Beyond Webhooks: The Future of Scalable API Event Delivery

Since Jeff Lindsay introduced webhooks in 2007, they’ve become the default mechanism for delivering API platform events to consuming applications. But as adoption has surged and event-driven systems have evolved, the cracks in the webhook model have started to show—scalability challenges, reliability concerns, and operational overhead are just the tip of the iceberg. In this talk, I’ll challenge the status quo and explore why webhooks may no longer be the best fit for modern API platform event delivery. More importantly, I’ll introduce Event Destinations—a Stripe-inspired next-generation approach designed to handle event distribution at scale, offering greater flexibility, resilience, and control. If you’re building APIs or event-driven platforms, this session will equip you with the insights to rethink your event delivery strategy.