A Guide to Using SparkPost with Node.js

Bird

Sep 1, 2017

Email

1 min read

A Guide to Using SparkPost with Node.js

Key Takeaways

    • SparkPost offers multiple ways to send email from Node.js — direct API calls, Nodemailer transport, and notif.me multi-channel delivery.

    • Store API keys in environment variables, never hard-code them. SparkPost automatically detects SPARKPOST_API_KEY.

    • The Transmissions API gives you powerful flexibility: templates, substitution data, attachments, and campaign tagging.

    • Nodemailer users can instantly switch to SparkPost with the official transport — no major code rewrites.

    • notif.me provides multi-channel delivery (email, SMS, push) with fallback strategies, making it ideal for robust notification systems.

    • Node.js fits naturally with modern cloud email APIs and serverless workflows, making it easy to embed email capabilities directly inside your app.

Q&A Highlights

  • What’s the fastest way to start sending emails with SparkPost in Node.js?

    Install the sparkpost package, initialize the client with an API key (preferably via environment variables), and call the transmissions.send() method with recipients + content.

  • Do I need to store my SparkPost API key in code?

    No — and you shouldn’t. Use environment variables. The client automatically reads SPARKPOST_API_KEY.

  • Can I send emails using templates instead of inline HTML?

    Yes. The Transmissions API supports stored templates, substitution data, recipient lists, attachments, cc/bcc, and more.

  • What if I already use Nodemailer?

    You’re covered — SparkPost ships with an official Nodemailer transport. Just configure it with your API key and use Nodemailer as usual.

  • Can SparkPost work with multi-channel messaging systems?

    Yes. Libraries like notifme-sdk allow email, SMS, push, and webpush with fallback logic, and they include a SparkPost provider.

  • Is Node.js suitable for serverless email workflows?

    Absolutely. It pairs well with Cloud Functions, Lambdas, and any serverless environment using SparkPost’s API for event-driven emails.

  • Who should use the Transmissions API vs. Nodemailer or notif.me?

    • Use Transmissions API when you want full control and performance.

    • Use Nodemailer if your project already uses it and you want quick integration.

    • Use notif.me for multi-channel messaging or fallback delivery strategies.

  • What’s the biggest best practice when sending emails from Node?

    Treat your API key as sensitive — environment variables only, never commit it to code.

As a Developer Advocate for SparkPost, I write a lot of sample applications. My background is mostly front-end development, therefore my strongest language is JavaScript. Thanks to Node.js, I’m a decent backend developer as well. Does this mean I’m a full stack developer now?

Intro to Node.js

As a Developer Advocate for SparkPost, I write a lot of sample applications. My background is mostly front-end development, therefore my strongest language is JavaScript. Thanks to Node.js, I’m a decent backend developer as well. Speaking of sample applications, Node.js also works great for building serverless functions that integrate with Flow Builder - like our Google Cloud Functions and Vision API integration guide. Does this mean I’m a full stack developer now? Anyway, it was important for me that we had an awesome SparkPost client library for Node.js. So, I dove right in and became a contributor (even before I was hired).

Allow me to help you get started sending emails with SparkPost on your Node.js project. Before diving into Node.js specifics, you might want to understand the fundamentals of email APIs in cloud infrastructure and how they fit into modern application development.

Installing & Setup

I’m going to assume that you have Node.js installed. Because we follow the Node.js Long Term Support (LTS) schedule, you’ll need to be running version 4 or higher. You can see which version you’re running using the `node –version` command in your terminal window.

Let’s create a new npm project. If you already have one, you can skip this part.

> mkdir sparkpost-test > cd sparkpost-test > npm init --yes

This will create a new project and accept all the defaults. You can also instead run `npm init` and answer all the prompts.

Now we can install node-sparkpost:

> npm install sparkpost --save

Once installed you can import and create an instance of the SparkPost class:

const SparkPost = require('sparkpost') const client = new SparkPost('YOUR API KEY')

It’s good practice to avoid putting your API key in code. We highly recommend storing it outside your code, so we set up the client library to detect the SPARKPOST_API_KEY  environment variable.

I’m going to assume that you have Node.js installed. Because we follow the Node.js Long Term Support (LTS) schedule, you’ll need to be running version 4 or higher. You can see which version you’re running using the `node –version` command in your terminal window.

Let’s create a new npm project. If you already have one, you can skip this part.

> mkdir sparkpost-test > cd sparkpost-test > npm init --yes

This will create a new project and accept all the defaults. You can also instead run `npm init` and answer all the prompts.

Now we can install node-sparkpost:

> npm install sparkpost --save

Once installed you can import and create an instance of the SparkPost class:

const SparkPost = require('sparkpost') const client = new SparkPost('YOUR API KEY')

It’s good practice to avoid putting your API key in code. We highly recommend storing it outside your code, so we set up the client library to detect the SPARKPOST_API_KEY  environment variable.

I’m going to assume that you have Node.js installed. Because we follow the Node.js Long Term Support (LTS) schedule, you’ll need to be running version 4 or higher. You can see which version you’re running using the `node –version` command in your terminal window.

Let’s create a new npm project. If you already have one, you can skip this part.

> mkdir sparkpost-test > cd sparkpost-test > npm init --yes

This will create a new project and accept all the defaults. You can also instead run `npm init` and answer all the prompts.

Now we can install node-sparkpost:

> npm install sparkpost --save

Once installed you can import and create an instance of the SparkPost class:

const SparkPost = require('sparkpost') const client = new SparkPost('YOUR API KEY')

It’s good practice to avoid putting your API key in code. We highly recommend storing it outside your code, so we set up the client library to detect the SPARKPOST_API_KEY  environment variable.

Sending Email

Now that you have a SparkPost instance, you’re ready to send. There are quite a few options available for sending, but let’s start with a simple example. Here’s how you send an email to a single recipient, specifying inline content:

client.transmissions.send({
  content: {
    from: 'test@your-sending-domain.com',
    subject: 'Hello from node-sparkpost',
    html: '<p>Hello world</p>'
  },
  recipients: [
    { address: 'someone@somedomain.com' }
  ]
})
.then(data => {
  console.log('Woohoo! You just sent your first mailing!')
  console.log(data)
})
.catch(err => {
  console.log('Whoops! Something went wrong')
  console.log(err)
})

Note: This example uses Promises, but don’t worry. We also support callback functions.

For enterprise applications requiring comprehensive email management, developers may also need to consider building email archiving systems to handle storage and compliance requirements.

There are more options available with transmissions, including specifying stored templates or recipient lists, cc and bcc, adding attachments, specifying a campaign, using substitution data, and much more. Check out the examples, docs for the Transmissions resource, and the Transmissions API documentation for more info.

Bonus: Sending Email with Nodemailer

Nodemailer is a popular library for Node.js that make sending email “easy as cake.” For those of you choosing to use this library, we created a SparkPost transport for Nodemailer. You’ll need to install the nodemailer  and nodemailer-sparkpost-transport packages in your project.

> npm install nodemailer nodemailer-sparkpost-transport --save

Now you can create a nodemailer transport instance:

const nodemailer = require('nodemailer') 
const sparkPostTransport = require('nodemailer-sparkpost-transport') 
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport(sparkPostTransport({ 
  'sparkPostApiKey': process.env.SPARKPOST_API_KEY 
}))

Notice how I am reading the API Key from an environment variable. It’s still a best practice to never put that directly in your code.

There are several options that can passed into the SparkPost transport, like campaign id and whether or not the message is transactional. Take a look at the README.md for all the options.

Here’s how you’d send the same message above using Nodemailer:

transporter.sendMail(
  {
    from: 'test@your-sending-domain.com',
    to: 'someone@somedomain.com',
    subject: 'Hello from nodemailer-sparkpost-transport',
    html: '<p>Hello world</p>'
  },
  (err, info) => {
    if (err) {
      console.error(err);
    } else {
      console.log(info);
    }
  }
);

Double Bonus: Sending Email with notif.me

We all know that email is king of communication but sometimes you want to be able to reach people via multiple channels. notif.me is a Node.js library for sending all kinds of transactional messages. Whether you want to send an email, sms, push, or webpushes, you can do it with ease. It also has built in fall and round robin strategies for multiple providers. We recently worked with the creators to build a SparkPost provider. You’ll need to install the `notifme-sdk` package in your project.

> npm install notifme-sdk --save

You can now create a notifme instance with the SparkPost provider:

const NotifmeSdk = require('notifme-sdk').default;
const notifmeSdk = new NotifmeSdk({
  channels: {
    email: {
      providers: [
        {
          type: 'sparkpost',
          apiKey: process.env.SPARKPOST_API_KEY
        }
      ]
    }
  }
});

Again, we are pulling the API Key from an environment variable. We’ve said it three times — it’s that important. 🙂

Now let’s repeat this same example, this time using notif.me:

notifmeSdk.send({
  email: {
    from: 'test@your-sending-domain.com',
    to: 'someone@somedomain.com',
    subject: 'Hello from the SparkPost notif.me provider',
    html: '<p>Hello world</p>'
  }
})
.then(console.log)
.catch(console.error);

It’s really easy to use and I recommend looking at the other features.

There’s no wrong way to Node

When it comes to sending email using Node.js, you have many options. We’ve worked hard to help make it as painless as possible.

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The complete AI-native platform that scales with your business.

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© 2025 Bird

Contact Support