- WebSockets at scale
- Gateway pods (Go) — Hold sockets, verify tokens, push events
- Video calling (WebRTC)
- Signalling service — Relays offers, answers and ICE candidates
- Airline reservations
- Live status — Pushes flight status to apps
- Airbnb
- Messaging — Guest–host chat
- NoBroker
- Chat — Owner–tenant messaging
- Zomato / food delivery
- Real-time gateway — Rider GPS in; live tracking and order offers out
- Porter / goods delivery
- Real-time gateway — Driver GPS and offers, customer tracking
- Driver booking & fleet management
- Real-time gateway — GPS, offers, live tracking
- Practo / teleconsultation
- Call signalling & chat — WebRTC signalling and in-call chat
- AstroTalk
- Chat gateway — Session messages and timers
- LinkedIn
- Messaging — Real-time conversations
- Stock brokerage
- Streaming gateway — Pushes quotes and order updates to clients
- Live sports scores
- Live gateway — Pushes updates to subscribers