Why We Don't Use Socket Connections for Everything

Sockets (such as TCP sockets or WebSockets) enable persistent, two-way communication between a client and a server. Because of this, they are extremely useful for real-time applications like chat systems, live notifications, and online games. However, in most web applications we do not use socket connections for every request . Instead, many systems still rely on HTTP-based communication . Let’s explore why. 1. Persistent Connections Consume More Resources A socket connection remains open for a long time . Example: Client ⇄ Server The server must maintain this connection in memory and keep track of its state. If a system has 1 million users connected simultaneously , the server must maintain 1 million open connections . This requires: Memory for each connection CPU for connection management File descriptors from the operating system Because of these costs, keeping many persistent connections can become expensive and difficult to scale . In contrast, HTTP connections are usually short-l