Polling First, Push Later: A Practical Guide to Reliable Webhook Digest Delivery

A technical guide aimed at small edtech SaaS teams outlines how to build reliable weekly digest delivery across Europe and the US without over-engineering the transport layer. The core argument is that whether a team uses polling, queue push, or webhook subscriptions, the real guarantee comes from a durable, idempotent job identity tied to a customer and a specific week. The author warns that running schedulers in two regions simultaneously can cause duplicate deliveries unless a single authoritative job ledger enforces uniqueness. Teams are advised to define acceptable delivery delay and lease expiry times before selecting any transport mechanism. The recommendation is to start with a simple polling worker and only adopt more complex push or subscription models when operational metrics justify the added complexity.