We are a small team at Beonex GmbH in Taunusstein, near Wiesbaden in Germany. Mail software is what we have done for most of our working lives.
From Thunderbird to Owl
Several of us worked on Thunderbird for many years, among other things on its mail core. Ben Bucksch, who leads Parula, created Autoconfig there: the automatic account setup that lets you type only your email address and password. Many mail apps use it today, and it is on its way to becoming an Internet standard at the IETF.
With Owl for Exchange, we brought Exchange and Microsoft 365 accounts to Thunderbird. Owl is used by government agencies, research labs, universities and companies around the world.
Why we started Parula
In 2021 we started over, with an app of our own. We wanted a mail app that stays fast with large mailboxes, that takes open standards seriously, and that keeps your data on your own computer instead of in somebody else's cloud. And we wanted mail, chat, video calls, calendar, contacts and files in one app.
We implement new standards early and help shape them. Parula was the first client to implement JMAP Calendars and JMAP Contacts.
Why Lookout
Many organizations want to run their own communication again, for reasons of privacy, cost or law. What holds them back is rarely the server. It is the people at the desk, who have worked in Outlook for years. Lookout is our answer to that: the interface they know, on software that the organization controls.
How we pay for it
Parula is open source. Companies pay for plans with support, and for the connection to Exchange and Microsoft 365, whose protocols are proprietary. Some parts are funded by NLnet. That is how we pay for the work, without advertising and without selling data.