Email Click & Open Tracking
Track clicks and opens in your emails with custom branded domains and automatic SSL. No CDN setup, no support tickets.
PushMail provides built-in click and open tracking with automatic SSL on your custom domain. Unlike other providers that require CDN setup or support tickets, PushMail handles SSL provisioning automatically.
How it works
- Click tracking — Links in your emails are rewritten to pass through your branded tracking subdomain. When a recipient clicks, PushMail records the click and redirects to the original URL.
- Open tracking — A 1x1 transparent tracking pixel is injected into your emails. When the recipient's email client loads the image, PushMail records the open.
Both features are per-domain and can be enabled or disabled independently.
Setup
Add a CNAME record
When you add a domain to PushMail, a tracking subdomain is automatically created (e.g., url4417.yourdomain.com). Point it to links.pushmail.dev:
| Type | Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| CNAME | url4417 | links.pushmail.dev |
The exact subdomain name is shown in your domain's DNS records panel.
Wait for SSL
PushMail automatically provisions an SSL certificate for your tracking subdomain. This usually takes a few minutes. The dashboard shows the status — no action needed from you.
Enable tracking
Go to Domains → click your domain → toggle Click Tracking and/or Open Tracking on.
You can also enable via the API:
curl -X PATCH https://pushmail.dev/api/v1/domains/:id \
-H "Authorization: Bearer pm_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "clickTrackingEnabled": true }'curl -X PATCH https://pushmail.dev/api/v1/domains/:id \
-H "Authorization: Bearer pm_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "openTrackingEnabled": true }'Pricing
Email tracking costs $1/month per domain with tracking enabled. This covers the SSL certificate and tracking infrastructure. The charge is deducted automatically from your credit balance.
If your credit balance is insufficient, tracking is automatically disabled until you add credits.
Testing
After enabling tracking, use the Send Test button in the domain detail panel. It sends a test email with a tracked link and shows click count in real-time.
What gets tracked
Click tracking
All <a href="..."> links in your email HTML are rewritten, except:
mailto:links- Unsubscribe links
- Links to
pushmail.dev(branding footer) - Anchor links (
#)
Each unique URL gets a tracking ID. If the same URL appears multiple times in one email, they share the same tracking ID.
Open tracking
A 1x1 transparent GIF is injected before </body> in your email HTML. Only the first open per email is recorded (deduplicated).
Open tracking is inherently imprecise. Many email clients block images by default, and Apple Mail Privacy Protection pre-fetches tracking pixels. Use open rates as a directional signal, not an exact metric.
Delivery inference
When a recipient opens or clicks an email, PushMail automatically marks it as delivered. A click also implies an open. This means your delivery funnel updates automatically without needing webhook configuration.
Events
Click and open events are recorded in the standard events table and appear in:
- Analytics → Event Summary
- Analytics → Delivery Funnel
- Logs → individual send detail
You can also query events via the API:
curl https://pushmail.dev/api/v1/events?sendId=123 \
-H "Authorization: Bearer pm_live_YOUR_KEY"Comparison with other providers
| Feature | SendGrid | Mailgun | PushMail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Click tracking SSL | Manual CDN setup + contact support | Manual CDN setup | Automatic |
| Setup steps | 5+ (CDN, SSL, DNS, support ticket) | 3+ (CDN, SSL, DNS) | 1 (CNAME) |
| Custom domain | Yes, after manual SSL | Yes, after manual SSL | Yes, auto-SSL |
| Per-domain toggle | No | No | Yes |
| Cost | Included (after setup) | Included (after setup) | $1/mo per domain |