Betterbird. Simply better.
Betterbird is a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird, Thunderbird on steroids, if you will.
Betterbird is better than Thunderbird in three ways: It contains new features exclusive to Betterbird, it contains bug fixes exclusive to Betterbird and it contains fixes that Thunderbird may ship at a later stage. Please refer to this feature table for examples. This should give you an impression of where the project is headed.
Easy adoption: You can install Betterbird at the same time as Thunderbird and run them on the same profile. That means that you can try out Betterbird with zero hassle, and go back to Thunderbird if you don't like it - which is unlikely. Please read the fine print on our support page.
More information on why we're doing the project can be found at the FAQ. Or just see our illustrator's impression:
Which party would you join?
Betterbird 115.18.0 released on 25th November 2024
Today we are shipping Betterbird version 115.18.0-bb36. This is the last release in the 115 series, which will reach "end of life" on 7th January 2025. Please refer to the release notes for details. German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Ukranian, Czech, Albanian, Turkish, Japanese and Chinese localisations available, other languages on request. A portable version for Windows is also available. There's also a Mac build for Intel and Silicon Macs in English only, which can be localised using Betterbird language packs.
Betterbird 128.5.0esr-bb18 released on 26th November 2024
Betterbird is going 128 with 128.5.0-bb18
Today we are shipping Betterbird version 128.5.0esr-bb18. Please refer to the release notes for details.
After initial problems with the 128 series, version 128.5.0 and later should mostly be safe to use. Betterbird will switch its release to 128.5.0 on 26th November 2024 and discontinue the 115 series in January 2025.
Thunderbird's backend is still not 100% functional in 128. In Betterbird we fixed the issue where messages received via POP and moved by a filter reappeared in the POP inbox after a folder repair. The following rare issues are still unfixed:
- Potential loss of draft messsages.
- Remaining IMAP issues, so if a message doesn't display correctly, check the Error Console and Repair the affected folder (right-click, Properties, Repair Folder). Also, please get in touch with our support team, and we will work through the issue with you.
Software Quality
After decades without any formal quality assurance, Thunderbird finally hired two QA staff and a release manager in mid-2024. It remains to be seen how fast the QA staff will gain expertise in the product. This article from 2022 announced some improvements, but about two years went by until some changes began materializing. Unfortunately, most issues outlined by our project leader in this answer remain unresolved.
Historically, new ESR releases have been nothing short of disastrous: Thunderbird 102 initially shipped with a broken backend that caused data loss. Thunderbird 115 "Supernova-kaboom" introduced frontend issues, while Thunderbird 128 saw a return of backend failures, leading to permanent data loss for 32-bit users and ongoing IMAP folder corruption, which may have only been resolved four months after the initial release.
Thunderbird continues to be "Bananaware", a German term for software that "ripens" on customers' systems, with the worst cases resulting in data loss, as seen with versions 102 and 128.
With more developers being hired, each contributing changes, the number of regressions has grown significantly
(Wikipedia:
A software regression is a type of software bug where a feature that has worked before stops working).
The team tracks bugs found in early release deployments, and the trend has been dramatic,
although version 128 offers a glimmer of hope:
Version 68: 43,
Version 78: 184,
Version 91: 270,
Version 102: 395,
Version 115: No record*,
Version 128: 244**.
(*) While new bugs for version 115 weren’t bundled, reports on the
Beta Mailing List suggest there were well over 500,
(**) as of 10 Nov. 2024.
Other news
Want to see Betterbird running on a mobile ARM64 device (Samsung Galaxy Tab S7), click here. Note: That's the work of a volunteer, not strictly related to the Betterbird project.
Colours
The red-orange colour scheme is part of the registered trademark. Red-orange together with a Phoenix-like bird on one hand signify a more aggressive policy and on the other hand a resurrection from the ashes unleashing the potential of the product while not being bogged down by annoying bugs.
We've had many requests to change the icons to make them better distinguishable from Firefox to avoid misclicks. As the colour scheme is part of the trademark, we will not change the default icons shipped with the product or the icons used in the product. However, Windows and Linux users can change program and system tray icons as described here.
Due to the current situation in Europe, we were featuring the Betterbird logo at this website in Ukrainian colours from March to July 2022. The logo in Ukrainian colours is still available for download.
Betterbird elsewhere on the web
| Source code, Downloads | |
| Our GitHub repository | github.com/Betterbird/ | Arch Linux packages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese) |
aur.archlinux.org |
| FlatPak | flathub.org/.../Betterbird github.com/flathub/eu.betterbird.Betterbird |
| Winget | winstall.app/apps/Betterbird.Betterbird | Chocolatey | community.chocolatey.org/packages/betterbird | Windows 11 Downloads | Betterbird on Windows 11 Downloads |
| Softpedia | www.softpedia.com/.../Betterbird.shtml |
| Forums ... | |
| Reddit (handle with care) | www.reddit.com/r/Betterbird/ |
| Articles, opinions ... | |
| Interview with the project leader (in German) | linuxnews.de |
| Article "The email client Thunderbird could have been" | betanews.com - downloadcrew.com |
| Daves Computer Tips | Thunderbird vs. Betterbird |
| YouTube Videos about Betterbird | June 2022, March 2023, August 2023, and more |
| Search on Google, more stuff appearing all the time: | www.google.com/search?q=betterbird |