ReqPour vs smee.io
Overview
smee.io is a free webhook proxy service created by GitHub (technically by Probot, a GitHub-affiliated project). It creates a temporary URL that receives webhook payloads and forwards them to your local machine via Server-Sent Events (SSE). It was designed specifically for GitHub App development but works with any webhook provider.
ReqPour is a webhook development platform that catches, inspects, and relays webhook requests to localhost. Like smee.io, it provides a public URL for receiving webhooks. Unlike smee.io, ReqPour includes a full request inspection dashboard, persistent history, request replay, server-side relay, and a CLI tool with authentication.
Both tools solve the same fundamental problem — getting webhooks to localhost — but ReqPour provides a significantly more complete development experience.
Feature Comparison
smee.io is intentionally minimal. You get a URL, and a client library forwards events to your local server. There is no dashboard, no request history, no search, and no replay capability. The web interface shows a live stream of events but they are lost when you close the page.
ReqPour includes everything smee.io offers plus: a persistent request inspector with full headers and bodies, search and filtering across your request history, request replay (re-send any captured request), server-side relay (forward without running the CLI), team endpoint sharing, and a dashboard accessible from any device.
smee.io uses Server-Sent Events for the forwarding mechanism, which means it streams events from the browser. ReqPour uses WebSocket-based relay through its CLI, which provides bidirectional communication — your local server's responses flow back through ReqPour to the webhook sender. This means webhook providers get proper response codes from your handler, not just a generic acknowledgment.
Reliability and Persistence
smee.io is free and has no SLA. The channel URLs are temporary — there is no guarantee they persist across sessions, and there is no history of past requests. If your smee client disconnects, incoming webhooks are buffered briefly via SSE but may be lost during extended outages.
ReqPour stores requests persistently. Free tier retains 24 hours of history; Pro retains 30 days. You can inspect requests that arrived while your relay was offline and replay them when ready. Your endpoint URL is permanent and does not change between sessions.
For serious webhook development where you cannot afford to miss events — like debugging a payment flow or an authentication integration — ReqPour's persistence and reliability are significant advantages over smee.io.
Pricing
smee.io is completely free. There is no paid tier or premium features. It is a community service maintained with minimal resources, and its simplicity is part of its appeal for quick, throwaway webhook testing.
ReqPour has a free tier that is more capable than smee.io (persistent history, dashboard, request inspector) and a Pro tier at $3/month with unlimited requests, 30-day history, 10 endpoints, server-side relay, and team features.
The value proposition is clear: if you do webhook development regularly, ReqPour's Pro tier at $3/month provides tools that save far more than $3 worth of debugging time each month. For one-off quick tests, smee.io's zero-cost simplicity is appealing.
When to Use Which
Use smee.io for quick, one-off webhook testing where you do not need history, replay, or a dashboard. It is great for getting started with GitHub App development or testing a simple webhook integration for a few minutes.
Use ReqPour for any sustained webhook development work. The persistent request history, replay feature, and proper dashboard make iterating on webhook handlers dramatically faster. The $3/month Pro plan is negligible compared to the development time you save.
If you are currently using smee.io and find yourself wishing you could replay past events, search through request history, or share endpoints with teammates, ReqPour is the natural upgrade. The CLI is just as easy to use, and the additional features pay for themselves immediately.
Related
Get started with ReqPour
Catch, inspect, and relay webhooks to localhost. Free to start, $3/mo for Pro.