Every email platform claims to have analytics. But the range goes from "here's your open rate" to comprehensive dashboards with cohort analysis, deliverability monitoring, and engagement scoring. The difference determines whether you can actually optimize your email program or you're just looking at vanity metrics.

Good email analytics answer three questions: Are my emails reaching the inbox? Are people engaging with them? Are they driving the outcomes I want? Basic platforms answer the first two. The best ones answer all three.

What to Look for in Email Analytics

Delivery metrics: Sent, delivered, bounced (hard vs. soft), deferred, rejected. You need to know if emails are reaching inboxes, not just leaving your server.

Engagement metrics: Opens, clicks, click-to-open rate, read time, link-level click tracking. Goes beyond "did they open" to "what did they do."

List health metrics: Growth rate, churn rate, engagement distribution, inactive subscriber percentage. Tells you if your list is healthy or decaying.

Deliverability metrics: Inbox placement, spam placement, spam complaint rate, domain reputation. The metrics that actually determine if your emails get seen.

Conversion metrics: Conversions attributed to email, revenue per email, goal completion rates. Connects email engagement to business outcomes.

The 7 Best Options

1. Sequenzy

Best for: SaaS-focused analytics connecting email to subscription metrics

Sequenzy's analytics connect email performance to SaaS business metrics. Campaign and sequence reports show standard engagement metrics (opens, clicks) alongside subscription outcomes. When connected to Stripe, you can see how email sequences impact trial conversion, churn reduction, and revenue recovery.

The analytics are designed for SaaS founders who care about MRR impact, not just open rates. Seeing "this dunning sequence recovered $2,400 in failed payments" is more actionable than "this campaign had a 22% open rate."

Analytics depth: Good. Email metrics + SaaS business outcomes, sequence performance Pricing: From $29/month Pros: SaaS-relevant metrics, subscription outcome tracking, revenue impact, actionable Cons: Less detailed than Klaviyo for granular analysis, newer platform

2. Klaviyo

Best for: The most comprehensive email analytics dashboard

Klaviyo's analytics go deeper than any other email platform. Campaign reports show standard metrics plus revenue attribution, benchmark comparisons, and predictive analytics. Flow analytics show conversion rates at each step, revenue per email, and drop-off points.

The dashboard includes cohort analysis (how do users who joined in January compare to February?), engagement scoring (automated scoring based on email and purchase behavior), and deliverability monitoring. You can build custom reports combining email metrics with customer data.

Analytics depth: Excellent. Revenue attribution, cohort analysis, predictive analytics, custom reports Pricing: Free up to 250 contacts, from $20/month Pros: Most comprehensive analytics, revenue tracking, cohort analysis, engagement scoring Cons: E-commerce-focused, analytics can be overwhelming, pricing scales with contacts

3. ActiveCampaign

Best for: Analytics that connect email engagement to the sales pipeline

ActiveCampaign's analytics span email marketing and CRM. Campaign reports show opens, clicks, and conversions. Automation reports show performance at each workflow step. The CRM adds deal attribution, showing how email engagement influences pipeline movement.

The engagement scoring system automatically tracks each contact's engagement level. You can see engagement trends over time, identify your most engaged segments, and spot contacts that are becoming disengaged. This makes list health visible without manual analysis.

Analytics depth: Very good. Email + CRM analytics, engagement scoring, automation reports Pricing: From $29/month Pros: CRM + email analytics, engagement scoring, automation step analysis, deal attribution Cons: Some analytics features on higher tiers, can feel scattered across multiple dashboards

4. Postmark

Best for: The best deliverability analytics in email

Postmark's analytics focus on what matters most for transactional email: deliverability. The dashboard shows delivery rates, bounce rates (broken down by type), spam complaint rates, and delivery speed. You can track these metrics per message stream (transactional vs. marketing), per tag, and per time period.

The bounce management is particularly good. Postmark categorizes bounces (hard bounce, soft bounce, spam block, etc.) and provides actionable details. The activity feed shows every email's journey from send to delivery (or bounce), making debugging straightforward.

Analytics depth: Excellent for deliverability. Delivery tracking, bounce categorization, speed metrics Pricing: From $15/month Pros: Best deliverability analytics, bounce categorization, delivery speed tracking, message streams Cons: Limited marketing analytics, no revenue attribution, focused on transactional

5. Mailchimp

Best for: Accessible analytics for small businesses and beginners

Mailchimp's analytics are the most accessible in the industry. Campaign reports are clean, easy to read, and include industry benchmarks so you know how your numbers compare. The audience dashboard shows growth, engagement, and demographics at a glance.

For small businesses sending occasional campaigns, Mailchimp's analytics provide enough insight without being overwhelming. Open rates, click rates, top links, subscriber growth, and basic revenue tracking (with e-commerce integration) cover the essentials.

Analytics depth: Good for basics. Clean dashboard, benchmarks, audience insights Pricing: Free up to 500 contacts, from $13/month Pros: Most accessible, industry benchmarks, clean UI, audience demographics Cons: Limited advanced analytics, basic segmentation insights, shallow automation analytics

6. Customer.io

Best for: Technical teams wanting granular event-based analytics

Customer.io's analytics are built around events and automations. See how users move through workflows, where they convert or drop off, and how different segments respond to each message. The data explorer lets you build custom queries against your engagement data.

The automation analytics are particularly strong. See conversion rates at each step, compare A/B test variants, and identify which branches perform best. For technical teams that want to optimize at the workflow step level, Customer.io provides the granularity.

Analytics depth: Very good. Workflow step analytics, data explorer, A/B testing, conversion tracking Pricing: From $100/month Pros: Granular workflow analytics, data explorer, A/B analysis, conversion tracking Cons: Expensive, complex interface, requires investment to configure properly

7. SendGrid

Best for: Email delivery analytics at high volume

SendGrid's analytics focus on delivery and engagement at scale. The dashboard shows delivery rate, bounce rate, spam reports, and engagement metrics across your entire sending volume. Category-level stats let you segment analytics by email type (transactional vs. marketing, receipts vs. notifications).

The Stats API lets you pull analytics data programmatically, which is useful for building custom dashboards or feeding email metrics into your own analytics pipeline. At high volume, the ability to analyze sending patterns and identify delivery issues across millions of emails is valuable.

Analytics depth: Good for delivery. Volume analytics, category stats, API access Pricing: Free for 100 emails/day, from $20/month Pros: High-volume analytics, category segmentation, Stats API, delivery focus Cons: Marketing analytics less polished, dashboard feels dated, limited automation analytics

Analytics That Actually Matter

Metrics to Check Weekly

Delivery rate: Should be 98%+ for transactional, 95%+ for marketing
Bounce rate: Hard bounces should be near 0% if you're cleaning your list
Spam complaint rate: Target below 0.1%. Above 0.3% is a red flag

Metrics to Check Per Campaign

Open rate: Benchmark against your own historical average, not industry averages
Click-to-open rate: More meaningful than raw click rate. Shows how compelling your content is for those who actually opened
Unsubscribe rate: Consistently above 0.5% per campaign means your content or frequency needs adjustment

Metrics to Check Monthly

List growth vs. churn: Net subscriber growth tells you if your list is healthy
Engagement distribution: What percentage of your list is active (opened in last 90 days)?
Revenue attribution: Which email programs are actually driving business outcomes?

FAQ

Do I need third-party analytics alongside my email platform's built-in analytics? For most teams, built-in analytics are sufficient. Consider third-party tools if you need: multi-channel attribution (combining email with ads, social, etc.), advanced deliverability monitoring (like inbox placement testing), or custom data warehouse integration.

How accurate are email open rates? Less accurate than they used to be. Apple Mail Privacy Protection (since iOS 15) pre-fetches email content, inflating open rates. Treat open rates as directional (trending up or down) rather than absolute. Click rates are more reliable.

What's a good benchmark for email metrics? Benchmarks vary by industry, but for SaaS: 20-30% open rates, 2-5% click rates, under 0.5% unsubscribe rate per campaign. Compare against your own historical data rather than industry averages, which can be misleading.

Should I build custom dashboards or use built-in analytics? Start with built-in. Only build custom dashboards if you need to combine email data with other business metrics (product usage, revenue, support tickets) in a single view. For most teams, the email platform's dashboard is enough.