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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Use webhooks when an integration needs to react to frequent changes across many resources; use polling when checks are occasional, the scope is small, or subscriptions are unavailable. Webhooks can make updates available sooner and avoid repeated checks, but “real-time” does not mean instant or guaranteed: delivery depends on the provider, the receiver’s availability, and recovery handling.
What is the difference between webhooks and polling?
A webhook is an event-triggered request sent to a receiver you configure. When a subscribed event occurs, the provider sends the relevant notification to your endpoint. Polling reverses that direction: your application calls an API on a schedule to ask whether anything has changed. GitHub describes webhooks as a way to receive data as it happens, in contrast with calling an API intermittently (GitHub Docs: About webhooks).
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The practical difference is who initiates each check. With webhooks, the provider initiates a delivery after an event. With polling, your integration decides when to ask. Neither approach guarantees that your application sees a change immediately: webhook delivery can be delayed or fail, while polling cannot discover a change until the next request.
When should I use a webhook instead of polling?
Choose based on how fresh the data must be, how many resources you monitor, and what operational work your team can support. GitHub’s qualitative guidance favors webhooks for near-real-time monitoring at scale and API calls for small or occasional needs; it does not establish a universal numeric break-even point (GitHub Docs: About webhooks).
#1 Best Overall
| Question | Webhooks | Polling |
|---|---|---|
| How is a change detected? | The provider sends a request when a subscribed event occurs. | Your application calls an API at chosen intervals. |
| What determines freshness? | Provider delivery behavior, network and receiver health, and processing time. | The polling interval, API response behavior, and processing time. |
| When does it tend to fit? | Frequent changes, many watched resources, or event-driven workflows. | Occasional checks, a small resource set, or no suitable event subscription. |
| What work does it create? | An inbound endpoint, event validation, prompt acknowledgement, retry handling, and recovery. | A scheduler, interval and backoff policy, API-limit management, pagination, and state tracking. |
Freshness and event frequency
If a workflow should react soon after changes, webhooks can avoid waiting for the next scheduled check. The actual delay still varies by provider and system conditions. Polling’s detection delay depends partly on the interval you choose: a shorter interval can find changes sooner but creates more API requests; a longer one reduces requests but can leave data stale longer.
Scope and provider limits
Subscriptions are often a better fit when many resources change frequently and the provider supports the events you need. Direct API checks are often simpler when you look up only a few resources occasionally. Polling consumes API requests, so check the specific method and account or workspace limits, pagination behavior, and throttling response before choosing an interval.
Rank #2
For Slack’s Web API, rate limits are evaluated per method and workspace. A throttled request returns HTTP 429 with a Retry-After delay; limits can change, so consult the current Slack rate limits documentation rather than hard-coding assumptions.
Operational ownership and security
Polling puts the recurring schedule and API-call discipline in your application. Webhooks avoid repeated checks but require an endpoint that can receive inbound traffic, validate deliveries, acknowledge them promptly, and cope with retries. Webhook payloads and access also need provider-specific protections: GitHub recommends a secret, HTTPS with SSL verification enabled, and subscribing only to needed events. Slack event access depends on the OAuth scopes granted to the app.
How do I keep a webhook integration reliable?
Build the receiver around the provider’s documented contract rather than treating every webhook as a guaranteed, exactly-once message. The following steps apply broadly, but deadlines, signature formats, retry policies, and recovery options are provider-specific.
- Subscribe narrowly. Request only the event types your integration uses. For GitHub, this is among its documented webhook best practices (GitHub Docs: Best practices for using webhooks).
- Validate the sender and transport. Use the provider’s documented secret or signature check, require HTTPS, and leave certificate verification enabled. Do not put credentials in a payload URL.
- Route only relevant events. Check the event type and any action field before dispatching business logic; ignore events your application does not handle.
- Acknowledge quickly, then do slow work asynchronously. GitHub requires a 2XX response within 10 seconds and recommends asynchronous processing. Slack’s Events API uses a three-second response timeout for retry purposes. These are different provider-specific requirements, not a universal webhook standard.
- Make repeated delivery safe. Providers may retry a failed delivery. Store delivery identifiers and ensure state-changing operations can be repeated without duplicating effects. GitHub provides the
X-GitHub-Deliveryheader as a unique delivery identifier; a redelivery retains the same ID. - Monitor failures and plan recovery. Track failed acknowledgements, processing errors, and delivery backlogs. Confirm how long the provider retries and how missed events can be recovered; do not assume every provider offers the same replay mechanism.
What GitHub and Slack specifically document
GitHub’s webhook guidance sets a 10-second acknowledgement deadline, advises queueing slower work, and recommends redelivering missed deliveries after service is restored (GitHub Docs: Best practices for using webhooks).
Slack’s Events API documents up to three retries for failed requests: the first nearly immediately, the second after one minute, and the third after five minutes. Slack also describes event delivery as best effort and documents conditions that can temporarily disable subscriptions. Its documented limit is 30,000 event deliveries per workspace, per app, per 60 minutes; this is a Slack service limit, not an industry-wide webhook capacity figure or a polling comparison. Check Slack’s Events API documentation for current behavior and recovery options, including delayed-event retries.
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When is polling the better choice?
Polling is a sensible option when checks are intermittent, the watched set is small, or the provider does not offer a useful subscription. It can also suit a simple integration where a scheduled API request is easier to operate than a public receiver. Set the interval according to the staleness your application can tolerate and the provider’s limits; use pagination efficiently and back off when throttled.
- Keep a record of the last observed state or cursor so each run can avoid unnecessary work.
- Handle API errors and 429 responses explicitly; for Slack’s Web API, honor the returned
Retry-Aftervalue. - Account for pagination and changing records so a page boundary or interrupted run does not silently omit updates.
Can an integration combine webhooks and polling?
Yes. Where the provider exposes the necessary APIs, an integration can use webhooks for the fast path and periodically reconcile its stored state against the API. This can help detect missed or delayed updates, but it adds implementation and API usage. Verify that the provider’s event identifiers, history, and API access support the recovery behavior you intend; a reconciliation path is an architectural option, not a guarantee that every provider can reconstruct every missed event.
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