Stateful Authentication vs Stateless Authentication
Developers should use stateful authentication when building traditional web applications that require server-managed sessions, such as e-commerce sites, banking platforms, or content management systems meets developers should use stateless authentication when building scalable, distributed applications such as microservices architectures, apis, or single-page applications (spas) where server-side session storage would be a bottleneck. Here's our take.
Stateful Authentication
Developers should use stateful authentication when building traditional web applications that require server-managed sessions, such as e-commerce sites, banking platforms, or content management systems
Stateful Authentication
Nice PickDevelopers should use stateful authentication when building traditional web applications that require server-managed sessions, such as e-commerce sites, banking platforms, or content management systems
Pros
- +It's particularly useful for scenarios needing server-side control over session revocation, real-time permission updates, or compliance with regulatory requirements that mandate centralized session management
- +Related to: session-management, cookies
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
Stateless Authentication
Developers should use stateless authentication when building scalable, distributed applications such as microservices architectures, APIs, or single-page applications (SPAs) where server-side session storage would be a bottleneck
Pros
- +It is ideal for scenarios requiring horizontal scaling, as it eliminates the need for session affinity or shared session stores, simplifying deployment across multiple servers or cloud instances
- +Related to: json-web-tokens, oauth-2
Cons
- -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case
The Verdict
Use Stateful Authentication if: You want it's particularly useful for scenarios needing server-side control over session revocation, real-time permission updates, or compliance with regulatory requirements that mandate centralized session management and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.
Use Stateless Authentication if: You prioritize it is ideal for scenarios requiring horizontal scaling, as it eliminates the need for session affinity or shared session stores, simplifying deployment across multiple servers or cloud instances over what Stateful Authentication offers.
Developers should use stateful authentication when building traditional web applications that require server-managed sessions, such as e-commerce sites, banking platforms, or content management systems
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