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Thunderbird currently runs entirely on donations, even though they have paid products in the pipeline. I think a piece of software running on donations is not
by abdullahkhalids 6mo ago
Thunderbird currently runs entirely on donations, even though they have paid products in the pipeline.
I think a piece of software running on donations is not running off "charity". It's just a business model to not charge every user. Similar to how Twitch streamers operate, or my local theater group.
You can read how they spent money in 2024 [1].
[1] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/10/state-of-the-bird-2024-25/ https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/10/state-of-the-bird-2024-...
- tux3 6mo agoThanks, that's helpful. This says about ~70% of the money was paid to employees, ~10% infra costs, the other ~20% various other fees and smaller expenses. It would be interesting to have a breakdown of what part of the Thunderbird team is working on Thunderbird, Thunderbolt, or other forms of thunder.
- badgersnake 6mo agoWait what, they took donations to pay a team to build a mail client and had them build an AI thing instead? Or have I got that wrong.
- ryanleesipes 6mo agoNo, this was built with money from an grant from Mozilla.
- badgersnake 6mo agoI don’t know why you’re downvoting, it’s a fair question based on the above comments.
- ryanleesipes 6mo agoNo, this was built with money from an grant from Mozilla.