IT Glossary
What is a Webhook?
The reverse call of integrations: an application notifies you the moment something happens — instead of you asking it over and over.
There are two ways one application learns that something happened in another: asking repeatedly ("any new orders? now? and now?") — called polling, wasteful and always one interval behind — or being told the instant it happens. The webhook is the telling: a mechanism whereby application A calls application B at the moment of the event — "payment #4521 just cleared, here are the details." Technically it is simplicity itself, an address in your system that the external service calls with the event data, yet most modern real-time automation runs on it: the payment provider announces the charge and the store releases the order in seconds; the e-commerce platform announces a new order and inventory reserves stock; the courier announces a status change and the customer gets notified; automation tools like n8n, Make and Zapier practically live on webhooks. Why the term earns a place in a buyer's vocabulary: the difference between an integration that is "real-time" and one that "syncs every 15 minutes" is often exactly webhook versus polling, so "do we receive events by webhook or poll periodically?" is a fair question on any integration quote — and when choosing any SaaS, webhooks in the documentation are as concrete a criterion as price. Reliability, finally, is designed rather than assumed: ask what happens if your system was down when the event fired, how a notification proves it came from the real sender, and where failed deliveries get logged.
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Why it matters for your business
Real time instead of "at the next sync"
Events land in your systems within seconds — the payment releases the order, the lead triggers the alert, the status reaches the customer, all without the sync-interval lag.
Efficiency without wasted questions
Polling that asks a thousand times a day "anything new?" disappears — the infrastructure works on events, not on hunches.
The universal brick of automation
Every "when X, then Y" between applications builds naturally on webhooks — the foundation on which automation platforms and custom integrations assemble your workflows.
Frequently asked questions
What distinguishes an API from a webhook, briefly?
The direction of initiative: through an API, your system asks ("give me today's orders"); through a webhook, the external system announces ("here's a new order, right now"). They complement rather than compete: the webhook brings the event instantly, the API brings details and operations on demand — mature integrations use both, and both appearing in a service's documentation signals real integrability.
What happens to events if our system was down when they were sent?
Exactly the question that separates implementations: serious services retry delivery on a schedule spanning hours or days (check each provider's documentation), and a correct implementation on your side adds the final net — periodic reconciliation via API to catch anything missed, plus a delivery log with alerts on repeated failures. Without these, a lost webhook is an unprocessed order discovered by the customer.
Are webhooks secure — could someone send us fake events?
They could, if the implementation is naive — a webhook address is technically a public door. That is why serious services sign each notification cryptographically for your system to validate, and good practice adds hard-to-guess URLs, mandatory HTTPS, and confirming consequential events (an announced "paid" order gets verified in the processor's system before expensive goods ship). All standard among competent implementers — but "do you validate webhook signatures?" remains an excellent acceptance question.
Let’s talk about your project
Message us on WhatsApp or send an email — you talk directly to a developer.
office@northdan.com · +40 752 070 247