Comparison

Session Buddy vs TabSill: two local session managers, one difference

Session Buddy is the classic: about 1,000,000 users on Chrome, 4.7 stars from 25,000 ratings, free with no paid plan, no account, data stored only on your device. Its version 4 (March 2024) was a complete rewrite; the one- and two-star reviews that followed are about sessions lost in the migration from v3, slower tab opening, and features that were removed or moved. Most of that has been fixed since, and the tool remains very good at what it does.

TabSill shares the same philosophy — local only, no account, free without limits — and adds one thing Session Buddy does differently: a safety net that runs by itself. Every few minutes it takes a snapshot of everything open, keeps a trash for 30 days, and restores tab groups with their colours and names. Here is the comparison, including where Session Buddy is still ahead.

Side by side

	Session Buddy	TabSill
Price	Free, all features (donations welcome)	Free, no limits · Pro €19 once
Account	None	None
Where your data lives	Your device only	Your browser only
Sync between computers	No (cloud storage announced as a future paid option)	No — by design
Automatic snapshots of everything open	History tracks changes at an interval you set; a snapshot on browser close or crash	Every 5 minutes (configurable), last 10 kept free, 30 days in Pro
Recover after a crash	Previous session in History	Offers the last snapshot
Deleted sessions	Automatic backup for restoring deleted items	30 days in the trash
Tab groups and pinned tabs restored	Partially	Colours, names, collapsed state, pins
Export formats	15+ (text, links, JSON, CSV, Markdown, HTML…)	JSON, any time; weekly backup file optional
Search	Across everything	Inside a session free; across all sessions and snapshots in Pro
Duplicate cleaner, suspend inactive tabs	Duplicates: yes · suspend: no	Both in Pro
Import from other managers	JSON and several formats	Toby, Workona, OneTab, Session Buddy JSON
Years of track record	Since 2010	New (2026)

Session Buddy figures as shown on the Chrome Web Store and on sessionbuddy.com on 11 October 2026; they change. Session Buddy is a trademark of its owner; we are not affiliated.

When Session Buddy is the better choice

If you want a mature tool with a huge user base, many export formats and a search that covers everything, for free and forever, Session Buddy is hard to beat. If you have been using it for years and v4 works for you, there is no reason to move.

When TabSill is the better choice

If you lost sessions once and want a tool whose first job is not losing them: snapshots taken by themselves every few minutes, a trash that keeps what you delete for a month, and tab groups that come back exactly as they were. And if you want a second, independent copy of your sessions alongside Session Buddy: both are local, both are free, they don’t conflict.

Moving over, or running both

Session Buddy → Export → JSON gives you a file. In TabSill’s manager click Import… and pick it: each saved session becomes a TabSill session. You can keep Session Buddy installed; TabSill’s snapshots run regardless.

Add TabSill to Chrome — free See TabSill pricing