Webhook vs API Polling: Which to Use and When
A webhook has the source push data to your endpoint the moment an event happens, while API polling has your app repeatedly call the source's API to check for changes. Webhooks give you lower latency and far less wasted traffic, so they are the better default for event-driven work. Polling is simpler and is the fallback when you cannot receive an inbound request or the source offers no webhooks.
Webhooks vs API polling at a glance
| Webhooks (push) | API polling (pull) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who initiates | Source pushes to you | Your app asks the source |
| Latency | Near-instant | As slow as your poll interval |
| Efficiency | One request per event | Many empty requests between events |
| Rate limits | Rarely an issue | Easy to hit at high frequency |
| Setup | Public HTTPS endpoint, signature checks, retry handling | An API key and a scheduler |
| Fails quietly when | Your endpoint is down and the sender does not retry | The poll job stalls or drifts |
When to use each
Use webhooks when events are irregular or time-sensitive and you can expose an endpoint: payment events, order updates, CI results, messaging.
Use polling when you cannot accept inbound traffic, the source has no webhooks, or you need to reconcile full state on a schedule.
How Hookdeck fits
Webhooks move the cost from wasted API calls to delivery reliability: you now own retries, signature verification, and visibility into what failed. Hookdeck's Event Gateway is managed infrastructure that receives, verifies, queues, and delivers those events with retries and full delivery history, so you get the efficiency of push without building the reliability layer yourself. Start free, or test a live endpoint on your machine with the Hookdeck CLI before you write any handler code.
Related questions
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