What is a Webhook? A Simple Explanation of Webhook Meaning

Webhooks are automated messages sent from one application to another when a specific event occurs, acting as real-time notifications. Unlike traditional APIs that use a request-response model, webhooks employ an event-driven approach, pushing data instead of waiting to be asked. This makes them highly efficient and ideal for real-time updates, eliminating the need for constant polling. A webhook consists of an event trigger, a data payload, and an endpoint URL registered with the source application. When the event happens, the source sends an HTTP POST request with the payload to the registered endpoint. This allows the receiving application to process the data and perform follow-up actions. Webhooks are fundamental to modern automation, used in CI/CD, payment processing, real-time notifications, and data synchronization. A key challenge in webhook development is testing them locally, as private localhost servers cannot be reached by public internet services. Open-source tunneling tools like Tunnelmole solve this by creating a secure tunnel from a public URL to your local machine. Tunnelmole provides a temporary public URL, enabling developers to receive and test webhooks directly on their local development environment. This facilitates building and debugging real-time integrations with ease.