Comparison
PNTR vs Hookdeck
These are not competitors so much as neighbours, and it is worth being blunt about it: Hookdeck is infrastructure you put in front of a production system to guarantee webhook delivery — queuing, retries, routing, alerting. PNTR is a hostname that records what arrives so you can look at it. If you are choosing what handles your real traffic, this comparison should send you to Hookdeck.
PNTR compared with Hookdeck
| Feature | PNTR | Hookdeck |
|---|---|---|
| Role | Development and testing endpoint | Production webhook gateway |
| Automatic retries on failure | None — PNTR is the final destination, not a relay | Yes, with configurable retry policies |
| Delivery to your backend | None — requests stop at PNTR | Yes, with queuing and rate control |
| Routing and filtering rules | None | Yes |
| Free tier | 1,000 stored requests per subdomain, 48-hour retention | 10,000 events/month, 3-day retention, 1 user |
| Behaviour when free limits are hit | Oldest requests roll off; the endpoint keeps accepting | The dashboard locks until the next period or an upgrade |
| Cheapest paid plan | $5/month or $48/year | From $39/month (Team) |
| Uptime and latency SLA | None offered | On the Growth plan, from $499/month |
| DNS records and email on the same name | Yes | No — not a DNS or email product |
| MCP server for Claude / Cursor | Yes — dev.pntr/pntr in the official MCP registry | None published |
Hookdeck pricing and limits last checked on . Check their site for current terms.
Choose PNTR when
- You are still developing, and you want to see what a provider actually sends before you write the handler.
- You want a named hostname with DNS and an inbox alongside the capture, not a delivery pipeline.
- You want something usable in thirty seconds with no account and no configuration.
- Your budget for this is $5/month, not $39.
Choose Hookdeck when
- Webhooks are reaching your production system and losing one costs you something. PNTR has no retries, no queue, and no delivery guarantees.
- You need requests forwarded to your backend with rate control and backoff. PNTR is a terminus — requests stop there.
- You need an uptime or latency SLA. PNTR offers none, and is operated by one person.
- You need to route different event types to different services, or filter before delivery.
- You need more than 48 hours of retention without paying — Hookdeck's free tier keeps 3 days.
Questions
- Can PNTR forward webhooks to my application?
- No. Captured requests are stored and displayed; nothing is forwarded on. If you need delivery to your own backend, you need a gateway like Hookdeck or a tunnel.
- Is PNTR safe to put in a production webhook path?
- No, and it is not designed for it. There are no retries, no delivery guarantees, and no SLA. Use it while building and testing, and put real traffic through infrastructure built for it.
- What happens when I exceed the free limits on each?
- PNTR keeps accepting requests and rolls the oldest off once a subdomain holds 1,000. Hookdeck's Developer plan locks the dashboard when the 10,000-event monthly allowance is used up.
- Could I use both?
- Yes. A common pattern is Hookdeck in the production path and a PNTR subdomain as a scratch endpoint while developing a new integration.