Blog
From the team
Articles on realtime infrastructure, WebSockets, and building live features.
Building a Realtime Dashboard with Apinator
Learn how to build a live analytics dashboard that updates in real time using Apinator WebSockets, with less than 20 lines of client code.
How to Build a Live Collaborative Document Editor
Learn how to build a Google Docs-style collaborative editor with real-time cursor tracking, live edits, and presence indicators using WebSockets.
What Is WebSocket Infrastructure?
WebSocket infrastructure is the layer that manages persistent connections at scale — handling auth, routing, fanout, and delivery so your app doesn't have to.
How to Build a Crypto / Stock Price Ticker with WebSockets
Build a live price ticker that updates in real time — polling an external price feed on the server and pushing updates to all clients instantly via WebSockets.
How to Scale WebSockets to 1 Million Connections
Scaling WebSockets beyond a single server requires careful architecture. Here's what actually breaks and how to fix it — from sticky sessions to Redis fanout and horizontal scaling.
How to Build a Live Voting and Polling System
Build a real-time voting system where results update live as votes come in — no refresh needed. Perfect for Q&A sessions, live events, and audience interaction.
WebSockets vs HTTP Polling
Polling gets the job done until it doesn't. Here's an honest comparison of WebSockets and HTTP polling — latency, server load, complexity, and when to use each.
How to Build a Multiplayer Game with WebSockets
Build a real-time multiplayer game using WebSockets — from game state synchronization to player presence and input broadcasting, with a working example.
Redis Pub/Sub Explained
Redis Pub/Sub is the backbone of most WebSocket scaling architectures. Here's how it works, what it's good at, and where it falls short.
How to Add Realtime to a Next.js App
Add live WebSocket features to your Next.js app — from server-side event publishing in Route Handlers to client-side subscriptions with a custom React hook.
Presence Channels Explained
Presence channels let you track who's online in real time — showing typing indicators, viewer counts, and live cursors without building your own member tracking.
How to Add Realtime to a Laravel App
Add WebSocket-powered realtime features to your Laravel application — publishing events from controllers and subscribing from the frontend with a few lines of code.
How to Build Live Customer Support Chat
Build a live chat widget for your product — a customer-facing chat window and an agent dashboard that both update in real time using WebSockets.
How to Build Slack with WebSockets
Slack's realtime features — channel messages, typing indicators, online presence, and notifications — can all be built with WebSockets. Here's how the architecture works.
How to Build Realtime Chat in Node.js
A step-by-step guide to building a working realtime chat app with Node.js and Apinator — from server setup to client subscription in under 50 lines of code.
WebSocket Load Balancing Explained
Load balancing WebSockets is trickier than HTTP — persistent connections and stateful servers mean round-robin doesn't cut it. Here's what actually works.
What Is a WebSocket?
WebSockets let servers push data to clients the moment it changes — no polling, no waiting. Here's how they work, what they're good for, and when to use them.
How the WebSocket Handshake Works
The WebSocket connection starts as HTTP and upgrades to a persistent socket. Here's exactly what happens during the handshake — headers, keys, and all.
What Is a Pub/Sub Channel?
Pub/sub channels are the core abstraction in realtime systems — they let publishers send messages to many subscribers without knowing who's listening. Here's how they work.
WebSocket Protocol Explained
A practical guide to the WebSocket protocol — how connections are established, how frames are structured, what opcodes do, and what all of this means when you're building realtime apps.