Chrome session manager comparison: five rivals vs Tabwell
Every Chrome session manager comparison comes down to one test the five most-installed rivals mostly fail: when you save a window and restore it, do your Chrome tab groups come back with their titles, the nine colors, and the collapsed state, or as a flat list of URLs you have to re-sort by hand? OneTab, with 2M users and a 4.5-star rating, discards group membership entirely. Session Buddy, at 1M users and 4.66 stars, saves windows as a flat list and phones home every 24 hours. Tab Session Manager keeps group details as ad-hoc metadata rather than rebuilding real Chrome groups. Workona swaps native tab groups for a cloud workspace that requires an account. Toby arranges tabs into a board UI instead of native groups. Tabwell is the one built around the test itself: a snapshot records each tab's group assignment through the chrome.tabGroups MV3 API, restore rebuilds every group with its original title, color, and collapsed state, and every snapshot stays local in IndexedDB on your device with no account and no telemetry by default.
What the best Chrome session manager needs to do
If the job is moving a working set of tabs out of the way and getting it back intact, a few requirements decide which tool fits. The short list, drawn from how Chrome power users actually lose work:
- Restore native Chrome tab groups with their title, color, and collapsed state — not a flat URL list.
- Store snapshots locally so tab URLs and titles never leave the device.
- Stay usable on large sessions instead of degrading past 1,000 tabs.
- Let you bring existing data over without manual copy-paste.
The comparison table
One row per rival, plus Tabwell. Every figure here traces to documented numbers; where a tool has no published figure, the row states the qualitative fact only.
| Tool | Restores native Chrome tab groups | Genuine strength | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| OneTab | No — flattens tabs to a URL list | One-click memory dump; 2M users, 4.5 stars | Discards group membership; reports of data loss after some Chrome updates; slows past 1,000 tabs |
| Session Buddy | No — saves windows as a flat list | Mature window backup; 1M users, 4.66 stars | Ignores tab groups; phones home every 24h; review threads report lost sessions |
| Tab Session Manager | No — keeps group details as ad-hoc metadata | Records some group information per tab | Metadata is not a real group rebuild, so restored tabs are not regrouped |
| Workona | No — uses cloud workspaces, not native groups | Hosted cross-device workspace dashboard | Cloud-first; account required; paywall on the basics |
| Toby | No — arranges tabs in a board UI | Visual board for organizing links | Board UI is not native Chrome tab groups; outdated UI, resource-heavy |
| Tabwell | Yes — title, color, collapsed via chrome.tabGroups | Full tab-group fidelity, local-first | Chrome 114+ only; importers are a Pro feature |
Where Tabwell fits
Tabwell snapshots the group structure alongside the tabs and rebuilds each one through chrome.tabGroups, so three collapsed colored groups come back as three collapsed colored groups. Every snapshot is written to IndexedDB on the device via dexie — there is no account and no cloud by default, and the only network request is a license check to Polar that carries no tab data. It also takes an auto-snapshot when the browser exits and offers to restore it on the next launch, and on Pro it indexes the title and URL of every saved tab for full-text search. The built-in importers pull history over from OneTab, Session Buddy, and Tab Session Manager in two clicks; those importers are a Pro feature, included in the 14-day Pro trial every install starts with.
When to choose a rival instead
None of these tools is wrong for every workflow. OneTab is still the right pick for a dead-simple, one-click memory dump when you do not care about group structure — with 2M users it is mature and familiar. Session Buddy is a reasonable window backup if you never use Chrome tab groups. Workona is the better fit for teams that want a hosted cross-device workspace dashboard and accept an account and cloud storage to get it. If native tab-group fidelity is not part of how you work, the gap Tabwell closes will not matter to you.
FAQ
How much does Tabwell cost compared with these tools?
Every install includes a 14-day Pro trial, no credit card required. After it ends, Free keeps your latest 5 snapshots with manual save and restore, JSON export, and 60-minute auto-snapshots. Pro adds unlimited snapshots, full-text search, importers, and 5-minute auto-snapshots from $3.99/month, $29/year, or a one-time $19 Founders license for the first 1000 buyers ($59 after). Refunds are 30-day, no questions asked.
Which is the best Chrome session manager for keeping tab groups?
On the tab-group test, Tabwell is the one that restores native Chrome groups with their title, color, and collapsed state through the chrome.tabGroups API. OneTab and Session Buddy save flat lists, Tab Session Manager keeps group details only as ad-hoc metadata, and Workona and Toby use their own workspace or board models instead of native groups.
Do any of these tools restore Chrome tab groups correctly?
Among the five rivals here, none rebuilds native Chrome tab groups on restore: OneTab and Session Buddy flatten tabs to a list, Tab Session Manager stores group details as ad-hoc metadata, and Workona and Toby replace native groups with cloud workspaces or a board UI. Tabwell records each tab's group assignment and rebuilds the group titles, the nine colors, and collapsed state through chrome.tabGroups.
Which Chrome version does Tabwell need?
Chrome 114 or newer, because Tabwell uses the chrome.sidePanel API introduced in that release. It is built for Chrome on Manifest V3 with an MV3 service worker. Edge and other Chromium browsers may work but are not the supported target, and Firefox and Safari are not supported.
Can I import my data from OneTab, Session Buddy, or Tab Session Manager?
Yes. Tabwell ships built-in importers for OneTab, Session Buddy, and Tab Session Manager that bring your saved tabs across in two clicks, without manual copy-paste. The importers are a Tabwell Pro feature, included in the 14-day Pro trial every install starts with.