Who SendGrid is
SendGrid is an email platform founded in 2009 and part of Twilio since 2019, and today it lives on Twilio's website. It takes care of the delivery side of email for its users: domain authentication, bounce and spam report handling, and open and click tracking.
It serves both sides of email: an API for the messages an application sends one customer at a time, and a marketing campaigns product for newsletters and promotions. That is why it is one of the email providers our notifications module connects to.
What it does in your platform
Notifications
Sends the platform's email from your authenticated domain: receipts, security alerts and statements, and campaigns for customers who opted in. Each delivery, bounce, open and spam report comes back to the module as a signed event, so every message is tracked.
How the connection works
One connector in the notifications module talks to SendGrid's v3 Mail Send API. Your apps never hold SendGrid's API key, and SendGrid's events reach the platform through its signed Event Webhook.
A new device signs in
The module picks the security alert template your team edited in the backoffice, in the customer's language.
SendGrid accepts it
The module sends the message through the Mail Send API from your authenticated domain, and SendGrid marks it processed.
It reaches the mail server
SendGrid delivers it to the customer's mail server and reports the delivery, or a deferral or a bounce if the server refuses it.
Events are signed
Each Event Webhook post carries an ECDSA signature and a timestamp, and the module checks them against SendGrid's public key before it trusts the content.
Engagement comes back too
Opens, clicks, spam reports and unsubscribes arrive the same way, and update the customer's record and preferences in the platform.
Another route for alerts
If the security alert bounces, the module sends it again by SMS or push, so the customer still hears about the new device.
Next to other providers
Next to SendGrid, a second email provider can stand by for the security alerts that must not be missed, and SMS or push take over when an email does not arrive. That is how the module treats every channel: the provider you prefer, and a second one for critical messages.
Your templates, your customers' preferences and the delivery history live in the platform, so moving away from SendGrid later does not change your apps.
When SendGrid fits best
A strong fit when
- You want transactional email and marketing campaigns from one provider.
- You already use Twilio for SMS or Verify, and want email from the same company.
- You want every event signed, so the platform can prove it came from SendGrid.
Also worth a look
- Amazon SES, when your platform already runs on AWS.
- A provider your team already uses: its account becomes a connector too.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your SendGrid account and contract in place, for transactional email and, if you want them, campaigns.
Your domain
We authenticate your sending domain with you, with the DNS records SendGrid asks for, so messages go out in your name rather than on behalf of SendGrid.
The keys
The API key and the Event Webhook's verification key go into your platform's secrets, and an event without a valid signature is rejected.
A full test run
Requests are first checked in SendGrid's sandbox mode, which validates each message without delivering it, then every template goes to your team's own inboxes before your first customer email.
