WebSockets vs tRPC

The real-time whisperer meets typescript's love letter to api developers. Here's our take.

WebSockets

Nice Pick

The real-time whisperer. Because polling is so 2005, but debugging this can feel like time travel.

Pros

• Enables low-latency, bidirectional communication without HTTP overhead
• Widely supported across modern browsers and servers
• Persistent connections reduce server load for real-time apps

Cons

• Debugging can be a nightmare with opaque connection drops
• Scaling requires careful state management and can get messy fast

tRPC

TypeScript's love letter to API developers. Write types once, cry about mismatched schemas never.

Pros

• End-to-end type safety without code generation
• Seamless autocompletion and real-time error prevention
• Reduces boilerplate by sharing types between client and server

Cons

• Tightly coupled to TypeScript, limiting use in non-TypeScript projects
• Can feel like magic, making debugging more opaque when things go wrong

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. WebSockets is a real-time communication while tRPC is a ai coding tools. We picked WebSockets based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

WebSockets wins

Based on overall popularity. WebSockets is more widely used, but tRPC excels in its own space.