What is Webhook? Explained Simply!

Have you ever wondered how different apps share information simultaneously and work together? 

That's where webhooks come in. Webhooks are like messengers for apps, allowing them to communicate instantly and automate tasks. 

In this article, we'll explore what webhooks are, how they work, their advantages, and some practical examples. We'll also compare webhooks to APIs to understand their differences. 

By the end, you'll have a clear understanding of webhooks. 

Let's dive in and learn about webhooks! 

What is a Webhook?

Webhooks are like messengers for apps that deliver updates from one app to another in real-time, so the other app can take an action.

Imagine a webhook like a doorbell for apps. When something specific happens in one app, it rings the doorbell of another app to let it know.

How do humans communicate with each other? Human beings communicate through text messaging, calls, mail, etc. 

But apps can't communicate with each other like humans can. Here, webhooks come in.

Webhooks are a way for apps to communicate and share information in real-time. They help send information from one app to another when a particular event happens. So, they are event-based communication methods.     

For example, you may want to receive a notification on your phone when someone purchases a product or service from your business website. In this case, you can set up a webhook on your website to send a message to your phone instantly when someone places a new order.            

The information your website sends to your phone is called payload. It can contain various information, such as order details, customer name, contact address, etc. 

How Webhook Works?

In technical terms, when a predefined event triggers within an application (source), it fires a HTTP POST request containing relevant data (payload) to a designated URL (endpoint) on another application (destination), enabling real-time communication and automated workflows. This is how webhook works.

In layman's terms, a webhook is like a digital messenger. When something specific happens in one app (like a new order), it tells another app (like your inventory system) by sending a quick update. This lets the other app react instantly, keeping everything in sync.

Initially, the receiving application provides a unique URL endpoint where it expects to receive data. When a specified event occurs in the sending application, such as a new user sign-up, a payload containing relevant information about the event is created.

This payload, typically in JSON or XML format, is then sent via an HTTP POST request to the URL endpoint provided by the receiver. 

When a POST request is received, the receiver processes the payload. Subsequently, the receiver sends a second HTTP request back to the provider to confirm the success of their request.

Here is a graphic illustration that shows how webhook works in a step-by-step process.  

Source: Twilio

Advantages of Using Webhooks

Webhook helps business owners and programmers in many ways: 

1. Work Process Automation

The most significant advantage of Webhook is that it automates various manual tasks. 

You just need to set up triggers and the destination path. When the events happen, the destined app will receive information automatically. 

Let's say you want to send an email to the packaging employee when a new order is placed. In this case, you can set up a trigger for the e-commerce store's new order event.      

2. Delivers Information in Real-time

Unlike API, webhooks deliver information in real-time. This means that when particular information is generated, the webhook automatically sends it to the other apps. Webhooks also ensure that correct information is sent to the right address.

For instance, Webhooks can instantly synchronize up-to-date customer data from CRM systems, ticketing platforms, or other databases directly to call center software, empowering agents with real-time insights for every interaction.

3. Boost Efficiency

Without webhooks, you need to manually add information to other applications. 

Let's say you want to add new order information to the order management app. In this case, you must consistently check for new orders and manually add the information when it becomes available. 

It takes a lot of time and effort. With webhooks, you just need to set up triggers in the e-commerce store and set the order management app's webhook URL, and everything will happen automatically.       

Related Read: Best AI Tools for Productivity

Easy to Use

Compared to other methods, webhooks are easy to use. They use the HTTP protocol to transfer data from one application to another. For many websites, HTTP moves data between browsers and website servers. Websites with established HTTP protocols can be effortlessly configured without developing new code specifically for the website.    

Webhooks Examples

Here, we will discuss three examples of webhooks. 

Example 1: Notification Webhook in a Payment Gateway

If you sell services on your website and start processing delivery when you receive payment successfully, you need to know when payment is received. Otherwise, you won't be able to deliver the service promptly.

Here, notification webhooks come to the rescue. If you are using PayPal as the payment gateway, you can set up a webhook trigger for PayPal. 

When you receive a payment successfully, PayPal will send you a notification to your fulfillment app so that you can start the order fulfillment process.  

Example 2: Creating Invoice

Once a customer completes a purchase on your e-commerce website, you must quickly generate an invoice for the order.

To achieve this, you can set up a webhook that triggers the creation of an invoice whenever an order is successfully placed.

For example, you have a WooCommerce store. You can create a webhook in WooCommerce and point it to the invoice-creating app's address. When someone places a new order, WooCommerce will send order data to the invoice-creating app to create an invoice.   

Example 3: Adding Webhook for Membership Events 

Here, we'll discuss how you can add webhook for membership events on your Dorik websites. Dorik is the best AI website builder in the market that lets you create a website with AI in a single prompt.

Let's get started! 

Webhooks notify you when an event occurs on your website. Webhooks are particularly useful for asynchronous events like when a subscriber is added to your website, a new team member is added, a subscriber updates their email or name, subscriber purchases any paid plan, etc. 

In the following section we will cover more details about how Webhooks work on Dorik.

Actions to be Triggered

Upon adding a webhook URL to your site, you will receive calls for the following events:

💡 More actions will be added in the future with upcoming updates.

💡 When a webhook URL is added, and it is not validated on the first attempt, the system will automatically retry for validation.

Let us look at each event being broken down into more details, refer to the Documentation below to see all the events being broken down:

Add Webhook URL

To add a Webhook URL to your site, follow the steps shown in the GIF below:

⚠️  Make sure you add an HTTP or HTTPS protocol before your URL ⬇️

To Regenerate your Secret Key:

Edit or Delete your URL:

How to Verify Secret Key

➡️ When any Webhook request is received during an event, that request’s header X-Webhook-Token will have a secret token. This allows you to verify that the events were sent by Dorik, not by any third party.

The secret value in the header code will look something like this:

eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJuYW1lIjoid2ViaG9vay1wYXlsb2FkIiwiaWF0IjoxNjYzMjMyM

********************************************gn03FP78

💡 You can verify this token with the secret key in your site’s Dashboard.

Webhook vs. API

Webhook and API are two main methods for communicating between two applications. However, there are many differences between Webhook and API. 

Webhooks send data from one application to another application based on the sending application's trigger.

On the other hand, APIs' receiving applications send data requests to the sending application. So, the webhook is like pushing, and the API is like polling. 

Webhook is a one-way data transfer method, and API is a two-way data transfer method. Webhook sends the data in real-time, but API doesn't. 

Compared to webhook, API is complex and requires more resources as it needs to polling data continuously. 

Webhook is great for real-time data transfer, such as immediate reactions to events and notifications. API is great for on-demand data retrieval and updates.   

Conclusion

Webhooks make apps talk in real-time, automating tasks and making software work better. They're great because they automate tasks, send data fast, and are easy to use. Examples show how useful they are, like sending notifications or making invoices.

They're like APIs, but they send data one way and do it faster.

Overall, webhooks make software tasks easier, help systems work together, and get things done quicker.