What should I use for bounce tracking and delivery logs?

For bounce tracking and delivery logs, the best choice depends on whether you want built-in ESP features or a more flexible external system.

Good default options

1) Use your email service provider’s event webhooks/logs

Best if you send through providers like Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, or SparkPost.

Look for:

• Bounce events: hard bounce, soft bounce
• Delivery events
• Complaint/spam events
• Suppression list management
• Message IDs for correlating events with your app

This is usually the simplest and most reliable approach.

2) Store events in your own database

Recommended if you need reporting, debugging, or compliance.

Typical setup:

• ESP sends events to a webhook
• Your app ingests them
• Save to a table like:
  • message_id
  • recipient
  • event_type
  • reason
  • timestamp
  • provider
• Build dashboards and alerts from that

This gives you full control over retention and analysis.

3) Use a dedicated email analytics tool

Useful if you want less engineering work.

Examples:

• Everest
• GlockApps
• MessageGears / similar deliverability platforms

These are more for deliverability monitoring than raw event logging, but can help with bounce analysis and inbox placement.

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My recommendation

If you’re building a product, use:

• ESP webhooks for bounce/delivery events
• Your own database for logging
• Optional analytics dashboards on top

That combination is the most robust.

If you want, I can also recommend the best option specifically for Postmark, SES, SendGrid, or Mailgun.