Differences between APIs and Webhooks - Strategies for Business Process Automation

In system integrations, APIs, polling, and webhooks describe different ways systems communicate, mainly differing in who initiates the interaction and when it takes place.

APIs use a request–response model, where one system explicitly asks another system for data or instructs it to carry out an action.

Polling builds on this approach by making these API requests on a regular schedule, checking whether anything has changed. This is commonly used when event-based capabilities are not available, or when immediate processing is not essential.

Webhooks, by contrast, are event-driven. Instead of waiting to be asked, the source system sends a notification as soon as a specific event occurs. This removes the need for repeated checks, allows for near real-time processing, and reduces unnecessary API traffic.

In practice, well-designed integrations often combine these methods. Webhooks are used to indicate that a change has happened, APIs are then called to retrieve full details or perform follow-up actions, and polling may be kept as a fallback to reconcile data and ensure nothing is missed when reliable delivery is critical.

For more information on the Differences between APIs and Webhooks please see: https://www.codelessplatforms.com/webhook-vs-api-for-crm-integration/

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