Hookdeck is an event gateway — it queues, routes, retries, and reliably delivers webhooks at scale. HeyListenUp is a webhook development platform — it helps you inspect, replay, diff, and debug webhooks before you ship. They target different stages of the webhook lifecycle.
Hookdeck has real inspection tools, real replay, real localhost forwarding, and a real free tier. The difference is where each product puts its energy: Hookdeck invests in production reliability — queuing, retries, fan-out, Terraform, SLAs. HeyListenUp invests in developer clarity — payload diff, response mocking, browser relay, no-CLI-needed, 90-day history.
Same starting point. Very different destinations.
Hookdeck
Hookdeck sits between your webhook provider and your application as a production-grade queue. Its core strengths are automatic retries, fan-out to multiple destinations, rate limiting, event filtering, transformation, and CI/CD integration via Terraform. It's built so your webhook processing never drops an event — even if your server is down.
HeyListenUp
HeyListenUp's job is to make webhooks legible. Capture every payload, surface it beautifully, compare any two events field-by-field, replay to any URL, mock your endpoint's response, and forward to localhost without a CLI or an open port. Every feature shortens the loop between "something fired" and "I know exactly what it contained."
Hookdeck makes sure the package gets delivered.
HeyListenUp shows you exactly what's inside it.
One is logistics infrastructure. The other is an X-ray machine.
Hookdeck's localhost setup requires a CLI install and a running local server. HeyListenUp requires neither.
hookdeck listen 3000 stripe-sourceWhere most developers start — so the limits here matter more than anywhere else.
Hookdeck — Developer plan
HeyListenUp — Free forever
Focused on the webhook development and debugging workflow — not infrastructure features.
| Feature | Hookdeck | HeyListenUp |
|---|---|---|
| Setup & Access | ||
| Works without installing a CLI No download, no auth token required | Console only (CLI needed for localhost) | |
| Works without a running local server Inspect webhooks before writing a single handler | Console only | |
| Browser-only localhost relay No open ports, no firewall config | Browser free · CLI on Pro | |
| Permanent endpoint URLs | Source URLs | All plans |
| No event cap on free tier Dashboard won't lock on high-volume days | 10k cap, locks | Unlimited |
| Inspection & Debugging | ||
| Real-time payload viewer | CLI + dashboard | Dashboard only |
| Headers, body, query params Formatted, syntax-highlighted | ||
| Event history & retention | 3 days free / 7 days Team+ | 7 days free / 90 days Pro |
| Payload diff Field-level comparison between any two events | All plans | |
| Event replay Re-POST stored event to any URL | Within retention window | Any stored event |
| Response mocking Return custom status codes, body & headers | Pro | |
| CSV / JSON export | Pro | |
| Slack notifications for new events | Team plan ($39/mo) | Pro ($8/mo) |
| Team & Pricing | ||
| Free tier team members | 1 user only | 1 user only |
| Team plan entry price | $39/mo + metered events | $29/mo flat · 6 seats |
| Predictable monthly cost No per-event billing surprises | Usage-based | |
| Custom domain for endpoints | All plans | Team plan |
| Production Infrastructure (Hookdeck's home turf) | ||
| Automatic event queuing & retry Up to 50 attempts over 7 days | Core feature | Not the job |
| Fan-out to multiple destinations | Core feature | |
| Event filtering & routing rules | Core feature | |
| Payload transformation | Core feature | |
| Throughput rate limiting | Core feature | |
| Terraform provider / IaC | ||
| SOC2 Type 2 | All plans | |
| Uptime SLA | Growth plan ($499/mo) | |
The honest answer — including where Hookdeck is genuinely the right call.
You need to know what Stripe, Shopify, or Linear puts in a payload before you write a handler. No server, no install.
Third-party API quietly changed a field. You need to diff last week's payload against today's event, field by field.
You want your endpoint to return 429 or 500 to see if Stripe retries correctly — without touching any code.
Your server goes down at 3am. You need queued retries, dead-letter handling, and guaranteed at-least-once delivery.
One Shopify order event needs to fan-out to your API, your analytics pipeline, and an S3 backup simultaneously.
2–6 developers need shared endpoints, visible events, and replay — without per-seat metered billing eating the budget.
When you're building and debugging, HeyListenUp. 10 permanent endpoints, payload diff, browser relay, and real-time inspection — free forever. No CLI required. No credit card.