Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP, is the cornerstone of modern web communication. It ensures the transfer of information between a browser and a server and affects its speed and security. The latest version – HTTP/3 – was released in 2018 under the guidance of experts from IETF in cooperation with Google and Cloudflare. However, it’s only now coming to the fore, after years of tweaking, testing and gaining support from the most popular browsers.
According to statistics, most of the Internet still works on HTTP/2. However, it’s expected that HTTP/3 will dominate the online world by 2030. Is it worth being ahead of time and enabling it on your site now? In our opinion, definitely yes – and we have 5 reasons to do so.
1. Faster flow of information
Thanks to HTTP/3, information gets to your website faster. This is due to the new QUIC protocol. It combines the transmission of information and its encryption in one step, thanks to which it saves several hundred milliseconds with each new connection to the server.
2. No more data congestion due to slow packet
The performance of older HTTPs is also affected by the so-called head-of-line blocking, in which one slow data packet delays the receipt of all subsequent ones. HTTP/3 eliminates this problem because it acquires data in different ways simultaneously, without interfering with each other. Thus, the loading speed of websites with HTTP/3 is on average up to 55% faster than in the previous version of this protocol.
3. A more powerful website when connected to mobile data
Thanks to QUIC, HTTP/3 can work more efficiently on networks with unstable connections or high latency (the time delay between sending data from one point of the network and receiving it at another). Usually these are mainly mobile networks, the stability of which is also influenced by, for example, the distance of the device from the transmitters, the number of connected users or disturbing elements in the vicinity. However, this isn’t a problem for QUIC, as it can move between different networks without interruption and retrieve data where it’s most effective.
4. Short-term outages without risk
Despite all its measures, HTTP/3 cannot eliminate the risk of a short-term network outage completely. However, it’s designed to restore the connection so quickly after a failure that the user practically doesn’t even notice it. This is especially important for apps that require around-the-clock connectivity, such as video calls and streaming. Therefore, it’s no surprise that HTTP/3 is already used by YouTube or Netflix.
5. Increased security thanks to the TLS 1.3 protocol
HTTP/3 has the latest Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 encryption protocol integrated. TLS automatically removes outdated and less secure encryption algorithms from the web, plus it always has the Forward Secrecy feature turned on. It generates a unique temporary encryption key for each connection, which can no longer be used to decrypt previous communications. So if hackers manage to get it, it’ll be completely useless for them – it won’t unlock any important information.
If you want your website to be future-proof and continue to offer users the best digital experience possible, it’s time to move on to HTTP/3. We’ll be happy to arrange that for you. Contact our support today.
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