We're an early-stage startup. how do I track email delivery?

To track email delivery as an early-stage startup, you want visibility into what was sent, what was accepted by the recipient’s mail server, what was opened/clicked, and what bounced or got complained about.

1) Use a sending provider that exposes delivery events

If you’re sending product or transactional email, use a provider like:

• SendGrid
• Postmark
• Amazon SES
• Mailgun
• Brevo

These providers typically give you:

• Delivered
• Bounce
• Deferred / retrying
• Dropped
• Spam complaint
• Open / click tracking

2) Instrument webhook events

The best way to track email delivery is with webhooks from your email provider.

Set up a webhook endpoint in your app to receive events like:

• sent
• delivered
• bounce
• deferred
• open
• click
• unsubscribe
• spamreport

Store these in your database keyed by:

• your internal message_id
• recipient email
• campaign / template
• timestamp
• provider event ID

That lets you build a delivery timeline per email.

3) Distinguish “sent” vs “delivered”

Important:

• Sent = your provider accepted the message
• Delivered = recipient’s mail server accepted it
• Open = recipient’s client loaded tracking content (not always reliable)
• Click = tracked link clicked

You usually cannot know with certainty that a human actually saw the email unless they click or reply.

4) Track bounces and complaints aggressively

These are the most important metrics for deliverability health.

Watch:

• Hard bounces: invalid address, reject permanently
• Soft bounces: mailbox full, temporary issues
• Spam complaints: bad for sender reputation
• Unsubscribes: less severe, but important

Act on them:

• suppress hard bounces immediately
• reduce sending to inactive users
• keep complaint rate low
• authenticate your domain with SPF/DKIM/DMARC

5) Add open/click tracking carefully

If you send marketing or lifecycle emails:

• enable open tracking and link tracking
• use a custom tracking domain if possible
• note that opens are less reliable now because of Apple Mail Privacy Protection and other privacy features

Clicks are generally more trustworthy than opens.

6) Create a delivery dashboard

At minimum, track:

• sent
• delivered
• bounced
• deferred
• opened
• clicked
• unsubscribed
• complained

Break down by:

• domain (gmail.com, outlook.com, etc.)
• template/campaign
• recipient segment
• time window

This helps you spot deliverability issues early.

7) Set up inbox placement monitoring

Delivery doesn’t always mean inbox placement. You can also use:

• seed/test inboxes across providers
• deliverability tools like Postmark’s insights, GlockApps, Mail-Tester, or Everest

Useful when you’re ramping volume or seeing poor engagement.

8) Make sure your email authentication is set

To improve tracking reliability and delivery:

• SPF
• DKIM
• DMARC
• optionally BIMI later

Without these, your emails are more likely to land in spam or be rejected.

9) Practical startup stack

A simple setup:

• Use Postmark or SendGrid for sending
• Receive webhook events
• Store events in Postgres
• Build a basic dashboard in your app or Metabase
• Alert on bounce/complaint spikes via Slack

10) Minimal implementation plan

1. Choose a sending provider
2. Turn on event webhooks
3. Save each event to your DB
4. Build per-message status from events
5. Monitor bounces/complaints daily
6. Add auth records (SPF/DKIM/DMARC)
7. Add open/click tracking if needed

If you want, I can also give you:

• a recommended email tracking schema
• a sample webhook handler
• or the best provider for your use case.