The fundamental difference between stateless and stateful systems is that the former does not store data on the host while the latter requires some kind of backing storage. In stateful systems, storing the state is very critical. The figure below illustrates the flow in both types of systems:
Both stateful and stateless systems are used in the real world and are chosen based on the requirements. Following are some key differences between both types of systems:
| Stateless | Stateful |
|---|---|
| In stateless, the server is not required to retain the information about the state. | In stateful, the server is required keep information about the current state and session. |
| It is easy to scale the architecture. | It is not easy to scale the architecture. |
| The server and client are independent i.e., loosely coupled. | In stateful, server and client are not independent i.e., tightly bound. |
| It handles crashes well, so it is easy to restart a server after a crash. | It does not handles crashes well, so management of crashes is difficult. |
| Server’s design, architecture, and implementation is straight-forward. | Server’s design, architecture, and implementation is complex. |
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