Firefox Premium, as it’s been called, would help Mozilla earn revenue to support its projects
Mozilla is a not-for-profit organization, but it needs money to fund the software it maintains. This need should result in a new project: Firefox Premium, a paid version of the browser that would include extra tools such as VPN and cloud storage.
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The plan was revealed by Chris Beard, CEO of Mozilla, to the German website T3N. The interview seems to have ended just when the subject started to be addressed, which is why there are not many details about the project — not even the name Firefox Premium has been confirmed.
Anyway, the information made available so far indicates that this version of the browser will have a monthly payment – it will be a kind of subscription – although the amount has not yet been defined. It is also possible that a free and more limited version will be released.
Perhaps other services will be included, but Beard has only commented on the VPN and cloud storage features. One possibility, then, is that the free modality offers certain traffic and storage capacity in these services. If the user needs more, he will have the option to resort to the paid subscription.
Chances are high that the VPN service is offered by ProtonVPN. That’s because Mozilla closed an agreement with the company last year to make VPN available to some users in the United States for US$ 10 per month.
At the time, the organization informed that the partnership was a way of evaluating new options for obtaining revenue. It is to be imagined, therefore, that Firefox Premium was idealized with this agreement as a starting point.
If the predictions are right and the project is really taken forward, Firefox Premium will be available in October, although it is not clear if the launch will be global or limited to some countries.
There is still no official statement from Mozilla about it, but Beard tried to reassure users of the browser: the launch of Firefox Premium will not imply a charge for features that are currently free.
This means that features such as blocking trackers and password management will continue to be offered normally by traditional versions of Firefox — these will also be maintained.