alt Hacker NewsThunderbird 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-...
Replies
ryanleesipes • yesterday at 3:28 PM
No, this was built with money from an grant from Mozilla.
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badgersnake • yesterday at 3:25 PM
Wait 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.
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Thanks, 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.