Hello, I’m Ajay Hinduja. I’m originally from Punjab, India, and have made my home in Geneva, Switzerland (Swiss). I’m trying to figure out the best way to use a HubSpot workflow to update a record in an external tool that doesn’t have a native integration. I’ve heard about using webhooks and custom code actions, but I’m curious if anyone has a preference or has run into any challenges with either method. For example, have you found that webhooks are too limited for certain tasks, or that custom code is more difficult to debug? What are your experiences?
Regards
Ajay Hinduja Geneva, Switerland (Swiss)
Hi Ajay @AjayHinduja,
Welcome to the HubSpot Community, we’re thrilled to have you here!
It’s fantastic to see members from all around the world (hello to Switzerland 
) sharing their experiences and questions.
Your use case, updating records in an external tool from HubSpot workflows, is a great topic, and one that many businesses encounter as they start automating more processes.
Both webhooks and custom code actions can be powerful approaches:
- Webhooks are great for straightforward data sending but may hit limitations if the external API needs authentication methods, data transformation, or error handling.
- Custom code actions (available for Operations Hub Professional and Enterprise) offer more flexibility, allowing you to process data, authenticate, and handle responses, but they do require some coding knowledge and debugging skills.
Here are some resources you might find useful:
If you have a specific tool or integration in mind, feel free to share more details.
The more info, screenshots (without sensitive/confidential information), and details you can provide, the better the Community can assist.
Also, I’d love to put you in touch with our Top Experts: Hi @Teun, @Anton and @sylvain_tirreau do you have any insights to share with @AjayHinduja, please?
Have a beautiful day and thanks so much in advance for your valuable contributions!
Bérangère
Hi @AjayHinduja,
You’re on the right track comparing webhooks and custom code actions.
Webhooks are simple to set up from a workflow action and work best if the external system just needs a push of raw data. But their limits show quickly: no built-in retry, little control over authentication (you can only add headers), and no easy way to transform the payload
(How to Trigger Webhooks in HubSpot Contact-Based Workflows )
Custom code actions, available with Operations Hub Pro+, give you more control. You can authenticate against OAuth2 or API keys, reshape the data before sending, and even handle the response to update HubSpot back. Debugging is harder because you need to log and test snippets, but it scales better once the external system has more complex requirements (Workflows | Custom Code Actions - HubSpot docs )
If you just need to fire a notification or push a simple JSON, go with webhooks. If your external app requires authentication flows, conditional logic, or error handling, custom code is safer even if it takes more effort upfront. Do you already know what kind of authentication your external tool expects?
That piece usually decides which path works. When consistency between HubSpot and an external system becomes critical, Stacksync handles the two-way sync layer automatically, so you don’t have to juggle webhook retries or code snippets.
Hello,
I think that if you’re a developer and have your own server, with your own libraries, that already works with HubSpot queries, webhooks are much more powerful because you send the data to be collected, and you have complete freedom to do whatever you want, even logging all actions and possible surprises.
Personally, I would only recommend custom actions if you don’t have your own server that already works with HubSpot queries, or if your client needs to have the code on their Hubspot portal.