Webhooks vs Websockets vs HTTP Streaming - Which Event-Driven API to use?

As a backend engineer, it's crucial that you understand which event-driven API is best for your use case. This video goes through the 3 most commonly used API standards which are Webhooks, Websockets and HTTP Streaming.
Timecodes
0:00 - Intro
0:38 - Recap on Request-Response APIs
2:22 - Webhooks
5:12 - Websockets
7:51 - HTTP Streaming
10:08 - Conclusion

[@ben.aka.bigben]

Man, I just came across your channel and its very sad that you stopped for a year now. The way you explaining things is spot on.

[@yosvelquintero]

WebHooks: Good for updating clients on certain events and avoiding pulling style endpoints
WebSockets: Good for low latency two-way communications
HTTP Streaming: Good for long-term connections over HTTP

[@user-he8rl4sm3k]

I assume HTTP streaming would be optimal for updating notifications for a social app? Or would that be a WebHook?

[@LucasSilva-mw7pk]

@@user-he8rl4sm3k WebHook is more indicated if you need a bi-directional fast communication (eg: a shooter online game). In your case of social app, your cliente just need to receive new messages, so might be better if you use streaming.
For things like chat messages, I would said that the better options should be use something like MQTT. You can also do it by using Long Pooling, but it can be quite inefficient

[@dhanishthaghosh9548]

Good explanation! One request, please keep the background music on a lower note (/volume) since it is causing hindrance in concentration and hearing.

[@ambientcoder5462]

I’m glad you liked the explanation! Thanks for the feedback, it’s very valuable to me. I’ll definitely keep the background music in mind for future videos 👌

[@subramanyamramasani1759]

Hi bro can you help me how to create webhooks for springboot microservices

[@robinmaurer2645]

@@ambientcoder5462 the music genre is perfect and for any other video format than information/explanation /education the volume is too but here as the comment said just a smidge too loud. Have agreat day!

[@user-he8rl4sm3k]

@@ambientcoder5462 I assume HHTP streaming would be optimal for updating notifications for a social app? Or would that be a WebHook?

[@toekneema]

truly an amazing video, especially since you also reviewed the Request/response at the beginning!

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thank you :)

[@daniel280187]

Great explanation. I appreciate the comparison of the 3 methods with visualizations. Thanks for sharing!

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thank you :) I’m glad you liked the visualizations.

[@carltone]

Great comparison video. The connection graphics, pro/con format is well done. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks for the kind words 🙂

[@ammadkhan4687]

Very helpful. Gold worth information at one place. Thanks for sharing.. really appreciate

[@TaoLi302]

Your channel deserve 400K subscribers. let's make it to 10K first. Really clear explanation to none engineer. Hope you make more videos.

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks for your kind words, really appreciate them 🙂

[@alibaba888]

One of the best youtube channels explaining APIs

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks for the kind words! Hope you’re enjoying the content 🙂

[@johnswanson217]

Very clean and clear one! Thank you!!

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thank you 🙂

[@isurujn]

Nice video. Informative and to the point without any fluff 👍🏼

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thank you!

[@javi_v7.0]

Great video, brief, to the point.. Thanks!

[@user-zb5jp4ti1d]

This is so helpful. Thank you so much. It would be great if you could also provide the source of this information, books or articles that you referred to in order to put this together.

[@johnnychang3456]

Clear and concise explanation. Thank you!

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks Johnny 🙂

[@wagnermoreira786]

great explanation! I haven't seen the webhooks implementation on the client-side yet, now I need to try!

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks!

[@SaintSaint]

This was perfect. Thank you so much.

[@muathithanhcong]

Great explanation! Thanks for sharing!

[@ambientcoder5462]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@sureshsambana5219]

Thank you very much. That is a neat and smooth explanation. It helped me.

[@ambientcoder5462]

Happy to hear it helped you Suresh! And thanks for your kind words 🙂

[@mrsbootsworkouts]

Very useful, thank you!

[@idc19]

Great content. Very enlighting.

[@faketrump3605]

you're very good at explaining the concepts. thanks.

[@ambientcoder5462]

Glad you think so!

[@MrJonnis13]

Thank you. Very informative.
Subscribed!

[@ambientcoder5462]

Appreciate the support! 🙂

[@prabhakarreddyg]

Thanks for crystal clear explanation

[@ambientcoder5462]

I’m glad you liked the explanation. Thanks for your support 🙂

[@louicoder]

You are such a great teacher, I like the simplicity in the explanation 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks a lot! I’m glad you liked my explanations 🙂

[@Kathiisu]

Thanks for the informative video! It is a great help in my process of creating an application.

[@ambientcoder5462]

Glad it was helpful!

[@datapro007]

Good overview, thanks

[@aryanrahman3212]

Just what I needed 😃

[@BradleyADavis]

Great video, thanks!

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks! 🙂

[@allezvenga7617]

Thanks for your sharing

[@pratheejgc2250]

Perfect!!!

[@JemilOyebisiDeveloper]

Great explanation!

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks Jemil 🙂

[@yogeshyadav5778]

Excellent !!!

[@rhtservicestech]

This is useful information

[@chiragarora3985]

Amazing explanation 👍

[@ambientcoder5462]

I’m glad you liked it! Thanks for your kind words :)

[@C0sm1c_Owl]

Thanks!

[@srinivasasowmiyan2272]

Thank a lot man❤Happy that I found your channel

[@thatgenzdev]

Great explanation.

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks 🙂

[@lagua000]

Great video!

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thank you! 🙂

[@baghdadiabdellatif1581]

Thank you

[@Prostopravda]

Keeping a long-living connection is another issue with WebSocket if you use a cloud platform like Cloudflare for DDoS protection. Long-living connections cause Cloudflare servers to run out of ports, so the company has to take fee for that.

[@victorpinasarnault9135]

Real good
Thank you

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thank you!

[@mornemarais4198]

well done thanks! :)

[@ashutoshpathak1387]

Thanks.

[@pagarevijayy]

nice man!

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks bro! 🙂

[@AtifShafiinheritance]

Great

[@sangamsahai9823]

greatttttt video

[@molletik]

Hi, it is a very good presentation. It is very helpful. If my application is very complex where it need to handle "Request-Response" and "Event-driven" API, how to define and aggregate both this API's?

[@ambientcoder5462]

Your API will contain multiple endpoints. So each endpoint can be a different style of endpoint depending on your use case.
For example, retrieving a list of videos on a server is a request-response style endpoint. However, to stream an individual video would not necessarily be request-response style endpoint.
It is important that you document these traits to the end user.
Hope this helps 🙂

[@foobar7889]

Is a con of the websocket approach that if there isn't that much traffic, it's a wasted thread keeping the connection open?

[@ambientcoder5462]

Yup you’re right. If there isn’t much traffic, websockets might be overkill. If you’d still like to keep things event driven, then webhooks might be an option worth considering.

[@shubhankar915]

In webhooks, the client is actually another api server, which exposes an end point rather than a mobile or web client, is that correct?

[@enfieldli9296]

Hi, which technique were used in push notification, like when someone replied our comment, and we get a notified in the inbox area with the amount of replies we are getting? like the bell icon in youtube

[@AlexJaeger716]

Can i send an http post request while streaming over http?

[@michaelamir6504]

What about the GraphQL subscriptions? 🤔

[@rohitiyer230]

Does MPEG DASH use http streaming under the hood or websockets for streaming videos?

[@ambientcoder5462]

Most, if not all, video streaming platforms use HTTP streaming as far as I know. Hope this helps!

[@jan5310]

Where does pub-sub with for example MQTT fall under?

[@JNET_Reloaded]

Can you show how to make a secure node js running from php cli that uses cert an key pem files that allow voice streaming 2 way like a phone call app?

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll consider it 🙂

[@shadestorm3995]

i still don't follow webhooks but other two were crystal clear

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks 🙂

[@jan5310]

you as client need to provide an public endpoint which the server can call when a certain (by the user/client) specfied event occurs.

[@masudofficial76news12]

🏆🇮🇩

[@stevenlemmo4496]

You need to put your contact info in the RUclips about section.

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks for pointing this out Steven. I've updated the about section with my channel contact :)

[@gauravpurohit3755]

anyone here..
my question is can we use any of these connection type to any Api or it depends on Api.

[@ambientcoder5462]

Hey Gaurav, basically it depends on the API. For example, websockets require both the client and server to establish a websockets connection.
Hope this helps! 🙂

[@dopamine_Seeker]

Website socket is best

[@sandeshth466]

Why not SSE

[@sravanisajjan5735]

The music in the background is really disturbing and distracting

[@ambientcoder5462]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll keep that in mind for future videos

[@DdPk3d]

great video but music is distracting

[@einsof1232]

put speed 1.5.. you welcome 😉

[@joshr.2600]

🎶 music is weird.

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

No, no, again you explain not right. You do not explain why it is inefficient. Oh boy, misinforming people is really bad.

[@ambientcoder5462]

I've cleared explained why it's inefficient. Of course I have not gone into deep details but I've covered as much as I can in a short video. How exactly am I misinforming people?

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

@@ambientcoder5462 A frequent request isn't a cause of the slowness. I appreciate your attempt to educate people, but before doing that, you need have a clear understanding for yourself.

[@rishikeshpawar3230]

Just remove that background music.... Its annoying

[@DUhWcpgD7b4SDA2Aep9EqWLyfGu2]

Thanks!