I’m working with automation between different platforms and running into limitations with the built-in trigger options. Right now I have workflows connecting my customer support system to SMS services, but I need more specific trigger conditions.
What I really want is to fire off automated actions when certain business events happen. Things like when customers complete transactions or when their account balance drops below a certain threshold. The standard trigger options don’t cover these scenarios.
Has anyone figured out how to create these kind of specialized triggers? I’m looking for ways to detect custom events and use them to start my automation workflows.
zapier’s webhook catches work great for this. create a webhook trigger in ur zap and point ur apps to that url when events fire. i’ve got mine set up for payment completions - triggers instantly when customers checkout. much simpler than building middleware.
I’ve dealt with this exact problem before. Skip trying to get your existing platforms to trigger webhooks directly - it’s a pain. Instead, build a small middleware service that watches your database changes and API events in real-time. This works great for threshold triggers like account balances since there’s no polling delay and you get instant notifications. The middleware converts your business events into clean webhook calls that Zapier can actually handle. You can throw in filtering and data transformation here too, which makes your Zapier workflows way cleaner. Been running this setup for over a year - zero missed triggers or false alarms.
Custom webhooks are definitely the way to go here. I built something similar for my e-commerce site when the standard triggers couldn’t handle our complex business logic. Here’s how it works: set up your source app to send HTTP POST requests to Zapier’s webhook URLs when your conditions are met. For transaction completions, configure your payment system to fire the webhook after successful processing. Account balance monitoring takes more work - I use a scheduled job that checks balances periodically and only triggers the webhook when thresholds are crossed. The webhook payload can include customer ID, balance amount, transaction details, whatever you need. This gives you complete control over when automations fire and what data gets passed to the next actions.
webhooks r super helpfull! just set up a custom url in zapier that listens for your apps. when events happen like a balance drop or a transaction, u can send post requests. its pretty easy, trust me!
I solved this with event-driven triggers using database triggers plus a simple webhook dispatcher. Skip the polling - set up database triggers that fire instantly when conditions are met (like balance thresholds or transaction updates). The trigger calls a lightweight function that formats data and hits Zapier’s webhook URL directly. No delays from scheduled checks, and you won’t miss events during traffic spikes. Just make sure your webhook payload has all the context data your Zapier workflow needs so you don’t need extra API calls later. I’ve run this for customer lifecycle events - handles thousands of triggers monthly, zero issues.
Webhooks are decent but you’re still stuck with Zapier’s limits and pricing. Been there, found something better.
Skip the middleware headaches and use a platform that handles custom triggers natively. Connect straight to your databases and APIs instead of wrestling with webhook configs.
For your support-to-SMS flow, just monitor your support database directly. Trigger actions when ticket status changes, priority shifts, or customers respond. Account balance monitoring? Connect to your payment processor’s API and set up real-time monitoring with whatever conditions you want.
Here’s the kicker - you’re not stuck with basic webhook payloads. Pull extra context, run complex logic, combine multiple data sources before triggering actions. No polling delays, no missed triggers, way more flexibility than trying to bend Zapier to your will.
Switched to this setup 8 months ago, been rock solid since. Visual workflow builder handles complex triggers without writing custom code.
Check out Latenode for advanced automation: https://latenode.com
Event streaming was a game-changer when my webhooks kept failing. Instead of building complicated middleware or messing with database triggers, I just connected everything through a message queue that handles the routing automatically. Transactions complete, balances change - events flow through the queue and get transformed into the right format for Zapier. You get guaranteed delivery, auto-retries, and dead letter queues when stuff breaks. Need to hit multiple automation platforms? No problem - fan out single events wherever you want. Takes maybe an hour to set up with EventBridge or Pub/Sub, then your business logic just publishes events and doesn’t worry about webhook nonsense. Mine’s been rock solid for two years handling tons of customer events.