Thunderbird Pro: This is the (non-final) early bird price of the new email service
We have known for some time that the Thunderbird team was looking into options to expand its service and also its revenue streams. Currently, most of the revenue comes from donations from users of the project. The main plan with Thunderbird Pro is to introduce new optional features and services that users may subscribe to.
The new Thunderbird Pro website reveals what users get when they subscribe to the service and how much it costs, at least in an initial early bird phase.
Thunderbird Pro: the main features
Subscribers get the following benefits with their subscription:
- 15 email addresses
- 3 custom domains.
- 30 gigabytes of mail storage.
- 300 gigabytes of send storage.
- Access to Pro-only features such as Thunderbird Send and Appointment.
In other words, subscribers get access to an email service that supports using custom domains and includes all Pro apps.
ThunderMail is currently in active testing. It comes with a Thunderbird Pro extension, which enables the email accounts in Thunderbird automatically.
The organization describes the three core features in the following way:
- Thundermail: Send/receive emails with a privacy protecting host and the latest mail standards like JMAP. Choose a Thundermail domain or bring your own. Look no further to power the open source email app you love.
- Apppointment: Instead of exchanging multiple messages to schedule a meeting, select your availability and let Appointment handle the rest. Powered by open standards and compatible with Google Calendar and CalDAV. You can now schedule like a pro.
- Send: Share large files with end-to-end encryption and fewer limits. Send provides a natural file attachment experience in Thunderbird Desktop and is compatible with any recipient’s inbox. Know your attachments will arrive safe and secure.
The price? Thunderbird Pro is available for 9 Dollars per month in the early bird phase, if paid annually. That is 108 Dollars per year.
The team claims that the money is used to finance the new services, development, and security features. Thunderbird Pro won't track users, use advertising networks, sell user data or display ads.
How does it compare to other services? Proton Unlimited is available for about 7 Dollars per month. It includes 500 gigabytes of storage, 15 email address and 3 custom domains, and access to the VPN as well. However, this is just a limited offer. The regular price is 13 Dollars per month.
For Mail Plus alone, it is 5 Dollars per month, but you get 10 emails, 1 custom domain and 15 gigabytes of storage for that.
Mailbox, another email provider, charges about 3 Dollars per month for 10 gigabytes of mail storage, 5 gigabyte of drive storage, and support for custom domains. The top-of-the-line plan costs about 8 Dollars. It increases storage to 25 gigabytes for mail and 50 gigabytes drive storage.
The early bird price is not necessarily the final price of the product. Thunderbird Pro is an optional service that users may subscribe to.
Now You: Do you pay for an email service currently or prefer the free options? Would you be interested in Thunderbird Pro? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
I use Thunderbird as my default mail client for Fedora Workstation Linux, and I would consider subscribing to support the Thunderbird project which I donate to already, but not before they complete their iOS version, for which I have yet to see a firm expected release date. Doesn’t make any sense otherwise for my use case. To be honest, I have been considering moving to Proton Mail for this very reason.
Too damn expensive, especially without a base no-frill options payable yearly that preserves base service (ie receiving emails) without nuking the inbox and account.
For 30$/year and 25$ renewals after first year, tons of folks would ditch their existing service and stick to mozilla’s just out of principle.
Web services were always the way to go – imagine if they ran their blogspot/wordpress.com blogging-focused platform. They couldve bought entire tumbler for only 30 million dollars and lost the opportunity to gain a huge reach that wouldve helped the browser and advertising initiatives.
I find it strange that Mozilla which started about being free and a “fighter for internet freedom” has now began employing such practices where they provide optional paid services. I think first it was a VPN and now this.
While I don’t use their products on any scale whatsoever, I’m concerned, because from what I know they are supposed to be getting funding from Google and if they are doing this now and doubling down on it, it makes me think that their Google funds are running dry so they are desperate for some backup income.
Maybe the company is entering a dire straits state.
It’s good to have options and competition, but I think Mozilla did this to themselves, they are in the same position as Opera was when they used Presto as their rendering engine – it was old and outdated and they were forced to move to Chromium’s Blink in order to remain relevant. I have this experience with all Mozilla products – Firefox, Thunderbird – they feel really outdated, on the surface they change the UI, but underneath you can see remnants of code and UI that’s 20 years old and this causes problems everywhere. Either they are unable to update their software to keep it modern or they feel they don’t have to, but I think this is coming back to bite them in the ass and it’s only going to get worse for them. There need to be new competitors out there to replace Mozilla.
@Allwynd
Google pays Mozilla Corporation, makers of Firefox, not the Mozilla Foundation or MZLA Technologies Corporation, makers of Thunderbird. So no Thunderbird does not get Google funding. They are entirely reliant on donations.
I know you hate Firefox, but be careful what you wish for. You don’t want a world ruled by Google and its vassals.
“Custom domains” – are they going to act as a domain registrar too or does that cost has to be added to the total?
Can’t imagine people would pay for email service unless they had a “real” need for security–activists, journalists in unsafe countries like the US, political dogs; but for the average person? No VPN, forget it. My gosh! Even the thought of paying for an email account boggles my mind–like someone paying for a streaming service.
For me, that’s more like A$216 per year.
What caught my eye though is “15 email addresses”. I have been using thunderbird for year. I’ve never noticed any restriction on number of email addresses. I think I have about 20 configured, but only 5 active ones. The others are kept for historical reasons.
Does this mean Mozilla are going to hamstring the free version by limiting the number of email addresses?
I’d never use send and certainly not appointments. I won’t leave any personal data “in the cloud”: for a second longer than I have to so the features are only of use to people who are not concerned about privacy or data loss, which I guess is almost everyone.
Thunderbird and Thunderbird Pro will be completely independent. You won’t have any negative consequences or features that are taken away, if you use Thunderbird. See Thunderbird Pro as an add-on that you can use as well, but do not have to.
It is possible that the final pricing will be cheaper, as this early bird price is clearly for enthusiasts and fans of Thunderbird. We will see.
It’s AU$167, but still a big ask compared to the competition.
just too expensive!!!! I will NOT consider it!!
A light or entry level should be available.
I have a premium subscription to Tuta.com mail which includes their smartphone app and calendar for a mere €36 per annum and also includes 20GB storage and 15 additional email addresses plus 3 custom domains. https://tuta.com/pricing
And no, at $9 a month Thunderbird that’s way too expensive for me.
I’ll stay with posteo.net at 5 Euro a month.
Could you please use the plural “Dollars” when referring to more than one dollar?
Honestly, seems somewhat expensive for what it offers.
Fastmail is offering the same and more for basically 6 $ per month (60 $ p.a.) and that with 50GB of storage and 100 custom domains and 600 e-mails
Early “bild” price?
Early bird may get the worm.
but the second mouse that gets the cheese.
Email used to be the primary way to communicate for personal use. Even when it was, I did not pay for the service and used free providers, Softhome (RIP), Yahoo, Google, Yandex, etc.
Nowadays, texting is the primary way to communicate for personal use. Therefore, I have no intention to patronize any of the aforementioned paid email services.