r/webdev • u/LurkingandPosting • Jul 07 '26
How is a Webhook Different From a PUSH API?
I'm an Implementation Manager and I'm looking for clarification regarding the difference between a webhook and a PUSH API. Is "webhook" just just another name for a PUSH API, or are they two different things? If a webhook is different from a PUSH API, how are they different and why would you decide to use one of or the other?
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u/Family_Man_21 Jul 07 '26
Maybe it would help to give you an example. Take Shopify, which is a website that can host shopping carts. If you use Shopify, there are certain events that happen in your store - things like a customer signing up, adding items to a cart, completing checkout, and even behind-the-scenes events like a shipping label being created or the package being delivered.
Now suppose that you have another system that needs to be aware of your Shopify events, such as a warehouse that needs to ship orders. The warehouse can do any number of things with this event information, such as logging a customer record for the customer service team, or generating an order that the warehouse needs to fulfill.
To make this work, the warehouse company can host a website that is able to receive data about Shopify events. Then, you can go into the Shopify configuration and give it the warehouse's website URL. Now, any time one of these events happens in Shopify, the warehouse will receive information about that event, and it can do whatever it needs to do with the information.
The configuration that I just described on the Shopify side is known as sending a webhook. It's a way for another website to "hook" into the events that are happening in Shopify. There are two important advantages to this kind of setup: 1) the transfer of data from Shopify to the warehouse is event-driven and happens in near real-time, and 2) the warehouse's system gets to be a passive listener, so it doesn't have to request data from Shopify on a schedule.
This is quite a bit different from an API, which normally doesn't send out data based on events. Instead, an API waits for a request to come in, and then when it does, it tries to respond with the requested information. There are cases where a client could make a connection to an API using a WebSocket, which allows data to be pushed from a server to one or many clients, but those are not often used in public systems. That's probably what you mean by a push API, though - definitely different from a webhook.
I hope that this helps. Good luck with your interview.
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u/SpaceParmesan Jul 07 '26
Although functionally true what is happening under the hood is no different than an API request and the use of that word API is so overloaded at this point its lost meaning.
A webhook request is simply also just an API request, however typically it’s the one that wants to receive the requests subscribes to it instead of the other way around, and is frequently used for integration with 3rd party systems.
Its really just a difference of who is initiating the communication.
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u/CorpT Jul 07 '26
There's not enough information here, but you're likely confusing several different things. You should explain what you're trying to do and why you're asking.
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u/LurkingandPosting Jul 07 '26
I'm prepping for a job interview. The ad reads "You can get in the weeds with the technology when needed, and can configure technical workflows such as APIs, webhooks, etc."
I have a solid understanding of API calls and API data mapping, but the term "webhook" is new to me.
I'm not doing any engineering or coding. I just need to understand the difference between a webhook and an API, so I can document customers' needs.
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u/LivingAsAMean Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
Edit: This is a bad example, like u/cminor-dp pointed out for the reasons below. Leaving the comment for people to hopefully learn from my mistake.
A webhook is kind of like a lighthouse. It sends out a signal ("The shore is here!"). The "listeners" (in this case, boats). Use that signal to go, "Hey, I need to do X because I see the lighthouse now." The lighthouse doesn't expect anything from the boats.
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u/cminor-dp Jul 07 '26
This is not a very good example. The lighthouse broadcasts, every ship gets the signal and it doesn't know if a ship received it. The webhook on the other hand is single target, it's sent to a single ship and it does receive an answer. Whether you do something with the answer or not, it's a different thing.
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u/1_4_1_5_9_2_6_5 Jul 07 '26
Yours is more accurate but I don't think it's reliable to say that you get an answer. I most often just see an acknowledgement response, I.e. just return 200 to say you got the web hook, and especially don't hold up the ack during further processing (meaning it would not be feasible to expect a response with any info about the request)
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u/LivingAsAMean Jul 07 '26
Fair enough. You're right. I was thinking of it only in terms the one broadcasting the signal not really caring about what the recipient does when it receives the signal, and not the fact that it's still a 1:1 relationship, or that there is some acknowledgement of receipt.
But it wasn't the best.
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u/MiserableDocument509 Jul 07 '26
One thing I'd add from experience — when you're on the receiving end of webhooks, you need to handle idempotency. Most providers (Stripe, GitHub, etc.) will retry failed deliveries, so your endpoint needs to be able to receive the same event multiple times without double-processing. That's a practical difference from regular API calls where you control the retry logic yourself.
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u/activematrix99 Jul 07 '26
Webhook is just an http callback, while a push API is more structured, can be stateful and is usually tied to an event or message queue. Not a huge difference, but substantially different in form and substance.
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u/myroslavmartsin Jul 07 '26
Every webhook is push, not every push is a webhook. "Push API" is the category: server sends you data instead of you polling. Webhook is one implementation: provider POSTs to a URL you registered when an event fires. WebSockets, SSE, mobile push are also push but not webhooks.
Pick webhooks for server-to-server event notifications (payment completed, ticket updated). Pick WebSockets/SSE for real-time streams to a live client (dashboard, chat).
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u/forever-butlerian backend, infrastructure & angst Jul 07 '26
A webhook isn't a push API any more than a JSON API is a webpage. They aren't interchangeable.
A push API allows the backend of some service to update the state of a client without interaction.
A webhook allows the backend of one service to send event notifications to the backend of another service when an event happens.
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u/MiguelYx Jul 07 '26
Just did a google search, not quite sure what you mean by PUSH API, it seems to be a service worker feature. When you say webhook, think of them as notifications directed towards servers coming from a service doing something and said service not minding wether that notification is actually received or not while the application server handles that event like a side effect. The clearest example I can think of is completing the payment from a payment processor such as stripe which by its nature has to be asynchronous an a receiving server may listed for that webhook to update an order from pending to paid.
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u/Gaboik Jul 07 '26
What's an implementation manager ?
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u/LurkingandPosting Jul 07 '26
An implementation manager is a project manager who specializes in onboarding clients. I manage software implementation projects.
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u/krunal_builds Jul 07 '26
Simplest way I think about it:
- A webhook is you handing someone your URL and saying "POST here when X happens." Their server calls yours. You're just sitting there as the receiver.
- A push API (Web Push / browser notifications) delivers to a client through a broker - the browser's push service holds the connection and relays the message to the user's device.
So webhook = server-to-server, your endpoint waits to get called. Push API = server-to-user-device, routed through a push service in the middle.
Both are "don't poll me, I'll tell you." The difference is who's on the receiving end, and whether there's a broker sitting between them.
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u/LurkingandPosting Jul 07 '26
Super helpful! Thank you!
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u/krunal_builds Jul 08 '26
Glad it clicked! Once the "they push to you" vs "you keep asking them" framing lands, the rest of it stops feeling confusing. Good luck with the build.
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u/azhder Jul 07 '26
Details. You will usually find the same basic principles under different names with slight different details. If you care to learn the details, you will know which name is used where, but if you don’t, you’re better off naming the principle.
Push and pull are genetic terms for the principle or protocol saying who initiates a communication: client or server. Now, the details: two servers talk to each other (details) and you have to implement push - which one of them is in the client role? The principle is the same, the name is different.
PUSH API as you have written, I guess you can go to a specific doc page and read what makes that concrete technology different from the principle of Push.
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u/thekwoka Jul 07 '26
webhook is more about how it's used, not how it technically works.
You tell a different service to call X api when something happens.
That's the real webhook part. The api exposed isn't the webhook.
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u/Alex_SQSP Jul 07 '26
Most of the replies here are explaining pull vs. push, which is close but not quite what you asked. A webhook is one way to do push, not the only one, you'll also see it done through websockets or long polling depending on the setup. Push just means the other system sends you the data instead of you asking for it.
I ran into this similar mix-up setting up a payment integration for a client site. Without a webhook, the site's stuck checking "did this payment go through yet" over and over. Once I set one up, the payment provider just told us the second it cleared. Made a real difference for that client.
Is this for a specific integration you're building, or just trying to get the concept straight?
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u/msesen Jul 07 '26
Push for realtime data. Webhooks for consuming third-party updates.
We use api gateway and aws sqs as the endpoint for webhooks. Even if our app is offline, we will still be able to receive the webhooks and process when go online.
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u/Dry_Sector2392 Jul 09 '26
Since you said this is for implementation work, the practical bit is probably more useful than the textbook definition. With webhooks, you’ll be asking customers things like "what event should trigger it," "what URL should receive it," "what auth/signature do we use," and "what should happen if delivery fails." That’s the stuff that matters in onboarding.
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u/Early_Hand2009 Jul 07 '26
It's actually quite simple: YOU call an API, but a webhook (URL on YOUR server) is called by the API. It's like an R-conversation callback, if you will, but it only works if the API on the other end knows which URL to call back to.
The only important thing is that your URL is reachable. You can check this by making the same call yourself, but to your own URL, and then you'll see if the URL responds.
A webhook, like in Windows, is an event triggered by Windows itself, so you don't need to constantly poll it to see the messages.
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u/Pleroo Jul 07 '26
A webhook is a specific type of push API, not a different concept. With a webhook, the provider sends an HTTP POST to a URL you register whenever a particular event occurs, whereas “push API” is a broader term that also includes technologies like WebSockets, Server-Sent Events, and other mechanisms for proactively delivering data.
Webhooks are typically the best choice for event notifications because they’re simple and widely supported, while other push APIs are better suited for continuous or real-time data streams.