How to Test Vonage Webhooks

This guide covers everything you need to test Vonage webhooks — how to inspect the raw payload, verify the signature, forward events to localhost, and reproduce any delivery in your local development environment without needing a real Vonage event.

How to Test Vonage Webhooks with WebhookWhisper

1. Create a free endpoint — click Create Live Endpoint above to get a permanent public HTTPS URL (no account required to try)
2. Register the URL in Vonage — paste the WebhookWhisper URL into Vonage's webhook settings
3. Trigger a test event — use the one-click test payload sender or trigger a real event in Vonage
4. Inspect the request — see the full headers, raw body, and Vonage signature header in real time
5. Forward to localhost — add a forwarding rule to relay the event to your local handler (e.g. http://localhost:3000/webhooks/vonage)

Vonage Webhook Signature Verification

Vonage signs webhook deliveries using HMAC-SHA256. The signature is sent in the X-Nexmo-Signature header. Always verify this signature before processing the payload to ensure the request came from Vonage and was not tampered with in transit.

Node.js Verification

const crypto = require('crypto')
const express = require('express')
const app = express()

app.post('/webhooks/vonage',
  express.raw({ type: 'application/json' }),
  (req, res) => {
    const secret = process.env.VONAGE_WEBHOOK_SECRET
    const signature = req.headers['x-nexmo-signature']

    // Compute expected HMAC — always use raw body, never parsed JSON
    const expected = crypto
      .createHmac('sha256', secret)
      .update(req.body)
      .digest('hex')

    if (!crypto.timingSafeEqual(Buffer.from(signature || ''), Buffer.from(expected))) {
      return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Invalid signature' })
    }

    const event = JSON.parse(req.body)
    // Process event here — respond first, process async for slow operations
    res.json({ received: true })
  }
)

Python (FastAPI) Verification

import hashlib, hmac, os
from fastapi import FastAPI, Request, HTTPException

app = FastAPI()

@app.post('/webhooks/vonage')
async def webhook(request: Request):
    secret = os.environ['VONAGE_WEBHOOK_SECRET'].encode()
    raw_body = await request.body()
    signature = request.headers.get('x-nexmo-signature', '')

    expected = hmac.new(secret, raw_body, hashlib.sha256).hexdigest()

    if not hmac.compare_digest(signature, expected):
        raise HTTPException(status_code=401, detail='Invalid signature')

    payload = await request.json()
    return {'received': True}

Common Vonage Webhook Errors

Forward Vonage Webhooks to Localhost

Use WebhookWhisper to receive Vonage webhook events at a public HTTPS URL and relay them to your local development server — no tunnel, no CLI install, no public server required.

1. Create a WebhookWhisper endpoint and paste it into Vonage's webhook settings
2. In the Forwarding tab, set target URL to http://localhost:3000/webhooks/vonage
3. Every Vonage event appears in the inspector and hits your local handler simultaneously
4. Use event replay (Pro) to re-send any captured event without triggering a new action in Vonage

FAQ

Do I need a Vonage account to test webhooks?

No. WebhookWhisper includes a one-click Vonage sample payload so you can fire a realistic test event and verify your handler without a Vonage account or triggering a real Vonage action.

How do I find my Vonage webhook secret?

The webhook signing secret is shown in Vonage's developer settings or webhook configuration page. Each webhook endpoint gets its own secret — do not share secrets between endpoints.

What is the Vonage webhook timeout?

Most providers timeout after 5–30 seconds. If your handler does slow operations (database writes, external API calls), respond with HTTP 200 immediately and process the event in a background job to avoid triggering Vonage's retry logic.