Session Buddy saves whole sessions — every window and tab at a point in time — and keeps them on your device. LB TAB Layers takes a different approach: you sort tabs into groups by project in Chrome’s side panel, and every group is saved as an ordinary Chrome bookmark folder. If you think in snapshots and crash recovery, Session Buddy fits. If you think in projects you open and close again and again, LB TAB Layers is built for that.
Session Buddy has been around for a long time, and many people install it after losing a window full of tabs. If you are reading this, it probably still works for you in some ways — and gets in the way in others. This article looks at what each tool is good at, without pretending one is right for everyone.
What Session Buddy does well
According to its official site, Session Buddy can:
- Save and restore sessions — all your windows and tabs, or just the tabs you pick.
- Recover your tabs after a crash or an unexpected shutdown.
- Keep data on your device, with no login.
- Organize collections by topic and search across open tabs, collections and history.
- Export in many formats, including plain text, JSON, CSV, Markdown and HTML.
That is a strong feature set for one job: taking snapshots of your browser so you can get back to an earlier state.
Why people look for an alternative
The reasons usually have less to do with missing features and more to do with how you work:
- Snapshots pile up. A session is a moment in time. After a few months you have many similar sessions, and the tab you want could be in any of them.
- It lives on its own page. You switch away from what you are doing to open it.
- The data sits inside the extension. Chrome generally removes an extension’s own stored data when you uninstall it, so you need to remember to export first. Bookmarks, on the other hand, are part of Chrome.
Sessions vs. project groups
The real difference is the mental model.
- A session answers: “What did I have open on Tuesday afternoon?”
- A project group answers: “What do I need for Client A?”
Project groups don’t multiply. When you add a page to “Client A”, it goes into the one “Client A” group, not into a new snapshot. When you are done for the day, you close the group’s tabs; tomorrow you open the same group again.
Side-by-side comparison
| Session Buddy | LB TAB Layers | |
|---|---|---|
| Unit of saving | Sessions (windows and tabs at a point in time) and collections | Groups and subgroups you name, by project |
| Where saved tabs live | On your device, in the extension | Chrome bookmarks, in a folder named “LB TAB Layers” |
| If you uninstall | Export first | The bookmark folders stay |
| Sync to other computers | Not described on its site | Through Chrome’s own bookmark sync |
| Crash recovery | Yes | Not a session tool — saved groups are safe because they are bookmarks |
| Where you use it | Its own page | Chrome’s side panel, next to the page (Alt+T) |
| Open a set of tabs | Restore a session or collection | ▶ on a group |
| Close a set of tabs and keep it | Save a session, then close | ■ on a group |
An honest note: LB TAB Layers does not take automatic snapshots of your windows. For crash recovery, use Chrome’s own Restore prompt or the Continue where you left off startup setting (see how to reopen closed tabs in Chrome). What LB TAB Layers adds is a place where the tabs you chose to keep are always sorted and one click away.
How to move from Session Buddy to LB TAB Layers
- Export a backup. In Session Buddy, export your sessions and collections (JSON or plain text) and keep the file somewhere safe. Nothing below deletes anything in Session Buddy, but a backup costs nothing.
- Install LB TAB Layers and press Alt+T (Option+T on Mac) to open the side panel.
- Restore one session or collection in Session Buddy, so its tabs open in a Chrome window.
- Save them all in one go. In LB TAB Layers, the restored tabs appear under Solo Tabs at the bottom of the panel. Click the folder-plus button, Group all into a new group, and type a project name. Every tab in that window is saved to the new group as a Chrome bookmark.
- Or let it sort by site. If a session is a mix of unrelated sites, open the … menu next to it and choose Auto Group by Domain instead. You get one group per site, which you can rename or merge by dragging.
- Close the tabs with ■ on the group. They stay saved and come back with ▶.
- Repeat for the next session — and use the moment to skip the ones you no longer need.
ℹ️ Solo Tabs works on the window the side panel is open in, so restore one session at a time into its own window. The free version allows up to 5 groups (subgroups count too); every feature, with no group limit, is unlocked during the 3-month free trial.
Who should stay with Session Buddy
If your main worry is losing everything to a crash or an update, and you like scrolling back through snapshots, Session Buddy does exactly that. Some people use both: a session tool as a safety net, and LB TAB Layers for the projects they work on every day.
If what you want is fewer tabs open and every project ready to reopen — kept in Chrome’s bookmarks, not locked inside an extension — LB TAB Layers is the better fit. For a related comparison, see the OneTab alternative article.
Frequently asked questions
Q. What is a good Session Buddy alternative?
It depends on what you use Session Buddy for. If you want saved tabs sorted by project and stored as ordinary Chrome bookmarks, LB TAB Layers does that in Chrome’s side panel. If you mainly want crash recovery and session snapshots, Chrome’s own restore and startup settings cover part of it.
Q. Can I import Session Buddy sessions into LB TAB Layers?
There is no direct import. Restore a session in Session Buddy so its tabs open, then use Group all into a new group in the Solo Tabs area of LB TAB Layers to save the whole window as one group. Export your Session Buddy data first as a backup.
Q. Does LB TAB Layers recover tabs after a crash?
It does not take automatic session snapshots. Tabs you have saved to groups are safe because they are Chrome bookmarks. For tabs you had not saved, use Chrome’s Restore prompt or set On startup to Continue where you left off.
Q. Where does LB TAB Layers store my tabs?
In your Chrome bookmarks, inside a folder named “LB TAB Layers”, with one folder per group. They stay if you remove the extension and sync like any other bookmark.
▶ See it in action
Managing bookmarks and tabs together in the sidebar. (The video shows the Japanese UI.)
Projects, not snapshots.
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