Mozilla Firefox web browser likely to offer a premium subscription for paid VPN and cloud storage

The maker of Firefox web browser, Mozilla, now reportedly wants to provide its users with premium features like VPN service and cloud storage in the future. In an interview published in German magazine t3n, Mozilla CEO Chris Beard talked about the company's plans to offer premium services and subscriptions to Firefox users. Beard hinted at the possible addition of a premium VPN service or secure storage solution. Mozilla plans to start offering premium feature starting in October.

"We want to add more subscription services to our mix and focus more on the relationship with the user to become more resilient in business issues," Beard told t3n (translated).

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We still don't have to share with regards to Mozilla's plan to offer premium services to Firefox users. We still don't know whether there will be a standalone subscription offering all the premium services together or if Mozilla intends to keep things separate and offer separate subscriptions depending on the services being offered. However, Mozilla is highly likely to add the premium subscription offer to Firefox. So, paid subscription in Firefox might not be surprising for most users.

How would it affect Mozilla's free offerings?

Existing free services from Mozilla would not incur charges, according to Beard. He said that the services that are being offered for free right now would continue to remain unchanged. However, Mozilla is now expected to introduce its first premium plan in October. Beard said that the company might launch new services and then study which business model makes more sense.

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"We will probably launch some new services first and then we will Think carefully about which model makes the most sense while ensuring the best user safety," a Mozilla spokesperson told t3n. "Firefox and many security features and services, like ETP [Enhanced Tracking Protection], will still be free, but that's for sure."

As per Beard, 90 per cent of Mozilla's sale comes from its search business and Mozilla wants to build deeper customer related outside of the company's search business. Mozilla started testing its VPN subscription through Firefox with select users last October. All users had to do was pay $10 per month for access to ProtonVPN.