Mozilla launching “Thundermail” email service to take on Gmail, Microsoft 365

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall Reaction & Trust

  • Many are pleased to see Mozilla/Thunderbird attempt a real business model and see this as their most realistic plan in years.
  • Others say Mozilla has “lost its way,” citing the recent Firefox ToS/privacy uproar and past statements on deplatforming as trust-breaking; some explicitly won’t touch a Mozilla-branded email service now.
  • Several point out that this is run by MZLA (Thunderbird’s for‑profit subsidiary), but many commenters treat “Mozilla” as one entity and judge it accordingly.

Competition & Value Proposition

  • Most see Thundermail as competing more with Fastmail/Proton/Migadu/mailbox.org than with Gmail/365 directly.
  • Skepticism: email hosting is a crowded, mature market with strong incumbents and years of lead; Mozilla is “late” and needs something clearly better than existing privacy‑oriented services.
  • Some ask why they should pick this over Proton/Fastmail, especially if there’s no strong end‑to‑end encryption story.

Data Location, Jurisdiction & Privacy

  • Strong concern that a US non‑profit/for‑profit, regardless of server location, remains subject to US government access.
  • Several Europeans explicitly want non‑US providers; some say this alone disqualifies Thundermail as a “privacy” option.
  • Others are cautiously accepting of Mozilla’s “no AI training, no ads, no data sale” language but still wary.

Domains, Lock‑In & Longevity

  • Big thread on owning your own domain: strong consensus among technically inclined users that provider‑independent domains are key to avoiding lock‑in and mitigating provider shutdown or bans.
  • Multiple people say they’d only consider Thundermail if it supports custom domains; using a @thundermail.com address is seen as risky if the service dies in 5–10 years.
  • Some counter that most normal users will never run their own domain; others argue providers could make this turnkey.

Thunderbird Client Quality & Features

  • Many long‑time users report Thunderbird as stable and reliable; a few report historic mailbox corruption.
  • Widely reported pain points: sluggishness with 100k+ messages, mediocre search (especially “smart” relevance ranking), lack of “focused inbox” like Gmail, and UI slowness on large setups.
  • Others say it’s still one of the best cross‑platform desktop clients and significantly better than webmail for multi‑account workflows.

Business Model, Pricing & Timing

  • Thundermail will be paid initially, with a free tier possibly later. Some see this as smart (serve paying early adopters, control onboarding); others think “charging vs free Gmail” means it can’t “take on” Google in a mass‑market sense.
  • Several doubt Mozilla’s ability to sustain the service long term given past product shutdowns; others note even non‑profits must be financially viable.

Tech Stack & Protocols

  • Use of the open‑source Stalwart stack and JMAP support draws real enthusiasm, especially from people frustrated with IMAP and slow/complex webmail.
  • Some worry about Mozilla “pushing” features (calendar/contacts) onto the Stalwart maintainer; others welcome a full OSS alternative to Gmail/Outlook with integrated mail, contacts, and calendar.

Miscellaneous

  • Landing page and branding (“Thundermail”, domain choices like tb.pro) are criticized as awkward or amateurish.
  • Mobile and web experience, focused inbox, aliases/catch‑all handling, and clear details on hosting locations are flagged as critical unknowns for adoption.