The best tab managers for Chrome in 2026

Updated 18 October 2026

For most people, Chrome’s own tab groups plus one saver is enough: OneTab or Session Buddy if you want a free list on your computer, Toby or Workona if you want collections synced through an account, and Stackboard if you want saved tabs to become bookmarks on your new tab page.

The short version

Prices and plans as listed in October 2026.

Start with what Chrome already does

Chrome’s tab groups let you name and color a set of tabs, collapse it, and save it so it comes back after you close it. Saved groups can sync to your other computers when you’re signed in. If you keep fewer than a dozen projects going, that may be all you need. How to save tab groups in Chrome covers the details.

The picks

OneTab: the fastest way to clear a window

One click turns every tab in the window into a list on OneTab’s page, which frees the memory those tabs used. It has 2 million users and 3.8 stars from about 14,600 ratings (October 2026). Version 2 added folders, notes and optional encrypted sync. OneTab’s own troubleshooting page warns that some lists didn’t carry over cleanly in that update, so export your list now and then. Our converter turns that export into bookmarks.

Session Buddy: whole sessions, saved locally

Session Buddy saves every open window as a session you can browse, search and reopen, with no account. It has 1 million users and 3.3 stars from about 25,100 ratings (October 2026); recent reviews mention the toolbar icon not responding and backups not running, so keep exports. Its JSON and CSV exports open in our session converter.

Tab Session Manager: open source

Free and open source (MPL-2.0), with optional cloud sync and an importer for Session Buddy. About 200,000 users and 3.5 stars from 449 ratings (October 2026). Its GitHub repository was active in August 2026.

Toby: collections with a team

Toby shows collections of tabs on your new tab page, with a side panel, notes and sharing. The free plan holds up to 60 saved tabs; Productivity costs $4.50 per member a month billed yearly, or $6 monthly (October 2026). It needs an account and keeps your collections on its servers. Good for teams who share link collections.

Workona: spaces for work

Workona groups tabs, documents and tasks into spaces and syncs them through its cloud. It has 200,000 users and 4.2 stars from about 3,800 ratings (October 2026). It suits people who switch between clients or projects all day and want each one’s tabs, docs and to-dos in one place.

Tabs Outliner: the tree view

Tabs Outliner shows every window and tab as an outline you can annotate and collapse. The core is free; Pro is a one-time $15 and adds Google Drive backups. It has 100,000 users and 3.2 stars from about 3,300 ratings (October 2026).

Stackboard: saved tabs become bookmarks on your new tab

Ours. Stash this window (Alt+Shift+S) saves every tab as a bookmark, one stack per tab group, and closes them; they show up on your new tab page as a board you can rename, drag and search, and any stack reopens as a named tab group. Because everything is ordinary Chrome bookmarks, Chrome sync carries it and nothing is lost if you uninstall. It’s free and open source, with no account. It doesn’t have notes, sharing or a side panel.

A note on ratings: in October 2026 the Chrome Web Store began weighting recent reviews more heavily, and several long-running extensions dropped a few tenths of a star overnight with the same number of ratings. Treat the stars as a recent-satisfaction signal.

How to choose

• You want tabs gone and memory back: OneTab, or Stackboard’s stash if you want the tabs as bookmarks afterwards.
• You restore whole sessions after a crash or a restart: Session Buddy or Tab Session Manager, plus Chrome’s continue where you left off.
• You share links with a team: Toby or Workona.
• You want no new account and no new storage: Chrome tab groups or Stackboard, which both live inside Chrome.

Whatever you pick, keep an export

Tab managers that keep data inside the extension can lose it when the extension breaks, updates badly or gets removed. A bookmarks file is the format every browser reads. Our free tools turn OneTab, Toby and Session Buddy exports into one.