Thunderbird has released a significant progress update on its Pro suite of subscription services, introduced earlier this year as a privacy-respecting alternative to mainstream productivity platforms.
The August 2025 update details development milestones across three flagship offerings, Thundermail, Appointment, and Send, and reiterates a firm commitment to user privacy, open standards, and self-hostability, which were also highlighted in the original announcement.
Email hosting in Germany
The centerpiece of the Thunderbird Pro offering is Thundermail, Thunderbird’s first official email hosting service. Built to support IMAP, SMTP, and JMAP protocols from day one, Thundermail will work seamlessly with the Thunderbird client and other standards-based email apps. Notably, the initial infrastructure will be based in Germany, a jurisdiction known for its robust data protection laws under the GDPR framework and a long-standing culture of digital privacy.
Locating Thundermail’s infrastructure in Germany positions the service as a privacy-focused alternative to US-based providers, many of which are subject to surveillance regimes like the CLOUD Act. Users will be able to bring their own custom domain or choose a Thunderbird-provided address with @thundermail.com or @tb.pro suffixes.
Thunderbird describes this move as part of its broader mission to reinforce support for open standards and provide users with a cohesive, privacy-conscious email experience, entirely within its own ecosystem.
Appointment and Send
Thunderbird Appointment, the Pro suite’s scheduling tool, is transitioning from a standalone web app to a deeply integrated experience within the Thunderbird compose window. This change allows users to insert scheduling links directly into emails without leaving their workflow. Appointment is also being designed to support multiple meeting formats — Zoom, calls, in-person — while future versions may include group scheduling, pending standardization efforts like VPOLL.
On the file-sharing front, Thunderbird Send is evolving into a full-featured, end-to-end encrypted alternative to cloud storage platforms. Built on Thunderbird’s existing Filelink functionality, Send will offer 500 GB of encrypted storage to Pro users, with support for large files, chunked uploads, and real-time updates via system add-ons. Like Appointment, Send will be self-hostable and fully open-source.
While these three services form the initial Pro lineup, the roadmap hints at potential additions, including markdown-based notes and, further down the line, collaborative document tools. The AI assistant service, Thunderbird Assist, remains in R&D and is not expected in the first public release. Thunderbird has reiterated its commitment to privacy in this area, with on-device and confidential remote compute options under consideration.
Importantly, all core Thunderbird features remain free and unaffected. The Pro suite is optional and designed to fund its own infrastructure costs without compromising the core product’s independence or functionality. A public roadmap, developed in coordination with the Thunderbird Council, is expected to go live soon to facilitate community feedback and transparency.
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