What is Webhook Relay? A Complete Guide for Developers

What is Webhook Relay?

A webhook relay service acts as middleware between webhook providers (like Stripe, GitHub, or Shopify) and your application. Instead of providers sending webhooks directly to your servers, they send them to the relay service, which then forwards them to your destinations.

Why Do You Need Webhook Relay?

1. Reliability

Direct webhook delivery has a critical flaw: if your server is down when a webhook arrives, it's lost forever. Most providers retry a few times, but eventually give up. A webhook relay service queues webhooks and retries delivery with exponential backoff until your server responds successfully.

2. Multiple Destinations

What if you need to send the same webhook to multiple services? With direct delivery, you'd need to build fan-out logic in your application. A relay service handles this automatically:one webhook in, multiple destinations out.

3. Transformation

Different services expect different payload formats. A webhook relay can transform payloads on the fly using JavaScript, JSONata, or templates. Convert a Stripe webhook into the format your CRM expects without writing backend code.

4. Security

Webhook relay services handle signature verification for you. They validate that webhooks actually come from the claimed provider, protecting your application from spoofed requests.

5. Visibility

Get a complete audit trail of every webhook: when it arrived, what it contained, where it went, and whether delivery succeeded. Debug issues without adding logging code.

How Webhook Relay Works

1. Create a Source: Get a unique URL for each webhook provider
2. Configure Routes: Define where webhooks should go and how they should be transformed
3. Update Provider: Point your webhook provider to your Hookbase URL
4. Monitor: Watch webhooks flow through in real-time

Example: Stripe to Multiple Destinations

// Incoming Stripe webhook
{
  "type": "payment_intent.succeeded",
  "data": {
    "object": {
      "amount": 2000,
      "customer": "cus_xxx"
    }
  }
}

// Route 1: Database (no transform)
POST https://api.yourapp.com/webhooks/stripe

// Route 2: Slack notification (transformed)
POST https://hooks.slack.com/xxx
{
  "text": "Payment received: $20.00"
}

// Route 3: Analytics (transformed)
POST https://analytics.yourapp.com/events
{
  "event": "payment",
  "amount": 2000
}

When to Use Webhook Relay

• You need reliable webhook delivery with automatic retries
• You want to send webhooks to multiple destinations
• You need to transform payloads for different services
• You want visibility into webhook traffic
• You're building integrations for customers

Getting Started with Hookbase

Hookbase provides all these capabilities out of the box. Sign up for free and start relaying webhooks in minutes.

1. Create an account at hookbase.app
2. Create a source for your webhook provider
3. Add destinations with optional transforms
4. Update your webhook provider with your Hookbase URL

That's it! Webhooks will start flowing through Hookbase with automatic retries, transforms, and monitoring.