how to send and receive emails using SendGrid and handle webhooks for real-time tracking. From open detection to custom analytics dashboards — build an intelligent email system from scratch.
Understanding whether and when your users open your emails can significantly enhance choices, maximize communication strategy, and promote product development.
SendGrid's Event Webhooks provide a reliable method for gathering data on email events in real time, such as delivery status, open events, clicks, bounces, and more. We will go into great detail in this extended article on how to utilize SendGrid to track email openings, handle those events on your server, associate them with certain users or transactions, and create a responsive user interface dashboard to see how well emails are performing.
✨ Why SendGrid Webhooks Matter in SaaS and Tech Workflows
Suppose you’re managing a SaaS product. Every day, your system sends out multiple types of emails:
- ✅ Account activation confirmations
- ⏳ Trial expiration reminders
- 🚀 New feature announcements
- 🔐 Password reset links
- 💳 Subscription payment confirmations
Each of these emails plays a vital role in the user journey. But here’s the real question:
How do you know if your users are actually engaging with those emails?
This is where SendGrid’s Event Webhooks come into play.
With SendGrid Webhooks, you gain access to detailed metadata about every email event:
- Who opened the email?
- How soon after delivery was it opened?
- Was it accessed via mobile or desktop?
- Did it bounce or go ignored?
By collecting and analyzing this data, you can:
- 📉 Identify inactive or disengaged users
- 🔁 Resend unengaged emails or try alternate channels
- 🧪 A/B test subject lines, timing, or templates
- 📊 Share insights with customer success or sales teams
**📁 Step 1: Configure Your Server as a Webhook Endpoint
Building a server endpoint that can receive HTTP POST requests from SendGrid when events take place is the first step.
Here's a solid example if you're using Node.js with Express:
Ensure this endpoint:
- Uses HTTPS
- Accepts JSON POST bodies
- Handles bulk event arrays (multiple events per POST)
Step 2: Configure SendGrid to Deliver Events
- Login to your SendGrid account.
- Go to Settings > Mail Settings > Event Webhook.
- Add your webhook endpoint URL (e.g.
https://yourdomain.com/api/email-events). - Select the following events:
- Delivered
- Opened
- Clicked
- Dropped
- Bounced
- Save the settings.
SendGrid will now start sending HTTP POST requests with JSON data every time these events happen.
## Step 3: Understand and Parse the Event Payload
Each email event from SendGrid contains detailed metadata. Here’s an example of an open event:
Use this data to:
- Identify which user opened the email (using sg_message_id)
- Record the time of opening (convert timestamp to readable format)
- Optionally record IP or device/browser info
Step 4: Relating Email Events to User Records
A sg_message_idis included in the response when sending an email using SendGrid (often over an API). Together with your internal user or email record, this ID must be kept in your database.
A simple send-email example with message tracking is provided here:
Later, when you receive an openevent, use the sg_message_id(or custom_args) to match and update that email’s status in your database.
Step 5: Store and Analyze Event Data
Every event you receive should be stored in a database table. A suggested schema:
| ID | User ID | Event Type | Timestamp | IP Address | Device Info | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | u123 | user@example.com | opened | 2025-07-01 13:44 | 192.168.1.5 | Chrome/Mac |
Having historical event logs allows you to:
- 📊 Track user-level engagement
- 📈 View email performance over time
- 🛠️ Audit deliverability issues
- 📌 Generate user-level analytics
Step 6: Build a Visual Dashboard
Events are now being received and stored by your backend, providing you to see them in your admin user interface. Create an interactive dashboard that displays the following, for example, with Chart.js or React + TailwindCSS:
- Email statuses for each user (sent, opened, bounced)
- Campaign-specific open rate
- Date range, message type, and user segment filters
- Opens' geolocation maps (based on IP) Charts for devices and browsers For marketing teams, product managers, and developers working on growth or retention, this type of statistics is important.
✅ Final Thoughts
Tracking email opens using SendGrid is more than just knowing if a message was read. It’s about building a complete feedback loop between your communication and user behavior. By setting up real-time event tracking, mapping events to users, storing insights in your database, and visualizing them —
This setup is ideal for SaaS products, e-commerce platforms, internal tools, and anyone who relies on high-performance email communication. Start tracking today — and make every email count.
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