Betterbird
53 likes
Betterbird, a soft fork of Mozilla Thunderbird, improves user experience with advanced features, bug fixes, security patches, and multi-row descriptions similar to Outlook. Compatible with multiple platforms and can be used alongside Thunderbird, sharing the same profile.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Country of Origin
Germany
EU
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Flathub
- Chocolatey
Features
Betterbird News & Activities
Highlights All activities
Recent News
- Fla published news article about Betterbird
Betterbird releases version 128.10.0esr-bb26 with key usability fixesBetterbird has launched version 128.10.0esr-bb26, which is based on Thunderbird 128.10.0esr, introd...
- Fla published news article about Betterbird
Betterbird 128.8.0esr-bb23 update addresses key fixesBetterbird, a soft fork of Mozilla Thunderbird, has released version 128.8.0esr-bb23, which aims to...
Recent activities
POX removed Betterbird as alternative to SeaMonkey- Danilo_Venom updated Betterbird
What is Betterbird?
Betterbird Videos
Betterbird information
Developed by
Jorg Knobloch Licensing
Open Source and Free product.Rating
Average rating of 4.5Alternatives
27 alternatives listedSupported Languages
AlternativeTo Categories
Office & Productivity, Security & Privacy, News & Books, Social & CommunicationsGitHub repository
- 698 Stars
- 32 Forks
- 28 Open Issues
- Updated Jun 17, 2025
Comments and Reviews
Today's best email client is also a much better fork of Thunderbird and has more features. What's more, it's open source and constantly updated. This is the kind of development that deserves more publicity and support outside the circle of technology experts. Congratulations to the developer for his excellent work and keep going strong.
Has a few improvements over Thunderbird, but recently started to mark all received messages in my inbox as junk. About 100 emails from different addresses
Hello @K0RR :)
If you are not familiar about how to configure your automated junk filters in Betterbird, this page might be of interest https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-junk-spam-messages
I you believe that the challenge you are facing is a bug in Betterbird, I suggest creating a new ticket at https://github.com/Betterbird/thunderbird-patches/issues?q=is%3Aissue
Including in your ticket the version of your Betterbird and the steps to reproduce the challenge
Honestly still not a good email client, and stil filled with bugs, but way above thunderbird in terms of fewer bugs and overall stability. Still haven't found a truly good macOS email client for myself. On windows I used EssentialPIM, and it was great. Sadly I just haven't found anything equal to it for macOS yet, and EPIM doesn't run in CrossOver useably well.
Definitely better than Thunderbird, but ultimately falls into the same pitfalls as its big brother: bloat, and more bloat.
What can I say, much better than TB as advertised. For a start doesn't have the freezing issue that has been plaguing TB for a while. It also feels very slick as TB always fires up the fan the moment I connect a new mailbox, which isn't the case here.
Betterbird is a drop-in replacement for Mozilla Thunderbird. Betterbird has more features, more fixed bugs, and better support than Thunderbird.
The main challenge with Mozilla Thunderbird is that, in 2020, they changed from a not-for-profit to a for-profit organization. This mean that starting in 2020, there is a very high risk that Mozilla Thunderbird will increasingly value money above you, the people. Source about Mozilla for-profit since 2020 at: • https://blog.thunderbird.net/2020/01/thunderbirds-new-home/ • https://archive.is/b3BAO
Betterbird successfully resolved this challenge above. Because is not a for-profit organization. Also, "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." https://www.betterbird.eu/index.html#featuretable "This should give you an impression of where the project is headed."
For the first time in forever I actually enjoyed setup up my accounts in email software. Things just work.