Stateless services are those that do not maintain any state information, while stateful services maintain some state information. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks, and it is important to understand when to use each type of service.
In a stateless service, each request from a client is treated as an independent transaction that is unrelated to any other request. In contrast, a stateful service maintains some kind of session state information that allows it to keep track of requests from individual clients.
Stateless services are more scalable than stateful services, because they do not need to maintain any state information. Stateless services can be deployed on multiple servers without any issue, because each request is treated independently. Stateless services are also easier to implement, because there is no need to maintain any session information. However, stateless services have the drawback of being less reliable, because if a server goes down, all of the session information may be lost. Stateless services are also less reliable since they cannot guarantee that all requests from a given client will be processed by the same server.
Stateful services are less scalable than stateless services, because they need to maintain some state information. Stateful services can only be deployed on a single server, because each request depends on the previous request. Stateful services are also more difficult to implement, because session information needs to be maintained. However, stateful services have the advantage of being more reliable, because if a server goes down, the session information is still available on the other servers.
Stateless services are typically used for resources that can be accessed independently, without taking into account any previous requests. As we mentioned earlier, a good example of this is a web server. Another example would be an API gateway.
Stateful services are typically used for resources that need to maintain state information in order to function correctly. As we mentioned earlier, a good example of this is an email server. Another example would be a database server.
It's important to note that many systems use a combination of stateless and stateful services. For example, a web application might use a stateless service for handling authentication (since this can be easily scaled) and a stateful service for maintaining shopping carts (since this needs to be tied to a specific user). Just remember, stateless services are more scalable and easier to implement, but they are less reliable