RelayHQ

RelayHQ is a managed webhook service for developers and teams that want to route and recover event deliveries without running the infrastructure themselves. It is strongest once a project needs retries, multiple destinations, and production controls; the free tier is a constrained starting point, not a full preview of those capabilities.

Overview

RelayHQ assigns permanent inbound webhook URLs, queues incoming requests, and can forward them to several configured destinations at once. The maker says setup takes under five minutes without operating infrastructure or configuring message brokers. That trade-off favors teams seeking managed delivery over teams that need to host the service themselves. Its listed hosting region is US East (IAD).

Stripe, GitHub, and Shopify are named as webhook sources. A REST API at api.relayhq.org accepts bearer API keys or a valid session cookie. The privacy policy says traffic is transmitted over TLS 1.2+, stored API keys are hashed, and passwords are hashed with bcrypt. The maker says it does not sell personal information or use webhook payloads for purposes beyond delivery to configured destinations.

Key features

Delivery and recovery

Paid plans retry failed deliveries up to five times with exponential backoff, and requests can be replayed manually from the dashboard. Those tools provide a useful path to recover from endpoint failures, but the Free plan has no automatic retries. Developers evaluating RelayHQ on Free should account for that gap: the plan will not demonstrate the paid recovery workflow.

Routing and inspection

Routing rules can match JSON payload paths or HTTP headers, with conditions combined using AND or OR. That gives teams a way to direct only relevant events rather than forwarding every request everywhere. Free has no routing rules; Starter allows five per endpoint, while Pro and Team remove the rule-count limit. Event inspection and request logs help with troubleshooting, though log history varies sharply by tier.

Local development

The Free plan includes a CLI local tunnel for development. It is useful for building against incoming webhooks without first deploying a destination, although Free’s one-destination-per-endpoint cap and 500-request monthly quota keep it firmly in small-scale territory.

Pricing

RelayHQ is freemium. Annual billing lowers the effective monthly price on paid plans, but the monthly billed prices are higher; the terms below make the difference clear.

Free is suitable for experimenting or a small development integration, but its 500-request cap, single destination, short log history, and lack of retries leave little headroom for production reliability. Starter is the first practical production tier: it adds retries and routing, more destinations, and a much larger quota, making it the fit for indie developers and small production projects. Pro costs more but suits teams running multiple production apps, with unlimited endpoint and destination counts, longer retention, five seats, and an uptime SLA. Team is for engineering organizations that need SSO, audit logs, custom limits, and dedicated support; its unlimited requests and seats also remove the principal Pro caps. No trial length is stated.

Retention is one of the clearest operational differences: 7 days on Free, 30 on Starter, 90 on Pro, and one year on Team. The plan summary gives Free 24-hour log history, while the privacy policy describes webhook log retention as 7 days; those measures are not equivalent, so users should not assume seven days of accessible Free logs. Paid prices also depend on billing term: the annual figures are monthly equivalents, not the monthly-billed rates.

Platforms

RelayHQ supports API, Linux, macOS, web, and Windows. Its cloud deployment means these platform labels do not make it a self-hosted option.

Who it's for

RelayHQ is a good fit for developers who want a managed layer between webhook providers and their own services, especially when they need retries, replay, or conditional routing. Starter matches smaller production projects; Pro makes more sense for teams operating several apps and needing more destinations and seats. Teams that require SSO, audit trails, custom retention, or a stronger stated uptime commitment have a clearer case for Team. It is less suitable for anyone who needs self-hosting or wants meaningful automatic-retry and routing capability at no cost.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Permanent inbound URLs and fan-out to multiple destinations support a managed webhook flow without requiring teams to configure message brokers.
• Five retries with exponential backoff, manual replay, and payload- or header-based rules address delivery recovery and selective forwarding on paid plans.
• Plan limits scale from a small Free quota to unlimited requests and seats on Team, with longer log retention and support options at higher tiers.
• The maker describes TLS 1.2+, hashed API keys and passwords, and restricted use of webhook payloads.

Cons

• Free omits the two capabilities most likely to justify a webhook manager—automatic retries and routing—and permits only one destination per endpoint.
• Starter is capped at 50,000 requests/month and five rules per endpoint, so busier or more complex projects may need the substantially pricier Pro tier.
• The stated hosting region is US East (IAD), and the service is cloud-hosted rather than self-hosted.
• Free’s plan history says 24 hours while the privacy policy retention figure is 7 days, making the usable log window unclear from those two statements alone.

Alternatives

Consider Hookdeck if its free Developer plan’s up-to-10,000 events and three-day retention better match a higher-volume evaluation, or if self-hosted support matters; RelayHQ’s Free tier has fewer monthly requests but includes a local development tunnel.

Kiosk is an open-source PDF reader, not a webhook-management substitute, so it is relevant only if the need is document reading rather than event delivery.

Dispatch is worth considering when a free allowance of 10,000 events/month and two members is more important than RelayHQ’s Free plan’s development tunnel; Dispatch’s free projects are public and over-limit events are dropped at ingress.

Hookbridge offers a lower-cost paid entry at $10 a month for 5,000 messages, making it an option to compare for smaller paid workloads against RelayHQ Starter’s larger quota and higher annual-billed price.

Webhook Relay is the alternative to examine if self-hosted support is important; its Free Starter plan allows 150 webhooks/month and up to two destinations, while RelayHQ Free allows more monthly requests but only one destination per endpoint.

Webhooker may suit a reader who prefers a stated allowance of 10,000 events/month, three sources, and nine destinations on its free plan; RelayHQ Free instead includes a CLI local tunnel but is capped at 500 requests/month.

Hookdeck Outpost is a self-hosted, Apache-2.0-licensed option distributed as a Go binary and Docker container, making it the more relevant comparison for teams that want to run the webhook system themselves.

WebhookX is another option to compare if a self-hosted platform is the priority; RelayHQ is managed cloud software.

For a broader comparison, see Webhook Management Software.

Verdict

RelayHQ is a sensible choice for developers and teams who want managed webhook delivery with retries, replay, and routing, and are willing to pay once those safeguards matter in production. Starter is the most defensible entry point for small production projects; Pro or Team makes sense when volume, team access, retention, or enterprise controls demand it. Look elsewhere if self-hosting is essential, or if the free tier must include automatic retries and routing rather than only basic webhook handling.