Webhooks vs Polling: Which Integration Pattern Should You Use?
Two fundamental approaches for receiving data from external systems. Webhooks push events to your endpoint in real time. Polling pulls data on a schedule. The right choice depends on your latency requirements, the APIs available to you, and the operational complexity you can absorb.
Short Answer
Use webhooks when the provider supports them and you need real-time or near-real-time notifications. Use polling when the provider only offers REST APIs without webhook support, when your use case tolerates latency, or when you need to reliably synchronize state at a known interval. Many production systems use both.
Use Webhooks when:
- • Real-time or sub-second latency is required
- • The provider supports webhook delivery
- • Events are infrequent (no wasted requests)
- • You want to react immediately to user actions
- • You are integrating with payment, messaging, or CI/CD systems
Use Polling when:
- • The provider has no webhook support
- • Your integration tolerates latency (minutes)
- • You need to reconcile or sync state periodically
- • You want simple, predictable infrastructure
- • You are fetching paginated bulk data
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Dimension | Webhooks | Polling |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time capability | Yes — event delivered in milliseconds | No — limited by poll interval |
| Efficiency | High — no wasted requests between events | Low — requests made even with no new data |
| Complexity | Higher — need a public endpoint, signature verification, retry handling | Lower — a scheduled HTTP call with state comparison |
| Reliability | Provider retries on failure; you must handle duplicates | Your code controls retries; easier to reason about |
| Missed events | Possible if your endpoint is down during delivery | None — polling reads current state on every call |
| Ordering guarantees | Not always guaranteed by provider | Determined by timestamp/ID sorting in query |
| Latency | Sub-second to a few seconds | Depends on interval — typically 1 min to 1 hour |
| Infrastructure | Requires public HTTPS endpoint, queue recommended | Requires scheduled job (cron, worker, queue) |
| Use cases | Payments, CI/CD, messaging, user events | Data sync, report generation, status checks |
| Common providers | Stripe, GitHub, Shopify, Twilio, SendGrid | APIs without event streams — RSS, legacy REST |
What Webhooks Are
A webhook is an HTTP POST request that a service sends to a URL you control when a specific event occurs. You register your endpoint URL in the provider's dashboard, and the provider delivers event payloads as they happen.
The typical webhook payload is a JSON object containing an event type, a timestamp, and a data object describing what changed:
{
"id": "evt_1Nwx7f2eZvKYlo2CuV9jG",
"type": "payment_intent.succeeded",
"created": 1710000000,
"data": {
"object": {
"id": "pi_3Nwx7f2eZvKYlo2C0Bd9JLPp",
"amount": 2000,
"currency": "usd",
"status": "succeeded"
}
}
}Your endpoint must respond with HTTP 200 within a timeout (typically 5–30 seconds). Most providers include an HMAC-SHA256 signature in a header so you can verify the payload is authentic. Use the Webhook Tester to capture and inspect live webhook payloads.
What Polling Is
Polling is the practice of periodically sending a GET request to an API to check for new or updated data. Your code stores a cursor (a timestamp, sequence number, or ID) and on each poll asks for records newer than the last-seen cursor.
// Pseudocode: polling loop
let since = lastSeenTimestamp
every 60 seconds:
const response = await GET("/api/orders?created_after=" + since)
const newOrders = response.data
for (const order of newOrders) {
process(order)
since = max(since, order.created_at)
}Polling is simple and stateless from the provider's perspective — they just respond to normal GET requests. The downside is inefficiency: most polls return no new data, and the latency is bounded by your poll interval.
Where Each Pattern Fits in Modern Architecture
Most production SaaS architectures use both. A typical pattern:
- →Webhooks for primary event delivery (e.g., Stripe fires
payment_intent.succeeded→ your system fulfills the order). - →Polling as a reconciliation sweep — a nightly or hourly job that re-checks API state to catch any events your webhook endpoint missed while it was down or retries were exhausted.
This hybrid approach gives you real-time responsiveness under normal conditions and eventual consistency as a safety net.
Common Mistakes
Assuming webhooks always arrive in order
Webhooks can arrive out of order, especially under high load or after retries. Always check the event timestamp or sequence number — do not assume the most recent delivery reflects the latest state.
Polling too frequently
Polling every second is effectively DDoSing the provider and will get your IP rate-limited. Most integrations work fine with a 1-minute poll interval. Use webhooks for anything that needs faster response.
Not handling webhook duplicates
Providers guarantee at-least-once delivery, not exactly-once. Your handler must be idempotent. Store the event ID; skip if already processed.
Skipping signature verification
An unverified webhook endpoint accepts any POST from anyone. Always validate the HMAC signature before trusting the payload.
Blocking the webhook response with slow work
Respond with 200 immediately, then process asynchronously. If the provider times out waiting for your response, it retries — causing duplicate processing.
Try the Tools
FAQ
Can I replace polling entirely with webhooks?
Only if the provider supports webhooks for every event you care about. Many providers only expose webhooks for a subset of their events. A hybrid approach — webhooks for real-time delivery plus a periodic reconciliation poll — is more robust.
What is long polling?
Long polling is a technique where the client sends a request that the server holds open until new data is available (or a timeout occurs). It gives lower latency than regular polling but is less efficient than true webhooks. It is mostly used in older real-time APIs that predate webhooks.
How do I test webhooks from Stripe, GitHub, or Shopify?
Use the Webhook Tester to get a temporary public URL. Paste it into the webhook configuration in the provider dashboard and send a test event. The tester captures the full payload so you can inspect the structure before writing your handler.
What happens if my webhook endpoint is temporarily unavailable?
Most providers retry with exponential backoff over 24–72 hours. After all retries fail, the event is typically marked as failed. Use the polling reconciliation pattern to recover: query the provider API for events you may have missed during the outage window.
Is WebSocket an alternative to webhooks?
WebSockets enable persistent bidirectional connections — useful for chat, live dashboards, and collaborative tools. Webhooks are better for integration pipelines where a persistent connection is impractical. They solve different problems.