Plan requirement
| Subscription | Any plan |
| Access | Admin |
Apps add interface, webhooks move data, and asking which you need settles most integration questions. An app exists because a person needs to see something.
The distinction
An app puts something on the agent's screen: a panel, a button, information from elsewhere. It exists because a person needs to see or do something.
A webhook sends data somewhere when something happens. No interface, nobody looking at it.
If you find a target, that is the old version of this
Older documentation and older accounts talk about HTTP or URL targets. Those were deprecated on 13 December 2024 and webhooks replace them. Converting one is three steps: build a webhook from the target, point a trigger at the webhook, then confirm it works before deactivating the target and the triggers that fed it.
Not everything maps across. A few of the branded targets have no webhook equivalent, so those need a different answer rather than a conversion.
The question
Does a person need to see this while working a ticket?
Yes, an app. No, a webhook. That one question resolves most of these decisions.
Webhooks are cheaper in every sense
No supplier, no access to your ticket data granted to a third party, no interface to maintain, nothing to abandon. Where a webhook does the job, it is almost always the better answer.
What webhooks handle well
- Notifying another system when a ticket is created or solved.
- Sending data to a warehouse or reporting tool.
- Triggering a workflow elsewhere.
- Keeping another record in step.
What needs an app
- Showing information from another system beside the ticket.
- Letting an agent act on another system without leaving Zendesk.
- Anything requiring a person's judgement in the moment.
Sometimes both
An app displaying order details, a webhook telling the warehouse system a ticket was solved. They are different jobs and there is no reason to force one tool to do both.
Try configuration first
Before either. Triggers, fields and views cover a great deal on their own, and they need no supplier and no maintenance.
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