Data that updates the instant it changes
We build real-time systems using WebSockets and Pub/Sub architecture, powering live chat, dashboards, and collaborative features that update instantly.
Overview
Some product experiences genuinely don't work well without real-time data: a chat that requires refreshing to see new messages, a live dashboard that's actually showing numbers from thirty seconds ago, a collaborative document where you can't see what your teammate just typed. Standard request-response HTTP, where the client always initiates and the server can only respond, simply isn't built for this kind of instant, server-initiated communication.
We build real-time systems using WebSockets for genuinely bidirectional communication and Pub/Sub architecture for efficient broadcast to many subscribers, choosing the right pattern, or combining both, based on your actual interaction model rather than defaulting to one regardless of fit. This includes the resilience engineering that real-time systems genuinely require: connection handling that scales to thousands of concurrent users, and graceful reconnection logic that handles the network interruptions real users inevitably encounter.
For collaborative features specifically, we implement proper conflict resolution so simultaneous edits merge correctly rather than one user's changes silently overwriting another's, and we adapt authentication specifically for persistent connections rather than assuming standard HTTP security patterns transfer directly. The goal is real-time functionality that feels genuinely reliable under real-world conditions, not just in a clean demo with a single well-connected test user.
What we build
Real-time infrastructure that makes your product feel instant and alive, not stale and polling.
WebSocket Implementation
WebSockets provide a persistent, bidirectional connection between client and server, meaningfully different from the request-response pattern of standard HTTP, letting either side push data to the other instantly without waiting for a poll request that may or may not arrive at a useful moment. We implement WebSocket infrastructure specifically designed around your actual interaction pattern, whether that's chat where both parties send and receive frequently, or live dashboards where the server primarily pushes updates outward. This includes designing for the specific challenges persistent connections introduce that stateless HTTP never has to deal with: connection state management across potentially many concurrent users, graceful handling of network interruptions, and load balancing strategies that work correctly with connections that stay open for extended periods rather than completing quickly like a typical HTTP request.
Pub/Sub Event Architecture
Broadcasting an event to many interested subscribers, a price change, a status update, a new notification, is architecturally different from bidirectional point-to-point communication, and forcing this use case through a WebSocket-per-subscriber model tends to scale poorly compared to genuine publish-subscribe architecture designed for exactly this fan-out pattern. We implement Pub/Sub systems specifically for these broadcast scenarios, ensuring events reach every relevant subscriber efficiently regardless of how many subscribers exist, without the server needing to individually track and push to each connection separately. Choosing correctly between WebSockets and Pub/Sub, or combining both where a system genuinely needs both bidirectional and broadcast patterns, is a foundational architectural decision we make deliberately based on your actual use case, not a default applied regardless of fit.
Connection Resilience
Network interruptions are simply a fact of real-world connectivity, especially on mobile networks, and a real-time system that handles dropped connections poorly, losing state, duplicating messages, or leaving users staring at a frozen, disconnected interface, undermines the entire value real-time functionality was supposed to provide. We build graceful reconnection logic and state synchronization specifically designed to handle these interruptions cleanly, ensuring a user whose connection drops briefly and reconnects seamlessly catches up on anything they missed without duplicate or lost data. This resilience engineering is often what separates a real-time feature that feels genuinely reliable from one that works well in a demo but frustrates real users the first time their connection has an ordinary, everyday hiccup.
How we build real-time systems that stay reliable under real-world conditions
A process focused on the resilience real-time systems need, not just the happy-path demo.
- 01
Communication Pattern Selection
We identify whether your use case genuinely needs bidirectional WebSocket communication, broadcast-style Pub/Sub, or a combination of both, based on how data actually needs to flow between clients and server rather than defaulting to one pattern regardless of fit.
- 02
Connection Architecture Design
We design the connection architecture, including how connections will be load balanced and managed at your expected concurrent user scale, since patterns that work fine with a handful of test connections often behave very differently under genuine concurrent load.
- 03
Core Real-Time Feature Build
We build the core real-time functionality, implementing the specific event flows your application needs, chat messages, live updates, collaborative edits, tested against realistic multi-user scenarios rather than a single-user development environment.
- 04
Conflict Resolution Implementation (If Applicable)
For collaborative features, we implement conflict resolution logic ensuring simultaneous edits from multiple users merge correctly rather than silently overwriting each other, tested specifically against genuinely concurrent editing scenarios.
- 05
Reconnection & Resilience Testing
We build graceful reconnection and state synchronization logic, testing specifically against network interruption scenarios to confirm users reconnect cleanly and catch up on missed data without duplication or loss.
- 06
Load Testing & Launch Support
We load test the system against your expected concurrent user scale, validating that connection handling and message delivery remain reliable under genuine load, then support launch and ongoing scaling as usage grows.
Real-time technology stack
We build real-time systems using proven, high-throughput messaging technology.
Frequently Asked Questions
Real-time systems push data updates to clients instantly through persistent connections like WebSockets, rather than requiring clients to repeatedly poll a server asking whether anything new has happened, which introduces both latency and unnecessary network overhead.
We choose based on your specific use case, WebSockets suit genuinely bidirectional communication like chat or collaborative editing, while Pub/Sub architecture suits broadcasting events to many subscribers efficiently, like live notifications or activity feeds.
Yes, we've built real-time systems for live chat, collaborative document editing, live dashboards showing streaming data, and instant notification systems, each of which has genuinely different technical requirements around consistency, ordering, and conflict resolution.
Yes, we design connection handling, load balancing, and reconnection logic specifically to scale reliably to thousands of concurrent connections, since naive real-time implementations that work fine with a handful of test users often buckle badly under genuine concurrent load.
Yes, we implement graceful reconnection logic and state synchronization so users don't lose data or see inconsistent state during brief network interruptions, which are genuinely common on mobile connections and need to be handled gracefully rather than causing visible errors.
Yes, we can add real-time functionality to an existing application incrementally, starting with the specific feature that most benefits from real-time updates, without requiring your entire application architecture to be rebuilt around real-time from scratch.
Yes, for collaborative features specifically, we implement conflict resolution strategies like operational transforms or CRDTs where multiple users might genuinely edit the same data simultaneously, ensuring changes merge correctly rather than one user's edits silently overwriting another's.
Yes, we implement authentication and authorization specifically adapted for persistent connections, since WebSocket connections need genuinely different security handling than standard stateless HTTP requests, including validating permissions continuously rather than just at initial connection.
Other Backend & API Development Services
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