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Use polling to actively check whether an endpoint is responding; use webhooks to be notified when a data event occurs. They solve different problems. If you need both quick updates and confidence that no updates were missed, use webhooks for prompt notification and polling or cursor-based reconciliation for recovery.
“Health monitoring” can mean either checking a service’s availability or tracking health-data changes. An uptime probe tests a chosen endpoint; a webhook reports an event and does not, by itself, prove that the endpoint is currently healthy.
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Polling or webhooks: which should you use?
| Need | Best fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Check whether a specific endpoint responds | Polling | Your monitor initiates requests on a schedule and evaluates the responses. |
| Learn when a supported source has new health data or another event | Webhooks | The source sends a notification when an event occurs, avoiding repeated requests asking whether anything changed. |
| React quickly and repair missed notifications | Hybrid | Use webhooks for low-latency triggers and periodic polling or a saved cursor to reconcile state. |
Webhooks can be faster than waiting for the next poll, but delivery is asynchronous and provider-specific. Do not promise real-time delivery unless the provider documents an applicable service-level guarantee.
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Polling actively probes or asks for updates
A client or monitoring service sends requests at a configured interval. For endpoint availability, it checks a response or threshold. For data changes, it asks the provider for new information. Shorter intervals can reduce the wait for detection, but they increase request volume and may run into rate limits. Follow the provider’s documented interval and polling guidance.
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For Amazon Route 53 health checks, AWS documentation verified in 2026 says a configured 30-second interval results in the endpoint receiving requests about every two seconds on average because checkers are distributed and do not coordinate. With a 10-second setting, an endpoint may receive more than one request per second. These are Route 53-specific figures, not a general polling rule. AWS also documents constraints on changing intervals after creation and on the cost of faster probing; consult its Route 53 health-check documentation for the applicable details.
Webhooks notify you about events
A provider sends an HTTP request to your callback endpoint when an event occurs. That can avoid repeated “anything new?” requests, but a webhook may only be a signal to fetch the actual data. Withings, for example, documents sending a notification POST after a measurement, after which the integration retrieves measurement data through its Data API. Compare total requests—including any follow-up fetch—not just webhook traffic. See Withings notification documentation.
Google Health advises using its Subscription API to learn when a user has new data rather than polling endpoints. GitHub gives similar guidance for API data, recommending webhook events rather than polling. Those are source-specific recommendations, not proof that webhooks fit every monitoring task. See Google Health API guidance and GitHub REST API best practices.
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Choose a polling interval for endpoint checks
There is no universally correct interval. Set it by balancing acceptable detection delay against request load, cost, and the risk of reacting to a transient failure. Decide how many consecutive failures should count as unhealthy: requiring multiple failures can reduce false alarms, but delays detection. Check whether the monitoring service lets you configure both the interval and failure threshold, and whether faster checks add cost.
- Start with the service requirement: define how quickly you need to detect an outage and how much false-alert risk you can tolerate.
- Estimate request load: account for all monitors, regions, and retries, not just one configured interval.
- Respect provider limits: use documented polling intervals and rate-limit headers where available; request only necessary data and use conditional requests if supported.
- Validate the check: ensure the endpoint response or threshold actually reflects the health you care about. A successful response from one URL may not establish that every dependency or user flow works.
Make a webhook integration reliable
Keep the callback fast and move work to a queue
A callback should validate the request, record or enqueue the event, and acknowledge it promptly. Google Health requires an immediate 204 No Content response and recommends processing notifications separately through a queue. Queueing can absorb bursts while keeping the public callback lightweight. See Google Health API notification guidance.
Verify authenticity and handle duplicates
Do not trust a request simply because it reached your endpoint. Implement the provider’s documented authentication or signature scheme. Google Health documents a signature over the raw JSON payload and a public keyset; Withings recommends restricting source IPs and using a shared secret. Retries can produce duplicate deliveries, so make event handling idempotent—for example, record event identifiers or otherwise ensure processing the same event twice does not apply its effect twice. The exact verification method depends on the provider. See the Google Health and Withings documentation.
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Plan for downtime and missed notifications
Retry windows and recovery options differ by provider. Google Health documents pending-message storage and retries with exponential backoff for up to seven days, after which older notifications are discarded. Withings documents five retry cycles over approximately five hours, with two HTTP attempts per cycle (10 attempts total); typical delivery is under two minutes, but this is not a real-time SLA, and missed notifications are not redelivered. Withings directs clients to backfill through its Data API using lastupdate. Increase documents an approximately 72-hour webhook retry window and 30 days of event history available through cursor-based polling. These are provider-specific policies, verified in 2026; check current documentation before relying on them. Sources: Google Health, Withings, and Increase event documentation.
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Use both mechanisms when a delay matters but an event gap would leave your application’s state incomplete. Let the webhook trigger prompt work, then periodically reconcile from a saved cursor or watermark if the provider supports it. Increase describes webhooks for low-latency reaction alongside periodic polling to recover missed deliveries; for integrations that need certainty of receiving every event, it recommends continuous polling. The right schedule depends on the source’s event-retention window and cursor behavior. See Increase event documentation.
- Persist the provider’s cursor or last-seen watermark as you process events.
- Make webhook handling duplicate-safe and acknowledge promptly.
- On a schedule, query from the saved position and process any gaps.
- Choose the reconciliation schedule so it can recover within the provider’s documented retention period.
Decision checklist
- Choose polling for active endpoint health checks, sources without webhooks, or low-volume integrations where a simple client is preferable and the required delay is acceptable.
- Choose webhooks for supported event-driven data updates when repeated requests add avoidable load or rate-limit risk, provided you can operate a reachable, secured callback.
- Choose both when you need prompt reaction and a way to recover missed events.
- Before committing, confirm the provider’s rate limits, acknowledgement requirements, signature method, duplicate behavior, retry policy, and backfill or cursor support.
Provider documentation does not establish one best polling interval, a universal webhook latency guarantee, or common retry semantics. Treat published figures as specific to the named provider and verify current policies before building around them.
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