Chrome’s built-in tab groups are best for organizing the tabs you have open right now: color, a label, collapse. A tab manager extension is for the tabs you want to close and come back to — many sets, sorted by project, reopened in one click. If your tab bar never gets crowded, tab groups are enough.
What Chrome tab groups do well
Right-click a tab and choose Add tab to new group. You can give the group a name and a color, drag tabs in and out, and click the label to collapse it.
- Built into Chrome — nothing to install.
- Great for one task with several tabs: a document, its sources and the chat about it.
- In recent versions of Chrome you can save a group, so it appears at the left of the bookmarks bar and can be reopened later.
Where tab groups run out
- They live in the tab bar. With ten groups, the labels get as cramped as the tabs did.
- No folders inside groups. A group is one flat set of tabs.
- No search across everything you saved, no notes on why you kept a tab, and no way to see many sets at once.
What a tab manager adds
A tab manager keeps sets of tabs outside the tab bar, so you can close them and still have them. In LB TAB Layers they sit in Chrome’s side panel:
| Chrome tab groups | LB TAB Layers | |
|---|---|---|
| Where they live | The tab bar | The side panel |
| Stored as | Chrome’s own tab group data | Chrome bookmark folders |
| Folders inside a set | No | Subgroups, two levels |
| Close a set, keep it | Save the group first | ■ on the group |
| Reopen a set | From the bookmarks bar | ▶ on the group |
| Search saved tabs | No | Yes, by title or URL |
| Notes on a tab | No | Yes |
| Price | Free | Free (up to 5 groups), PRO optional |
Which one do you need?
- Tab groups are enough if you work on one or two things at a time and close everything at the end of the day.
- A tab manager helps if you switch between several projects, keep tabs open “for later”, or have ever lost a set of tabs to a restart.
Use both
They don’t compete. Use Chrome’s tab groups for what is open on screen right now, and LB TAB Layers for everything you have put away. A simple rhythm: press ▶ on a project group in the morning, work in its tabs, and press ■ when you switch — the tabs close, the group stays. Read more in groups and subgroups and the OneTab alternative comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Q. What is the difference between Chrome tab groups and a tab manager?
Chrome tab groups organize the tabs you have open in the tab bar with a name and color. A tab manager keeps sets of tabs you have closed, sorted by project, so you can reopen them later in one click.
Q. Do I need a tab manager if I use Chrome tab groups?
Not if you only work on one or two things at a time. If you switch between several projects or keep many tabs for later, a tab manager keeps the tab bar short without losing anything.
Q. Can I use Chrome tab groups and LB TAB Layers together?
Yes. Use tab groups for the tabs on screen right now and LB TAB Layers groups, which are saved as Chrome bookmark folders, for the sets you close and come back to.
▶ See it in action
Managing bookmarks and tabs together in the sidebar. (The video shows the Japanese UI.)
Tab groups for now. TAB Layers for later.
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