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Developer Tools · head to head

Hookdeck vs IBM Cloud

Hookdeck logo

Hookdeck

Developer Tools

Event gateway that receives, queues, retries and replays inbound webhooks

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
IBM Cloud logo

IBM Cloud

Cloud

Enterprise cloud solutions from a trusted partner

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Hookdeck pricing meters delivered events, so fan-out multiplies the bill: one inbound event routed to four services counts as four deliveries.; IBM Cloud the USD 200 starter cloud credit is valid for 30 days only
  • They diverge on capability: Hookdeck covers Ingest and persist, IBM Cloud covers Virtual Servers.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Hookdeck and IBM Cloud actually diverge.

Attributes where Hookdeck and IBM Cloud differ
AttributeHookdeckIBM Cloud
Pricing modelPer month by delivered event countusage-based
PlatformsWeb, Linux, macOS, WindowsLinux, Windows, Api, Cli
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCloud
FoundedUnknown2013

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Hookdeck

  • Ingest and persist
  • Automatic retries
  • Filters and fan-out
  • Transformations
  • Local development CLI
  • Rate limiting

Only in IBM Cloud

  • Virtual Servers
  • Bare Metal
  • Cloud Foundry
  • Kubernetes
  • Watson AI
  • Blockchain
  • Databases
  • API Gateway

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Hookdeck

  • A payments integration where losing a Stripe event during a deploy causes an order to go unfulfillednot IBM Cloud
  • Fanning one provider webhook out to several internal services without each subscribing separatelynot IBM Cloud
  • Debugging a partner integration by replaying the exact failing payload after shipping a fixnot IBM Cloud
  • Receiving production-shaped webhooks on a developer laptop without running a public tunnelnot IBM Cloud

IBM Cloud

  • Running containerized and VM workloads on IBM's public cloudnot Hookdeck
  • Building on Watson APIs and IBM middleware as managed servicesnot Hookdeck

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Hookdeck

  • Pricing meters delivered events, so fan-out multiplies the bill: one inbound event routed to four services counts as four deliveries.
  • Free-tier retention is three days, which is shorter than the time it typically takes to notice a failing integration, so the payloads needed for a replay are often already gone.
  • It becomes a single point of failure in front of every third-party integration, and an outage there means every provider webhook queues or fails at once.
  • The transformation layer runs JavaScript in a constrained environment, so anything that needs a database lookup or an external call has to happen downstream instead.
  • For a team already running Kafka or SQS the value is mostly the console and the replay UI, which is a hard cost to justify against infrastructure they already operate.

IBM Cloud

  • The USD 200 starter cloud credit is valid for 30 days only
  • The larger promotional credits are time boxed: USD 1,000 for Bare Metal Servers for VPC over 120 days, USD 2,500 for Power Virtual Server over 90 days, and USD 5,000 for Backup and Recovery over 90 days
  • The USD 5,000 Backup and Recovery promotion is valid for new clients only and requires a checkout promo code
  • The listed promotions carry an expiry date of 31 December 2026
  • Beyond the free tier the account is pay as you go, so cost tracks usage with no published cap

Pricing, plan by plan

Hookdeck

Free
  • DeveloperFree
    • Up to ten thousand events per month
    • Three-day retention
    • One user
  • Team$39/month
    • Ten thousand events included
    • Unlimited users
    • Pay as you go metering above the included events
  • Growth$499/month
    • Ten thousand events included plus metered usage
    • Thirty-day retention
    • Uptime and latency SLAs
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Negotiated event volume
    • Custom retention
    • Dedicated support

IBM Cloud

Free
  • Lite PlanFree
    • Free services
    • Limited resources
    • 30-day trial
  • Standard PlanFree
    • Pay-as-you-go
    • Enterprise support
    • Advanced services

Which should you pick?

Choose Hookdeck if

  • You need ingest and persist.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want automatic retries.
Hookdeck review

Choose IBM Cloud if

  • You need virtual servers.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Api, Cli.
  • You also want bare metal.
IBM Cloud review

Questions people ask

Is Hookdeck or IBM Cloud better?
Neither clearly leads. Hookdeck starts at Free and IBM Cloud at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Hookdeck or IBM Cloud?
Hookdeck starts at Free and IBM Cloud at Free.
Does Hookdeck or IBM Cloud run on more platforms?
Hookdeck runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows. IBM Cloud runs on Linux, Windows, Api, Cli.
Can I use Hookdeck for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Hookdeck best used for?
Hookdeck is most often used for a payments integration where losing a stripe event during a deploy causes an order to go unfulfilled, fanning one provider webhook out to several internal services without each subscribing separately, debugging a partner integration by replaying the exact failing payload after shipping a fix, receiving production-shaped webhooks on a developer laptop without running a public tunnel. Of those, a payments integration where losing a stripe event during a deploy causes an order to go unfulfilled and fanning one provider webhook out to several internal services without each subscribing separately are not what IBM Cloud is typically brought in for.
What can Hookdeck do that IBM Cloud cannot?
Hookdeck covers Ingest and persist, Automatic retries, Filters and fan-out, Transformations. IBM Cloud covers Virtual Servers, Bare Metal, Cloud Foundry, Kubernetes.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Hookdeck: Is there a free plan?

Yes, ten thousand events a month with three-day retention and one user.

Hookdeck: How is usage counted?

By delivered events, so a single inbound webhook fanned out to three destinations counts as three.

Hookdeck: Can I replay a failed webhook?

Yes, individually or in bulk from the console, with the original payload.

Hookdeck: Does it work for outbound webhooks too?

Yes, the same queueing, retry and observability applies to webhooks you send.

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