Comparison
ShellOrbit vs Webhook Relay
Webhook Relay does something ShellOrbit does not: it tunnels webhooks into networks that have no public address, which is genuinely useful if the destination is behind a firewall or on a machine in an office. As a plain receiving gateway the comparison is closer, and it turns on volume per pound and on what each product publishes about retention.
Choose Webhook Relay when
Your destination is inside a private network with no public address, you need a SOC 2 report or SAML SSO, or you are under 5,000 webhooks a month and $8.99 billed yearly is the cheapest thing that works.
Choose ShellOrbit when
Your destination is reachable over HTTPS, you want retention and retry behaviour stated per plan, and you are somewhere between 15,000 and a million events a month.
| What is being compared | ShellOrbit | Webhook Relay |
|---|---|---|
| What the product is for | Receiving inbound webhooks and delivering them over HTTPS. | Advantage Webhook Relay. Forwarding webhooks, plus bidirectional tunnels into private networks. |
| Delivering into a private network | Not possible. The destination must be reachable over HTTPS. | Advantage Webhook Relay. Tunnels are a core feature. If this is your requirement, it decides the whole comparison. |
| Free tier | Advantage ShellOrbit. 15,000 events a month. | 150 webhooks a month. |
| Cheapest paid plan, price | $15 a month. | Advantage Webhook Relay. $8.99 a month, billed yearly. |
| Cheapest paid plan, volume | Advantage ShellOrbit. 75,000 events a month. Fifteen times the volume for under twice the price. | 5,000 webhooks a month. |
| Middle plan | Advantage ShellOrbit. $40 a month for 150,000 events. | $71.99 a month for 60,000 webhooks. |
| Cost of a million events a month | Advantage ShellOrbit. About $174. The $99 plan plus 250,000 events of overage. | $224.99 a month, billed yearly. |
| Retention, published per plan | Advantage ShellOrbit. 3, 14, 30 and 90 days by plan, stated on the pricing page. | Not published on the pricing page. |
| Retry window | Configurable attempts and backoff, from three fast tries to a day of tapering retries. | Advantage Webhook Relay. Retries with exponential backoff for up to 30 days. |
| Compliance and enterprise controls | None. No SOC 2, no SSO. | Advantage Webhook Relay. SOC 2 report and SAML SSO on the enterprise tier. |
| Team seats | 3 on the $40 plan, 5 on the $99 plan, more purchasable at any time. | 5 on Business, 10 on Pro. |
| Uptime commitment | 99.9 percent monthly on the $99 plan, in the terms. | Uptime service level agreements on the enterprise tier. |
Where Webhook Relay is genuinely better
Tunnels. ShellOrbit needs a destination it can reach over the public internet. Webhook Relay can push an event into a network that has no public address at all, through an agent you run on the far side. If your handler lives on a machine in an office, in a home lab, or behind a corporate firewall with no inbound route, this is not a feature comparison, it is the only product of the two that solves your problem.
A 30 day retry window. Ours tops out at about a day of tapering attempts. Theirs keeps trying for up to a month. For a destination that goes down for a long weekend, that difference is the whole game.
Enterprise paperwork. A SOC 2 report and SAML SSO exist on their enterprise tier. ShellOrbit has neither.
Where ShellOrbit is genuinely better
Volume per pound in the middle of the range. Their $8.99 plan is cheaper than our $15 one, but it carries 5,000 webhooks against our 75,000. At 60,000 events they charge $71.99 and we charge $40 for 150,000. At a million events a month we work out around $174 against their $224.99.
Retention is written down. Every ShellOrbit plan states how long events are kept and how far back you can replay. Their pricing page does not carry a retention figure at all, and for a product whose main job is holding onto events until you need them, that is the number you most want to see before you buy.
The deciding question
Ask whether your destination is reachable from the internet. If it is not, use Webhook Relay. If it is, this comes down to volume, and ShellOrbit is cheaper across most of the range.
Try it on your own webhooks
Free for 15,000 events a month, no card. Paid plans start at $15.