Hookbase vs Webhook Relay: Which Webhook Platform Is Right for You?

Both Platforms Handle Webhook Forwarding — But They Take Different Approaches

If you are evaluating webhook management tools, you have probably come across both Hookbase and Webhook Relay. Both platforms receive webhooks and forward them to destinations, but they differ significantly in scope, transforms, security, and developer experience.

This is an honest look at where each platform shines and where it falls short.

What is Webhook Relay?

Webhook Relay is a London-based webhook forwarding service built around a Bucket/Input/Output model. You create a bucket, configure inputs (where webhooks arrive), and set up outputs (where they get forwarded). It also offers localhost tunneling, Kubernetes integration, and agents for IoT and home automation.

Key characteristics:

• Forwarding-first model: Buckets with inputs and outputs
• Lua-based transforms: Scripting via Lua functions or experimental WASI
• Kubernetes operator: Dedicated CRDs for K8s-native deployment
• Static IPs: Fixed egress IP addresses for IP whitelisting
• Data warehouse support: Direct ingestion into Snowflake and BigQuery

What is Hookbase?

Hookbase is an edge-native webhook management platform built on Cloudflare Workers. It handles the full webhook lifecycle: receive inbound webhooks, transform them, route to multiple destinations, AND send outbound webhooks to your customers.

Key characteristics:

• Full lifecycle platform: Inbound receiving + outbound sending
• 4 transform engines: JSONata, JavaScript, XSLT, and Liquid with a visual builder
• Provider verification: Automatic signature verification for 10+ providers
• AI assistant: Natural language webhook management
• Real-time dashboard: Live SSE event stream with inspection

Head-to-Head Comparison

| Feature | Hookbase | Webhook Relay | |---------|----------|---------------| | Webhook forwarding | Yes | Yes | | Outbound webhooks | Yes | No | | Localhost tunnels | Yes | Yes | | Bidirectional tunnels | No | Yes | | Signature verification | 10+ providers | Manual | | Transforms | JSONata, JS, XSLT, Liquid | Lua, WASI | | Schema validation | JSON Schema | No | | Circuit breakers | Yes | No | | Failover destinations | Yes | No | | Automatic retries | Yes | Yes | | Event replay | Yes | Yes | | Real-time dashboard | SSE stream | No | | Cron scheduling | Yes | No | | AI assistant | Yes | No | | Notifications | Slack, PagerDuty, Discord, Teams | No | | SSO / SAML | Business plan | No | | Audit logs | Business plan | No | | Kubernetes operator | Yes | Yes | | Static outgoing IPs | No | Yes | | Data warehouse ingestion | No | Snowflake, BigQuery | | Free tier | 200 events/mo | 150 webhooks/mo | | Starting price | $7/mo | ~$10/mo |

Where Webhook Relay Has the Edge

Kubernetes-Native Deployment

Both platforms offer dedicated Kubernetes operators with Custom Resource Definitions. You can manage webhook forwarding directly from kubectl and store configurations as K8s manifests. Hookbase's operator includes 10 CRDs, automatic sidecar injection for tunnels, and an ingress controller mode.

IoT and Home Automation

Webhook Relay has built integrations for Home Assistant and IoT use cases where you need to forward webhooks to devices behind NAT. Their lightweight agent runs on low-power devices.

Static Outgoing IPs

Some enterprise environments require IP whitelisting. Webhook Relay provides fixed egress IP addresses, which is valuable when your destination enforces strict network policies.

Data Warehouse Ingestion

If you want to pipe webhook data directly into Snowflake or BigQuery without building intermediate processing, Webhook Relay supports this natively.

Where Hookbase Has the Edge

Outbound Webhooks

This is the biggest differentiator. Hookbase is not just a forwarding service — it lets you send webhooks to your customers. Create applications, define event types, register customer endpoints, manage subscriptions, and provide a self-service portal. If you are building a SaaS product that needs to notify customers via webhooks, Hookbase handles the entire outbound pipeline.

# Send an event to all subscribed customer endpoints
POST /api/applications/{appId}/messages
{
  "event_type": "order.created",
  "payload": { "order_id": "ord_123", "total": 49.99 }
}

Transform Power

Webhook Relay uses Lua scripting for transforms. Hookbase offers four engines:

• JSONata: Lightweight query and transformation language
• JavaScript: Full programmatic control in a secure sandbox
• XSLT: For XML/SOAP integrations
• Liquid: Template-based transforms for formatted output

Plus a visual builder that generates production-ready JSONata without writing code, and a template library with 15+ pre-built transforms.

Security and Compliance

Hookbase provides enterprise security features that Webhook Relay does not offer:

• SSO/SAML for centralized authentication (Business plan)
• Audit logs for compliance tracking (Business plan)
• Field-level encryption for sensitive payload data
• Automatic signature verification for GitHub, Stripe, Shopify, and 10+ providers
• IP filtering on inbound sources

Developer Experience

• AI Assistant: Manage webhooks with natural language — "Create a source for Stripe webhooks" or "Show me recent failed deliveries"
• Real-time SSE dashboard: Watch webhook events flow through in real time with full payload inspection
• Python SDK: Official SDK with sync/async clients and Pydantic models
• CLI with TUI: Terminal UI for local development and tunnel management

Pricing Comparison

Hookbase

• Free: 200 events/mo, 1 source, 1 destination
• Starter ($7/mo): 10,000 events/mo, unlimited sources and destinations
• Pro ($29/mo): 100,000 events/mo, transforms, AI assistant
• Business ($79/mo): 500,000 events/mo, SSO, audit logs, custom domains

Webhook Relay

• Free: ~150 webhooks/mo, 1 bucket
• Basic (~$10/mo): More buckets and webhooks
• Pro (~$25/mo): Custom domains, functions
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Hookbase starts at a lower price point ($7 vs ~$10) and includes more features at each tier. The free tier is also more generous (200 vs 150 events).

The Bottom Line

Choose Webhook Relay if your primary needs are Kubernetes-native webhook forwarding, IoT/home automation integrations, static outgoing IPs, or data warehouse ingestion. Webhook Relay does these things well and has been in the market longer.

Choose Hookbase if you need a complete webhook platform that handles both inbound AND outbound webhooks, want modern transform engines with a visual builder, need enterprise security features, or value developer experience with an AI assistant and real-time dashboard.

For most teams building SaaS products, Hookbase offers the more complete solution — especially if you need to send webhooks to your customers, not just receive them.

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Want to see the full feature comparison? Check out our detailed comparison page.