How do I expose webhook tester to the internet for testing with GitHub?

Use the built-in ngrok tunneling by setting --tunnel-driver=ngrok and providing an auth token. This automatically generates a public URL to receive external webhooks without installing ngrok separately.

Webhook tester vs webhook.site: which should I use?

Webhook tester is free and self-hosted, offering full control and privacy, ideal for internal development. Webhook.site is a managed service with more features but potential costs and usage limits, better for quick, cloud-based testing.

Can I persist webhook data between app restarts?

Yes, use the Redis or filesystem storage driver instead of the default memory driver. Configure it with --storage-driver and related flags to ensure data survives restarts, as explained in the storage section.

How to run webhook tester in Docker with custom settings?

Use the Docker image with environment variables or command-line flags, like setting -p for ports and --storage-driver for persistence. The README provides example commands and highlights multi-architecture support.

Is webhook tester good for high-traffic or production use?

With Redis for storage and pub/sub, it can handle multiple instances behind a load balancer, but performance depends on your infrastructure. It's primarily designed for debugging, not as a production endpoint.

What happens if I use the 'latest' Docker tag?

The README warns that major upgrades may include breaking changes, so it's recommended to use specific version tags (X.Y.Z) for stability to avoid unexpected issues in deployments.

Open-Awesome

WebHook Tester

MITGov2.3.0Self-Hosted

A self-hosted tool for testing and debugging webhooks and HTTP requests with customizable responses and real-time UI.

Visit Website GitHub

473 stars48 forks0 contributors

What is WebHook Tester?

WebHook Tester is a free, open-source tool for testing and debugging webhooks and HTTP requests. It generates unique URLs to receive requests, allows full customization of responses, and provides a real-time UI to inspect incoming data. It solves the problem of needing a reliable, configurable endpoint for webhook development and integration testing.

Target Audience

Developers, DevOps engineers, and QA testers who need to test webhook integrations, debug HTTP APIs, or simulate external service callbacks during development.

Value Proposition

Developers choose WebHook Tester because it's a fully self-hosted, high-performance alternative to commercial services, with no third-party dependencies, built-in tunneling, and real-time UI updates via WebSockets—all in a single binary.

Overview

🔭 Powerful tool for testing WebHooks and more

Use Cases

Best For

Testing GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket webhook integrations
Debugging HTTP API requests and responses with custom delays
Simulating third-party service callbacks in local development
Inspecting raw request headers and bodies in a visual interface
Creating persistent webhook endpoints for CI/CD pipeline testing
Exposing local webhook servers to the internet via built-in ngrok tunneling

Not Ideal For

Teams needing a fully managed, cloud-based webhook testing service with zero setup
Projects requiring advanced automation or scripting via a REST API for integration into CI/CD pipelines
Environments where real-time collaboration features beyond a single UI instance are essential
Scenarios demanding guaranteed uptime and SLAs, as it's self-hosted and maintenance-dependent

Pros & Cons

Pros

Dependency-Free Operation

The standalone Go binary embeds the React UI, requiring no external assets or services for basic use, as highlighted in the README's emphasis on simplicity and self-sufficiency.

Real-Time Inspection

Built-in WebSockets provide live notifications of incoming requests in the UI, eliminating the need for third-party services like Pusher, which is a key feature mentioned for debugging.

Flexible Storage Backends

Supports memory, Redis, and filesystem storage drivers, allowing persistence across restarts and scalability with Redis for multi-instance deployments, as detailed in the storage section.

Built-in Internet Exposure

Integrated ngrok tunneling enables exposing local instances to the internet via a simple flag, making it easy to capture requests from external services like GitHub without manual setup.

Cons

External Tunnel Dependency

Tunneling requires an ngrok auth token and relies on a third-party service, introducing potential costs and availability issues not present in purely self-hosted setups.

Configuration Overhead

Numerous CLI flags and environment variables for storage, pub/sub, and tunneling can complicate quick, ad-hoc testing compared to simpler, single-command alternatives.

Limited Automation Support

The focus is on manual UI inspection; there's no mentioned REST API for programmatic control, which restricts integration into automated testing workflows.

Open Source Alternative To

WebHook Tester is an open-source alternative to the following products:

webhook.site

webhook.site is a tool for testing, debugging, and inspecting webhooks by providing unique URLs to capture and visualize HTTP requests in real-time.

requestinspector.com

requestinspector.com is a web tool for inspecting HTTP requests in real-time, similar to RequestBin, allowing developers to see headers, body, and other request details.

Frequently Asked Questions

Community-curated · Updated weekly · 100% open source

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