Update: Firefox has commented on the report with a statement, which you can find below in our original story.

Mozilla Firefox is already one of the best web browsers in the business, but Mozilla CEO Chris Beard has hinted that a premium-level Firefox experience will soon be available for those who want a little extra.

Premium add-ons could include some form of cloud storage as well as integrated VPN features, Beard told T3N. A launch has been scheduled for October.

Beard did emphasize that everything that exists in Firefox as it stands now – including tight tracking protection controls – will remain free. The premium option is going to be for those who want even more goodies in their browser.

That's been reiterated with a statement from Dave Camp, Senior Vice President of Firefox. "A high-performing, free and private-by-default Firefox browser will continue to be central to our core service offerings," he said.

"We also recognize that there are consumers who want access to premium offerings, and we can serve those users too without compromising the development and reach of the existing products and services that Firefox users know and love."

Right now Mozilla makes money from Firefox through partnerships with the likes of Google (for searching) and Pocket (for bookmarking), but company bosses are obviously keen to add a third stream of income for the future.

Increasing competition

With Chrome, Safari and Edge all offering improvements on a regular basis, Mozilla knows it's got its work cut out to keep Firefox as one of the best browsers on the market.

And to be fair to Firefox it's not standing still – this year we've seen improved privacy controls and optimized loading times roll out. The huge collection of extensions and add-ons is another reason to pick Firefox as your daily browser.

Just last week the standalone Firefox Lockwise desktop password manager was rolled out, giving users an even easier way to keep on top of their website logins.

For the time being it's not clear exactly what a premium Firefox tier would include, or how much it would cost – Mozilla itself probably isn't sure at this stage – but it's something to watch out for later in the year.

Via MSPoweruser