Webhook vs WebSocket: Key Differences Explained
Webhooks and WebSockets both enable real-time data flow, but they solve fundamentally different problems. This guide breaks down when to use each.
Webhook testing tutorials, tips, and integration guides.
Webhooks and WebSockets both enable real-time data flow, but they solve fundamentally different problems. This guide breaks down when to use each.
Webhooks are public HTTP endpoints — any attacker can POST to them. This guide covers every security layer you need to implement.
A webhook is an HTTP POST request sent automatically by one application to another when a specific event occurs. This guide explains how they work, why they matter, and how to test them.
Your webhook handler runs on localhost. The provider needs a public HTTPS URL. Something has to bridge that gap. This guide compares every approach — cloud relay, ngrok, provider CLIs, and direct payload testing — so you can pick the right one and start receiving real events locally in minutes.
Webhooks push data to you the moment something happens. Polling pulls data on a schedule. Both patterns have trade-offs — latency, complexity, reliability, and cost. This guide breaks down exactly when to use each, with real-world examples from payments, CI/CD, and data sync scenarios.
Stripe signs every webhook with an HMAC-SHA256 signature. Verifying it is not optional — without it, anyone can POST a fake payment_intent.succeeded to your endpoint and trigger order fulfilment. This guide covers the full verification flow, the most common failure modes, and how to test it locally.
Shopify webhooks power order fulfilment, inventory sync, and customer events — but testing them locally means you need a public HTTPS URL that Shopify can reach. This guide shows the fastest way to receive Shopify events locally, inspect payloads, verify HMAC signatures, and iterate without a single deploy.
Building a GitHub bot, CI trigger, or PR automation means dealing with GitHub webhooks. Testing them requires a public HTTPS URL that GitHub can reach — which usually means ngrok or deploying to staging. This guide shows the fastest way to test GitHub webhooks locally with no tunnel, no binary install, and no deploy.
Webhooks fail silently. The provider says it sent the event. Your handler says it never arrived. Somewhere in between, something went wrong — and the usual debugging tools don't help. This guide covers the full webhook debugging workflow: from inspecting raw payloads to replaying failed events.
Every webhook developer hits the same wall: your handler is on localhost, but the provider needs a public HTTPS URL. ngrok is the usual answer — but it's a CLI to install, manage, and keep running. Here's how to forward webhooks to localhost without any of that.
Three tools, one job: inspect and debug webhooks. But they're not equal. This head-to-head comparison covers forwarding, event history, localhost testing, and which tool fits which team.
Stripe webhooks power payment confirmations, subscription lifecycle, and dispute alerts — but testing them locally is notoriously painful. This guide shows you the fastest way to inspect real Stripe payloads, verify signatures, and forward events to localhost without a single deploy.