The team behind the open source email client Thunderbird has revealed information about Thunderbird Pro and Thundermail.
Thunderbird Pro is an upcoming subscription-based service that adds features to Thunderbird. It won’t take anything away from current Thunderbird, but adds new features, namely Appointment management, Send and Assist.
Also, Thundermail is a web-based email service that will work similarly to how Google handles Gmail, but more privacy-friendly.
You can check out the hour-long YouTube video to see extensive demos of the integrated features.
Here is what I think about the development. As long as the devs do not cut features from the free version of Thunderbird just to push the Pro version, I’m fine with it. In fact, it is a good idea to diversify revenue to ensure continued development of the free and commercial versions of Thunderbird and the included services.
While I do not have much use for the Pro features, I can see them being useful to some users. In fact, some users might even switch to Thunderbird just because of these or the new web-based email service.
A missing puzzle piece is the iOS version of Thunderbird, which will be released in the future. This extends the service’s reach significantly, as it will support all major desktop and mobile operating systems for the first time since its launch decades ago.
Now You: what is your take on that? Would you subscribe to Thunderbird Pro or Thundermail? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
I am potentially interested by Thundermail given I manage my emails only with Web-based email services. I’ll have to see what Thundermail provides, its features, its privacy, does it handle aliases, if so how many? And encryption of course. I’ve been a user of Posteo for years, just love it (as well as the staff’s state of mind). Would Thundermail bring anything more? Needs to be tested, but triggers my curiosity.
I would “pay” to receive my email only as a last resort.
I’ve been using Thunderbird for many years. I despise all forms of unsolicited advertising so I avoid online mail services as much as possible.
The only ‘feature” I would like to see added to Thunderbird is the ability to totally disable the built in web browser.
I have web browsers, I just want it to handle email.