Real-Time on the Frontend - SSE, WebSockets & Polling

Real-time doesn't always mean WebSockets. Picking the right tool changes everything. In this article we'll cover when polling is actually the right answer, why SSE is the most underrated real-time technology on the web, when WebSockets are genuinely worth the complexity, how to handle reconnections properly, lessons from building real-time features at scale and a clear decision framework so you stop defaulting to WebSockets out of habit. Every time a developer hears "real-time", the next word ou