Why the difference?

One possible reason is how the automation finds out that you submitted the form.

In the previous blog, we covered triggers and actions. A trigger is the event that starts an automation, and an action is what the automation does next.

Now let's look at two common ways an automation detects that event: polling and webhooks.

1. Polling: “Has anything happened yet?”

Imagine you are waiting for a parcel that will be left outside your front door.

You open the door and check. Nothing there.

A few minutes later, you check again. Still nothing.

The next time you check, the parcel is there!

You discovered the delivery because you kept looking for it. That is the idea behind polling.

Polling: checking again and again to find out whether something new has happened.

With a polling trigger, your automation tool checks an app at regular intervals for new information. If it finds a new item that matches your trigger, it runs the next steps. Otherwise, it waits and checks again.

An automation example

Suppose you offer a free guide on your website. Visitors fill in a form, and your automation emails them the guide.

Imagine the connection checks for new submissions every 10 minutes:

Priya's submission waits about seven minutes to be detected.

If she had submitted at 10:09 AM, the wait would have been about one minute. Polling does not mean every submission waits the full interval. It waits until the next check.

The actual interval depends on the automation platform, integration, and sometimes your plan.

What polling intervals are available in Pabbly Connect?

Pabbly Connect documents the following polling intervals, ranging from 10 minutes to 24 hours:

The available choices and default interval can depend on the trigger application. Check your particular workflow rather than assuming every trigger starts at 10 minutes.

To change it, open the trigger step's three-dot menu → Set Trigger Time, select an available interval, and save. If the shorter interval you need is missing, contact Pabbly support.

For example, choosing 20 minutes means Pabbly checks for new information roughly three times an hour. It does not mean every new submission waits exactly 20 minutes.

2. Webhooks: “Something just happened!”

Now imagine the delivery person rings your doorbell when they arrive.

You can read a book or enjoy your tea. When the bell rings, you know there is someone at the door.

You don't have to keep checking.

That is the idea behind a webhook.

Webhook: getting a notification when something happens.

A webhook is an automatic message sent from one app to another when a specific event happens. That message can also carry useful information about the event.

The same automation example

Let's return to Priya requesting your free guide. This time, imagine the form tool supports webhooks and you have connected it to your automation.

1. Priya submits the form.

2. The form tool sends her submission details to the automation tool.

3. The automation uses her email address and requested guide to run the email step.

There is no need to wait for the next scheduled check.

Webhook triggers are often called instant triggers. Think of this as “not waiting for a polling interval.” Sending, receiving, and processing the information can still take time.

Why can webhooks save server resources?

Webhooks are a well-established way to let apps communicate when something happens. Their advantage is that apps can avoid repeatedly checking for updates.

With polling, both apps have work to do even when nothing has changed:

• The automation app, such as Pabbly Connect, sends a check and processes the response.

• The trigger app, such as your form builder, receives that check, looks for new information, and sends an answer.

Checking every 10 minutes means 144 checks a day, even on a day with no new submissions.

With webhooks, the form app sends a notification when a submission happens. If there are five submissions, that could mean about five event notifications instead of 144 routine checks, excluding retries or extra requests for details.

Avoiding those repeated checks can reduce processing work and network traffic for both apps, particularly when new events are infrequent. Webhooks still use resources to send and process notifications, but they can avoid many “nothing new” conversations.

What is a webhook URL?

It is the address where the app sends its notification and information.

Think of it as the address of the right house. The form tool needs to know where to deliver Priya's submission.

For a manual webhook connection in Pabbly Connect, the basic setup is:

1. Create a workflow and choose a webhook trigger.

2. Copy the webhook URL provided by Pabbly Connect.

3. Paste it into the webhook settings of a form tool that supports this feature.

4. Submit a test form and check that Pabbly Connect receives the details.

5. Add and test the action that sends the guide by email.

The exact settings vary by app. Some ready-made integrations handle the webhook connection for you.

Polling vs. webhooks at a glance

Which one should you use?

Start with what your app and its integration support. You may have one option or both; you cannot assume every polling trigger can be switched to a webhook.

If both are available, think about how quickly the next step needs to happen.

For a free guide someone is waiting to receive, a webhook is a useful choice. The same applies when you want your sales team to hear about a new inquiry quickly.

For copying new records into a spreadsheet that you only review later, a few minutes of polling delay may be perfectly acceptable.

The next time you test a workflow and nothing happens immediately, check its trigger type. It might simply be waiting for its next poll.

Someone fills out your website’s contact form. Their details appear in your spreadsheet, and they receive a confirmation email—without you copying anything or clicking Send.

How does that happen?

It starts with two building blocks: a trigger and an action.

You don’t need to know coding to understand them. Let’s start with something you already use: a doorbell.

Think of a doorbell

Someone presses the button outside your home. The doorbell rings inside.

The button press is the trigger. It starts the process.

The ringing is the action. It is what the system does in response.

A trigger starts something. An action is what happens in response.

You can describe the whole interaction in one sentence:

When someone presses the doorbell, ring the bell.

Automation follows the same pattern:

When this happens, do that.

The “when” part describes your trigger. The “do” part describes your action.

What is a trigger?

A trigger is the event that starts an automation.

It answers the question: “When should this workflow run?”

For example:

• A customer submits a form.

• A payment succeeds.

• A new row is added to a spreadsheet.

• A scheduled time arrives.

Notice that each example describes something happening. “Google Sheets” is an app. “A new row is added to Google Sheets” is an event you could use as a trigger.

That distinction helps you be specific about what should start your automation.

What is an action?

An action is a task the automation carries out after it starts.

It answers the question: “What should the workflow do?”

An action might add a row to a spreadsheet, send an email, create a contact in your CRM, or post a message to your team.

You choose the action and configure what it needs. For an email, that includes the recipient, subject, and message.

Here are a few examples of how triggers and actions work together:

These are automation ideas; the available events and tasks depend on the apps you connect.

Another analogy: ordering at a café

Imagine ordering a cappuccino at a café.

The café receives your order. The barista prepares your drink.

In this analogy, receiving the order is the trigger, and preparing the drink is the action.

But the order also contains information: the drink, size, and milk preference. The barista uses those details to make the right drink.

Digital automations work in a similar way. A form submission can start a workflow and provide the customer’s name, email address, and message for later steps to use.

The trigger tells the workflow when to start. The data helps the actions do the right work.

A practical example in Pabbly Connect

Suppose you run a service business. Whenever someone submits an inquiry, you want to save their details and send them an acknowledgement.

You could design a Pabbly Connect workflow like this:

Pabbly Connect describes a workflow as a trigger followed by one or more action steps. That means one trigger can lead to several actions—you don’t need a separate form submission for each task.

Reference: Pabbly Connect’s workflow explanation.

The complete instruction is:

When someone submits my inquiry form, save their details in Google Sheets and send them a confirmation email.

This is a workflow design, rather than a walkthrough of a specific form app’s setup.

How does the action know which details to use?

Suppose a sample form submission contains:

You connect the incoming fields to the places where they belong. This is called mapping.

Your email could then say:

Hi Priya, thanks for your inquiry about Website automation. We’ve received your details and will get back to you soon.

You map the fields once. Each new workflow run uses the values from that submission.

Map the email field instead of typing the sample customer’s address as a fixed recipient. Otherwise, every acknowledgement could go to that same address.

Can the same app be both a trigger and an action?

Yes. An app’s role depends on what you want it to do and which events it supports.

For example, detecting a new spreadsheet row can start one workflow. Adding a spreadsheet row can be an action in another.

Think about the event or task first, rather than treating an app as permanently a “trigger app” or an “action app.”

Try describing your own automation

Pick one repetitive task and complete this sentence:

When __________ happens, automatically __________.

For example: “When someone requests my free guide, automatically email them the download link.”

You have identified a trigger and an action. From there, you can choose the apps, connect the accounts, map the information, and test the workflow.

What’s one task you’d like to automate? Share your “When this happens, do that” example in the comments.