Virtual Webhooks vs Polling Jobs: How Integrations Handle Change Detection

Integrations that handle change detection in APIs can utilize virtual webhooks, native webhooks, or sync-based notification systems, each offering distinct approaches to event delivery and data handling. Native webhooks provide immediate event delivery when a change is detected, but their coverage is inconsistent across APIs. Virtual webhooks, often used by platforms like Unified, involve polling the source API for changes and delivering events without requiring polling jobs in applications, although the latency depends on how frequently changes are detected. Sync-based notification systems, in contrast, run scheduled syncs, store records, and send webhooks post-sync, meaning applications may react to changes with delays, as they often need to retrieve data separately. These approaches differ in system complexity, latency, and data handling, affecting how applications are designed and how quickly they can respond to changes, especially for features reliant on real-time data. Understanding the distinctions between these models is crucial for determining whether an application should be event-driven or reliant on scheduled data retrieval.