[Silhouette]

Also - using WebSockets for a one-way communication channel is ridiculous. I know it's the cool kid way to do things, but that invariably means it's over hyped and has a more appropriate alternative. In this case, it's EventSource/Server Sent Events.

I have some sympathy for your view here, but there are some other practical concerns as well in this case. For example, EventSource/SSE are not natively supported on IE/Edge but WebSockets are, so how well whatever you need to do works with your chosen polyfill is a factor.

[stephenr]

Right, except eventsource is pretty simple to pollyfill because it’s just http.

Websockets requires explicit support on the backend, in every layer of your http stack that it’ll traverse.

If the goal is to simplify your stack, websockets is not the solution.

[Silhouette]

Oh, I agree, and under normal circumstances EventSource + polyfill is what I'd use too. I'm just pointing out that it's not always as simple as overhyped things being used only because of the hype, because sometimes there are genuine technical differences in areas like compatibility or performance as well.