Does connection pools always improve performance? [closed]

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In many places online when I try to search for an answer I only find "connections pools improve performance as resources can share the connections and do not have to create new connections" or some derivation of the same.

Ok, you gain performance by reusing connections. However, in the use-case where you have a traditional client server architecture (not web server or app server). Where there is only one application ever connecting to the RDBMS. Why not set it up to not close the connection, just keep it open? Would you still see performance benefits with a connection pool? It seems to me the concept of connection pools is targeting the case where you have multiple applications accessing the same RDBMS and sharing between them.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

For a regular client/server application, connection pools have not added value. There's no performance improvement since the client opens the database connection once and keeps it open. And there's no reduction of resources as each client requires a separate, dedicated connection.