What is Webhook vs Polling? — UK Software Development Guide
Direct Answer
Webhooks and polling are two approaches for staying informed about changes in external systems. Polling: your system periodically asks an external API "has anything changed?" (e.g., every 60 seconds). Webhooks (push): the external system notifies your system immediately when a change occurs by sending an HTTP request to your webhook endpoint. Webhooks are more efficient (no wasted requests when nothing has changed) but require your system to be publicly accessible and handle incoming requests reliably.
Webhook-vs-polling in the UK
Webhooks are standard for UK integration patterns. HMRC MTD uses webhooks to notify software about obligation changes. Stripe uses webhooks for payment events (critical for UK eCommerce — missed payment webhooks mean orders processed without payment confirmation). Open Banking (OBIE) supports webhooks for account data change notifications. UK GDPR implication: webhook payloads often contain personal data — webhook endpoints must be authenticated (HMAC signature validation), use TLS, and log receipts for audit trail purposes.
Related Glossary Terms
API
API explained for UK software developers and business owners. An API (Application Programming Interface) is a defined set of rules and protocols that allows different software system... UK context, examples, and related services.
Microservices
Microservices explained for UK software developers and business owners. Microservices architecture is a software design approach where an application is built as a collection of small, indepen... UK context, examples, and related services.
Open Banking
Open Banking explained for UK software developers and business owners. Open Banking is the UK's implementation of PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2) — a regulatory framework that requires th... UK context, examples, and related services.
GRAPHQL
GraphQL explained for UK software developers. GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a server-side runtime for executing those queries, developed by Meta (Facebook)... UK context and related services.
Wcag
WCAG 2.1 explained for UK software developers. WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1 is the international standard for web accessibility published by the W3C... UK context and related services.
OAUTH
OAuth 2.0 explained for UK software developers. OAuth 2.0 is an authorisation framework that allows applications to obtain limited access to a user's account on another...
Get Expert Advice on Webhook-vs-polling
Speak with our UK software development experts about Webhook-vs-polling. Free consultation, transparent pricing, no obligation.