Our approach to developing Tutanota, or why we love working on Tutanota.
As the development of Tutanota progresses, we celebrate every release!
We understand that we still have a long way to go until we can fully match the product of surveillance capitalists such as Google or Microsoft, but our development progress in recent years has made great leaps so that we are ready to scale Tutanota to new levels!
Achieved milestones
- In 2014 we published the fully encrypted Tutanota email client, iOS and Android apps.
- In 2015 we introduced first paid features such as custom domain support.
- In 2017 we published a completely new version of Tutanota with better speed & design.
- In 2018 we published the Tutanota desktop clients for Linux, Mac OS and Windows in beta.
- In 2019 we published the beta version of the encrypted calendar and started compressing emails to give you more storage space.
- In 2021 we pushed the Tutanota desktop clients out of beta after an extensive security review.
- In 2021 we completed a first prototype for updating our encryption to post-quantum secure algorithms.
For a detailed list of all the features that we have implemented, please check our feature list.
For an up to date information on what we are currently working, please take a look at the first features listed on our roadmap.
How we work
Whether your are interested in joining our team of freedom fighters or whether you are a user of Tutanota interested in our development progress, we would like to quickly explain how we work.
At Tutanota we develop in pairs. Paired programming has the great benefit of creating a better product as two people can better discuss and optimize the code not just for an individual feature, but also in relation to the whole product and potential future use cases. Developing in pairs also increases the probability that bugs get noticed and fixed right away.
New features
We constantly add new features according to our roadmap. A more detailed overview of what features we have recently completed and what bugs we have recently fixed can be found in our GitHub releases. You can also take a look at the next milestones, to learn what we are currently working on. In addition to what is visible on GitHub, we also need to develop the corresponding server part for all client features.
In case you would like to join our efforts in improving Tutanota, best check our good first issues.
Maintenance: Treading the water
Apart from adding new features visible to everyone on GitHub, we are also working on lots of other tasks, such as updating dependencies, continuous improvement of spam handling, increasing and maintaining our own servers and test system as well as conducting regular security reviews.
At Tutanota we focus on developing the most secure email and calendar service. This includes that we need to carefully add new features to Tutanota making sure that our high standards in regards to quality and security are met at all times.
One of our users has given us the greatest feedback any developer could ever wish for:
“I know that I have noticed a stark improvement in quality since the DDOS attacks. It has taken time, yes, but it is always getting better.”
Yes, it takes time to develop a quality product that remains scalable, particularly when more and more features get added, but we are committed to building the best secure email and calendar service out there.
Future growth
Since our launch in 2014, Tutanota has been growing continuously. This is very good news, not just for us, but for the privacy community as a whole. Together we continue to fight for privacy and freedom of speech.
Along with our growing community, we also grow our team of developers. This allows us to continuously speed up development!
And while we do not publish ETAs (estimated time of arrival) of new features, we are always happy to hear your feedback as it helps us to decide on what features we should prioritize. Thank you very much for being part of our community.
