What's the difference between webhooks and polling?

Webhooks: Real-time push

Webhooks send data to you instantly when an event happens. The source service pushes a notification to a URL you provide. This is fast and efficient because there's no waiting or repeated checking. Use webhooks when you need immediate reaction to events.

Polling: Regular checking

Polling means your automation tool repeatedly asks "any updates?" at intervals (every 5 minutes, hourly, etc.). It's slower and uses more resources, but works with any service that has an API. Use polling when webhooks aren't available.

Which to choose

Webhooks are better when available—they're faster and cheaper to run. However, some services only offer polling, and that's fine for non-urgent tasks. If you're polling multiple times per minute for high-volume data, you'll want webhooks or a native integration to avoid hitting API rate limits.

Check your service's API documentation first. If webhooks are listed, use them. If not, polling works but expect slight delays between when something happens and when your automation reacts.