Unlock real-time data with virtual webhooks
February 13, 2025
Product teams building real-time applications face a common challenge: most third-party APIs don't offer webhooks (In fact, our State of SaaS APIs report found only 11% of APIs have built-in support for webhooks). This leads to inefficient polling, manually handling rate limits, and writing custom logic just to keep data fresh.
But what if you could control webhook updates while reducing API costs and complexity?
That's exactly what Unified.to's virtual webhooks enable. In this article, we'll review:
- How virtual webhooks work
- Why they help control API costs by managing request frequency
- How they eliminate the need for custom rate-limit handling systems
- Why virtual webhooks are the fastest way to implement real-time updates
Why use virtual webhooks?
Pairing Unified.to's virtual webhooks with your product's integration strategy means:
- Webhooks for nearly every integration – Get real-time updates even from APIs that don't natively support webhooks, all through a unified API.
- Cost-efficient API usage – Unlike native webhooks, which can be unpredictable in frequency and costly, virtual webhooks control API call frequency, reducing overages and optimizing usage.
- One unified schema – Whether the source supports native webhooks or requires polling, data is normalized into a consistent format—no custom polling logic needed.
- Optimized sync performance – Intelligent update detection, seamless and automatic rate-limit handling, and configurable polling intervals (e.g., every minute, every 30 minutes, every hour).
- Faster time-to-market – Virtual webhooks eliminate the need to build custom data collection.
- Historical data access – Instantly access past records when creating a webhook subscription, eliminating the need for separate API calls.
- Built-in observability – Monitor webhook activity with logs, audit trails, and health tracking.
- Event-driven AI and automation – Trigger AI workflows and automation in response to real-time data changes.
Instead of dealing with a patchwork of webhook, polling, and batch sync solutions, Unified.to's virtual webhooks create a consistent, scalable way to access real-time data across your integrations.
How virtual webhooks work
Webhooks provide a push-based way to receive data updates, eliminating the need for polling. But most APIs don't support them, which forces developers to either:
- Poll the API (which wastes API calls and delays updates), or
- Manually mix polling and webhooks (adding complexity and inconsistencies).
Unified.to's virtual webhooks solve this by mimicking native webhooks, even when the source API doesn't provide them:
- We monitor your customers' connections on a scheduled interval that you configure (e.g., as frequently as every minute) and detect changes automatically
- We push updates to your webhook endpoint, just like a native webhook would
- You subscribe and manage webhooks the same way you would with a real webhook
No polling logic. No wasted API calls. Just real-time updates, everywhere.
How virtual webhooks compare to traditional webhooks and polling
Most third-party APIs don't offer native webhooks, forcing teams to choose between batch syncs, polling, or manual workarounds.
| Feature | Unified.to Virtual Webhooks | Native Webhooks | Polling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Works even if API doesn't support webhooks | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ✅ Yes, but inefficient |
| Real-time event updates | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No, delayed |
| API rate limit friendly | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No, high API usage |
| Historical data retrieval | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Fine-grained sync control | ✅ Yes (adjust polling frequency) | ❌ No | ✅ Yes, but manual |
| Built-in error handling & retries | ✅ Yes | ❌ Varies by API | ❌ No |
| Webhook observability (logs, health monitoring) | ✅ Yes | ❌ Varies by API | ❌ No |
Virtual webhooks provide all the benefits of native webhooks, even when APIs don't support them, while eliminating the inefficiencies of polling.
Product use cases
Let's look at how developers and product teams can leverage virtual webhooks in real-world applications.
AI-powered customer support
Virtual webhooks can update AI models in real-time when new support tickets are created. Instead of polling a help desk API every few minutes, an AI assistant can instantly respond to customer inquiries or escalate issues.
Automated financial reporting
Fintech and accounting applications rely on up-to-date financial data to generate reports, sync transactions, and reconcile accounts. However, many accounting platforms lack real-time webhook support, meaning transaction updates often rely on batch syncs or polling.
With Unified.to's virtual webhooks, accounting software can:
- Get notified instantly when new transactions, invoices, or payments are recorded
- Trigger automatic reconciliation workflows instead of waiting for scheduled syncs
Recruitment automation
Hiring teams often integrate with multiple ATS platforms—some of which lack real-time event support. Virtual webhooks enable AI-powered candidate screening to kick in the moment a new application is received, ensuring faster and more efficient hiring workflows.
How HeroHunt added 20 integrations in 1 week
How much polling actually costs
Polling isn't just inefficient—it's expensive.
Example:
- Polling every 5 minutes on 1000 accounts = 288,000 API requests per day
- Polling every 1 minute on 1000 accounts = 1.4 million API requests per day
- With virtual webhooks, API requests are dramatically reduced, as data is only fetched when changes occur. In low-activity accounts, this can mean near-zero requests, while high-activity accounts still see significant reductions compared to constant polling.
Instead of burning API quota on polling, virtual webhooks ensure data flows only when necessary, dramatically reducing costs and improving responsiveness.
What happens if you don't use virtual webhooks?
- You could hit API rate limits while continuously polling for updates
- You could rely on batch syncs, leading to outdated or incomplete data
- You could spend months building and maintaining custom webhook fallbacks for every integration
Or… you could just use Unified.to's virtual webhooks to handle rate limits and get real-time updates across all your integrations.
Start using Unified.to's virtual webhooks
Ready to stop polling and start working with real-time data everywhere? Here's how to get started:
- Start a free trial to access virtual webhooks
- Join our Discord to connect with our team and get support
- Review our documentation for step-by-step guidance on setting up webhooks
- See our changelog for virtual webhook enhancements