Doing business online requires many of your web applications, or web apps, to stay in frequent communication. It’s necessary to integrate all of these different entities—payment systems, banks, inventory management software, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and more—so they can share data and take action whenever a triggering event occurs.
Webhooks make this end-to-end workflow seamless. They push information back and forth using secure, simple, automated messages. Here’s why webhooks are a reliable method for executing internet technology (IT) functions, why they are needed, and when they’re most useful.
What are webhooks?
Webhooks are specialized web services that interconnect applications. These services automatically send data over the web from one application to another whenever a particular event occurs.
Webhooks enable web applications to speak a common language so they can make the necessary HTTP requests (requests from web browsers to servers for content) and share new data in real time. Instead of constantly checking for updates, a webhook lets an application automatically send information to another when something happens.
You can use webhook integrations for various ecommerce business activities, including:
- Inventory updates. When a product’s stock level reaches a specific level, this event triggers a notification message to suppliers.
- Payment confirmations. When the triggering action is a successful payment, accounting and customer support receive notifications.
- Customer returns. Webhooks can update inventory data and trigger refund processes.
- Lead generation. When an employee adds a new lead to a marketing platform, a webhook can send the lead information to a customer relationship management (CRM) system, automatically creating a new lead record.
- Customer support. A customer support system can use webhooks to receive notifications about incoming phone calls, fetch customer data based on a caller ID, route calls to appropriate agents, or trigger post-call surveys or follow-up actions.
How webhooks work
Technically speaking, webhooks are special implementations of what’s called an HTTP push API—or a push API. This is a configuration that allows push-based communication between web applications and servers. Webhooks are user-defined HTTP callbacks, passing information on to a receiving endpoint, known as the client. The client is also called the destination system or receiving application.
When a triggering event occurs, the initiating system sends an automated message—the webhook—over HTTP. At the heart of this functionality is a URL field known as a callback URL. Think of it like a post office box address. Message data travels as a post request, which the webhook pushes out to other apps using the specific callback URL. Instead of asking, waiting, and checking for requested data, the client—the target app or service that receives the data—gets notifications automatically whenever the data changes.
For a webhook to work, you need to program the client to process the incoming code and real-time data. Webhooks typically use either JSON or XML as their data format interchange code, although JSON has become the more popular standard.
Webhook example
Webhooks can help improve shipping speed and reduce human errors when fulfilling online orders.
For example, say you have an online clothing store and use a payment processor. A customer makes an order, triggering a webhook, which the shipping provider’s system receives at the predefined unique URL. The webhook’s data, or payload, includes order details like the shipping address, product line items, payment amount, and other relevant information.
Upon receipt of incoming requests, the shipping provider’s system executes a particular action—in this case, the generation of a shipping label—which prints automatically as soon as the transaction is complete.
Webhooks vs. API: What’s the difference?
People often confuse a webhook with an application programming interface (API), a protocol that lets you retrieve data and exchange functions between software applications and online services. While they share common functionalities, there are significant distinctions between webhooks and APIs:
- Purpose. APIs are popular in application development for connecting disparate systems. Developers plug APIs (of which there are thousands) into their applications to add whatever functionalities they need, whereas webhooks are automated messages that get pushed after a triggering event.
- Type of communication. Both APIs and webhooks involve communication between apps, but APIs allow two-way communication, whereas webhooks only allow for one-way communication as the result of the triggering event.
- Flow of data. People sometimes refer to webhooks as reverse APIs due to the perceived reversed flow of data; however, they’re not true reverse APIs, but rather, a unique type of real-time, event-driven communication.
- Complexity. APIs are more complex than webhooks, as they can modify both the source system and target system during their request-response cycle.
Although they’re distinct mechanisms, webhooks and APIs can work together. For example, a location-based application might use a webhook to notify a server when a user’s location changes. The server might then use a Google Maps API to aggregate a list of nearby places of interest based on the new location.
What are webhooks FAQ
What is the difference between API and webhooks?
APIs and webhooks are mechanisms to connect apps so they can communicate and share data, but they function differently. APIs enable two-way communication, while webhooks trigger one-way communication when an event occurs.
When should you use webhooks?
Webhooks can be a lightweight solution for scenarios in which you need to connect different applications and services in real time, a one-way solution to send data (versus two-way communication) will suffice, and processing efficiency is important since webhooks won’t tax your web server processing load.
How do you add webhooks?
To add a webhook, go to the settings section of the application that will be pushing data. Configure the specific events that should trigger the webhook request and add a unique callback URL. Then, go to the settings section of the application that will be receiving the data. There you’ll add the webhook URL so the app can receive data. Platforms like Zapier and Make offer built-in tools for setting up webhook endpoints, configuring triggers, and other relevant settings.
