I’m planning to create a Telegram bot for my company and I’m stuck on deciding which approach to use. I’ve been looking at two different options and can’t figure out which one would work better.
The first option is using the polling method where I would build a desktop application that runs on a VPS server. This would constantly check for new messages by making regular requests.
The second option is setting up a webhook system using PHP on a web server. This way Telegram would send updates directly to my server when something happens.
I’m mainly concerned about performance and response time. Which approach would be faster for handling user messages? Are there any other important differences I should know about when making this decision?
Webhooks are definitely a better choice over polling for a production environment. They offer a more efficient way of handling messages since your server only processes incoming messages when they arrive, reducing the overall load and improving response times.
However, keep in mind that setting up webhooks requires a secure SSL connection, and you need to implement error handling carefully. If your webhook encounters an issue, you may miss messages, unlike polling which allows for catching up on missed interactions after any downtime. Overall, I recommend webhooks for a business bot due to their performance and scalability, as long as you’re prepared to monitor your server’s reliability.
I’ve built several Telegram bots and honestly, polling gets a bad rap. Sure, webhooks look cleaner on paper, but polling lets you control exactly when messages get processed and makes debugging way easier. Polling’s great for corporate setups where you need complex message queuing or batch processing. Plus, running it as a desktop app means you can hook into existing company systems and databases without messing with web server configs. Performance-wise? Unless you’re pushing thousands of messages per minute, the difference doesn’t matter. Polling every few seconds works fine and won’t hurt your VPS. You’ll use a bit more bandwidth, but any decent server handles it no problem.
i think it really depends on your setup. webhooks can go down if your server has issues, which means missed messages. polling is better for reliability since you can restart and catch up. maybe try polling first, then switch to webhooks later if you need that extra speed.