What Is a Webhook?

The Distinction From An API Call Is Direction.

With an API, your system asks; with a webhook, the other system tells you. That inversion is what makes near-real-time automation possible without constant polling.

Software engineers collaborating on webhook architecture, component code, and system standards — Engineering scalable Webhook minimises technical debt and accelerates deployment velocity.

Polling is the alternative and it is wasteful.: Checking every minute for an event that happens twice a day means thousands of pointless requests, and still a delay of up to a minute. A webhook arrives when the event does.
Webhooks introduce their own failure modes, which is where most amateur integrations break.: Messages can arrive twice, arrive out of order, or fail to arrive if the receiver is briefly down. Production integrations handle duplicates safely, verify the message really came from the sender, and provide a way to recover missed events.
The practical test of an integration's quality is what happens when the receiver is offline for ten minutes.: A well-built one catches up; a fragile one silently loses the events.

Covered in Systems IntegrationWorkflow Automation

Frequently Asked Questions

What Happens If A Webhook Fails To Deliver?

That depends on the sender. Good ones retry with backoff; others send once and forget. A robust integration assumes delivery is unreliable and provides a reconciliation path to catch anything missed.

Are Webhooks Secure?

Only if verified. A webhook endpoint is a public URL, so the receiver must confirm the message genuinely came from the expected sender (usually through a signature) before acting on it.

What Does This Cover?

A webhook is an automated message one system sends to another when something happens (an order placed, a form submitted, a payment received), so the receiving system can react immediately instead of checking repeatedly.

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The Distinction From An API Call Is Direction.

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Webhook

The Distinction From An API Call Is Direction.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where this applies

Related Services

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