Tabwell vs Session Buddy: which keeps your tab groups?
Session Buddy has 1M users and a 4.66-star rating, and it does one job well: capture every open window so you can reopen it later. The Tabwell vs Session Buddy decision comes down to two things — what happens to your Chrome tab groups, and where your data goes. Session Buddy saves windows as a flat list, so it ignores tab group membership: the group titles, the nine Chrome colors, and the collapsed state you set up are dropped on save and never rebuilt on restore. It also phones home every 24h, and its review threads carry long-running complaints about losing whole years of saved sessions. Tabwell takes the opposite stance. 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 — no telemetry, no account, no server by default. If you already run Session Buddy, the built-in importer pulls your existing sessions across in two clicks.
The core difference: groups survive the round trip
Session Buddy stores each saved window as a flat list of tabs. That is enough to reopen a window, but a Chrome tab group is structural — it has a title, one of nine colors, and a collapsed or expanded state. Session Buddy records none of it, so a restore hands you back a wall of tabs you must re-group by hand. 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.
Telemetry and where your data lives
Session Buddy phones home every 24h. Tabwell makes no such call: every snapshot is written to IndexedDB on your device via dexie, tab URLs and titles never leave the machine, and the only network request is to Polar to verify a license key — never your tab data. There is no account and no cloud by default; optional sync is opt-in.
Losing sessions vs keeping them
Session Buddy's review threads carry long-running reports of losing whole years of saved sessions. Tabwell takes an auto-snapshot when the browser exits and offers to restore it on the next launch, keeps a rolling history you can export to JSON for backup, and on Pro indexes the title and URL of every saved tab for full-text search.
Feature comparison
| Capability | Session Buddy | Tabwell |
|---|---|---|
| Restores Chrome tab groups (title, color, collapsed) | No — flat list | Yes — via chrome.tabGroups |
| Telemetry | Phones home every 24h | None by default |
| Storage | Local | Local in IndexedDB (dexie) |
| Full-text search across snapshots | Limited | Yes (Pro) |
| Import from the other tool | n/a | Session Buddy importer, two clicks |
When to choose Session Buddy instead
Session Buddy is a fair pick if you never use Chrome tab groups and only need to reopen windows of loose tabs — it has 1M users and a 4.66-star rating for that exact job. If group titles, colors, and collapsed state are not part of how you work, the round-trip gap Tabwell closes will not matter to you, and there is no reason to switch.
FAQ
Can I import my existing Session Buddy sessions into Tabwell?
Yes. Tabwell ships a built-in Session Buddy importer. Export your sessions from Session Buddy, then import the file in Tabwell in two clicks. Your tabs come across without manual copy-paste.
Does Session Buddy really send telemetry?
Session Buddy phones home every 24h. Tabwell makes no such call by default — tab URLs and titles stay in IndexedDB on your device, and the only network request is a license check to Polar that carries no tab data.
Will my tab groups survive a save and restore in Tabwell?
Yes. A Tabwell snapshot records each tab's group assignment and rebuilds it through the chrome.tabGroups API, so group titles, the nine Chrome colors, and collapsed state come back intact. Session Buddy saves a flat list and drops all three.
How much does Tabwell cost?
Every install includes a 14-day Pro trial, no credit card required. After that, Free keeps your latest 5 snapshots; Pro is $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 Chrome version do I need to run Tabwell?
Chrome 114 or newer, because Tabwell uses the chrome.sidePanel API introduced in that release. It is built for Chrome on Manifest V3; Edge and other Chromium browsers may work but are not the supported target, and Firefox and Safari are not supported.