> I'm not sure about charging a fee at the start and providing a free tier later

I think this is a smart move. Email isn't a platform where you need to conquer the world to be successful. Hey has been doing great business with an only-paid model. Might as well serve the paying customers first and build up revenue.

Also, whenever you're launching something new, you generally need to limit onboarding. Google did it with Gmail, Bluesky did it with their service. You can't have a flood of 10 million new users all at once before you've had a chance to scale things. Seems reasonable to let paying users in first given that email doesn't have network lock-in effects.

I think there is reasonable skepticism around how committed Mozilla is to this. However, I think that starting with the paid tiers is a smart move given that they'd have to limit signups initially anyway.

I think it shows real maturity to take this approach and makes me feel more comfortable that they'll be sustainable.

> Hey has been doing great business with an only-paid model.

[citation needed]

Plus when I'm paying I know that I'm the customer, not the product.