How to Test Webhooks Locally: The Complete Guide

Every webhook integration hits the same wall during development: the service sending webhooks needs a public HTTPS URL, but your code is running on localhost:3000 . Stripe, GitHub, Shopify, Slack — none of them can reach your laptop. This guide covers every practical approach to solving this, from quick tunnel setups to persistent capture-and-forward workflows. Originally published at hookcap.dev The Core Problem Webhooks are HTTP callbacks. When an event occurs (a payment succeeds, a pull request is opened, an order is placed), the service sends an HTTP POST request to a URL you've configured. That URL must be: Publicly reachable — the service's servers need to connect to it over the internet HTTPS — most webhook providers require TLS Responsive — most providers expect a 2xx response within 3-30 seconds Your local development server meets none of these requirements. Approach 1: Tunnel Tools (ngrok, Cloudflare Tunnel, localtunnel) The most common approach: run a tunnel that creates a p