2026 Best Session Buddy Alternative: VertiTab Snapshot Feature Full Comparison

Have you ever experienced these problems?

• Saved a session with Session Buddy, only to find all your Chrome tab groups gone after restoring?
• Wanted to restore your work tabs at home, but Session Buddy doesn't have cloud sync yet?
• Restored a session and ended up with a bunch of duplicate tabs you had to close one by one?
• Needed to precisely restore your window layout, but all you got was a URL list?

If you're looking for a more feature-rich session management solution, VertiTab's tab snapshot feature is worth checking out. Even if you don't need the sidebar tab management feature, VertiTab's snapshot and cloud sync work completely independently, without affecting your daily browsing habits.

👉 Download VertiTab for Free — Supports Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi, Whale and more.

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What is Session Buddy?

Session Buddy is a well-established Chrome tab management extension with over 1 million users on the Chrome Web Store, rated 4.7 (over 525,000 reviews). It released a completely rewritten v4 in March 2024.

Session Buddy v4 Key Features

• Collections: Save open tabs as collections and restore them later
• History: Automatically generate snapshots at time intervals, recording open windows and tab states
• Auto Backup (v4.1): Local automatic backup of collections and event data
• Selectable Items: Select specific windows, tabs, or links for operations
• Copy/Paste: Copy and paste between collections, supporting Markdown, CSV, JSON, HTML formats
• Search: Search results sorted by relevance
• Pinned Collections: Pin frequently used collections to the top of the navigation panel
• Edit Links: Edit saved link titles, URLs, and pinned status
• Find Duplicates: Select and handle duplicate tabs or links
• Dark Theme: Light/dark theme that follows system settings
• Tab Opening Optimization: Automatically batch-loads and suspends tabs when opening large numbers
• Export: Export to multiple formats with destination selection

Session Buddy Limitations

While Session Buddy is stable, its official roadmap and user reviews reveal notable limitations:

• No Tab Group Support: Chrome native tab groups are lost upon restore. The roadmap shows the backend is ready but the UI is incomplete (as of v4.1.1)
• No Cloud Sync: Data only exists locally in the browser, making cross-device use impossible. Many users cite this as their biggest disappointment. It's on the roadmap but not yet released
• Data Loss Risk: Due to reliance on Chrome's IndexedDB storage, browser-level bugs can cause data loss. The developer has acknowledged this issue in review responses
• No Drag-and-Drop Reordering: Multiple users report inability to reorder tabs and collections via drag-and-drop
• No Moving Tabs Between Windows: Users report this should be a basic feature
• Chrome Only: Multi-browser build process has been simplified but not yet released

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VertiTab Snapshot Feature In-Depth

VertiTab is a complete vertical tab management extension, with snapshots as one of its core features. Unlike Session Buddy's "save a URL list" approach, VertiTab snapshots capture the complete state of your entire browsing environment.

What Does a Snapshot Save?

Each snapshot records:

• Tabs: URL, title, favicon, pinned status
• Tab Groups: Group name, color, collapsed state
• Windows: Position, size, window state
• Window Config: Custom window name, icon, color
• Tab Parent-Child Relationships: openerTabId (opening chain)
• Tab Panel Assignments: Which custom panel each tab belongs to

Four Restore Modes

VertiTab offers four restore modes for different scenarios:

1. Open in New Window

All snapshot windows are created as new windows, completely preserving your current work environment.

2. Open in Current Window

Appends tabs from the first snapshot window to your current window, keeping existing tabs. Other windows are created as new windows.

3. Merge to Current Window

When appending tabs, automatically scans all open windows for existing URLs and skips duplicates.

4. Replace Current Window Tabs

Replaces current window tabs with snapshot content. Other windows are created as new windows.

Restore Options

Each restore mode can be combined with these options:

• Restore Window Position and Size: Precisely restore window layout
• Restore Tab Groups: Restore group structure, names, and colors
• Lazy Load Tabs: Tabs are created but content isn't loaded until clicked, saving memory
• Restore Tab Panels: Restore tab-to-panel associations

Snapshot Editing: Edit Like a Collection

VertiTab snapshots aren't read-only URL lists — they're fully editable workspaces. You can treat a snapshot as a custom collection:

Add Tabs

• Select tabs from your current browser to add to the snapshot (multi-select, select by window)
• Manually input URLs to add new tabs
• Optionally auto-close original tabs when adding from browser

Edit Tabs

• Modify tab title, URL, and description
• Icon auto-updates when URL changes

Organize Structure

• Drag & Drop: Freely reorder tabs, tab groups, and windows
• Create Windows & Groups: Add new empty windows or tab groups to a snapshot
• Move Tabs: Move tabs between different groups or ungrouped areas
• Cross-Snapshot Move: Move entire windows or tab groups to other snapshots

Batch Operations

• Select multiple tabs then batch open, delete, or move
• Floating action bar shows selected count and available actions

With these editing capabilities, you can curate auto-generated snapshots into organized collections — keep the tabs you need, remove the irrelevant ones, add missing ones, reorder, then restore or share.

Auto Snapshots

VertiTab supports automatic snapshots:

• Automatically creates a startup snapshot when browser launches
• Creates snapshots when tab count changes (requires minimum tab count and change threshold)
• Customizable auto-snapshot retention limit
• Configurable auto-cleanup rules (by days)

Manual Snapshots

• Name and describe your snapshots
• Pin important snapshots to prevent auto-cleanup

Snapshot Protection

• Password-protect snapshots, requiring verification before restore

URL Filtering

• Set an ignore URL list; matching tabs won't be included in snapshots (ignores about:blank by default)

Multi-Format Export

Copy snapshot tabs in multiple formats for sharing or backup:

• URL List: Plain links
• Title List: Tab titles only
• Title + URL: Title and link combo
• Markdown: Perfect for pasting into docs or notes
• JSON: Structured data format
• CSV: Spreadsheet-compatible format
• HTML: Web format, can be opened directly in a browser

Cloud Sync

VertiTab supports syncing snapshots to the cloud:

• Sync snapshots between different devices
• Each snapshot records device name and device ID
• Encrypted transmission during sync

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Feature Comparison Table

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Real-World Scenario Comparisons

Scenario 1: Save Work State Before Leaving, Continue at Home

Session Buddy:

1. Save current session as a collection
2. Get home — collection data is on the work computer
3. Need to manually export a file, transfer it somehow, then import

VertiTab:

1. Snapshot auto-saves or create manually
2. Snapshot syncs to your account via cloud
3. Open VertiTab at home, find the snapshot
4. Choose "Merge to Current Window" — automatically skips already-open pages

Scenario 2: Browser Crash Recovery

Session Buddy:

1. Reopen browser
2. Session Buddy's History shows the pre-crash snapshot (auto-created on browser close)
3. Tabs restore but tab group structure is lost (tab groups not officially supported yet)

VertiTab:

1. Reopen browser
2. VertiTab shows recent auto-snapshot list (including startup snapshot)
3. Select the right time point, configure restore options
4. Tab groups, window layout fully restored

Scenario 3: Restoring a Large Number of Tabs

Session Buddy:

1. Open collection, click restore
2. When tab count is high, Session Buddy prompts for confirmation
3. Automatically batch-opens and suspends some tabs for memory optimization

VertiTab:

1. Open snapshot, configure restore options
2. Check "Lazy Load Tabs" — tabs are created but not loaded
3. Content loads only when you click a tab
4. Even 100 tabs restore without lag

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When Session Buddy Still Works

If you only need the most basic session save and restore, Session Buddy can do the job:

• Simple Save/Restore: Just need to save URL lists and restore later, with no tab group or window layout requirements
• Collection Organization: Prefer Session Buddy's collection system for organizing and categorizing links

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Why Choose VertiTab?

For most users, VertiTab is the better choice:

• Works Independently: Snapshot and cloud sync work fully independently, even without the sidebar tab management feature
• Complete State Restore: Not just URLs — tab groups, window positions, panel assignments all preserved
• 4 Restore Modes: New window, current window, merge (auto-dedup), replace — covering every scenario
• Powerful Editor: Drag-and-drop, add/delete tabs, cross-snapshot move, batch operations — edit snapshots like collections
• Full Tab Group Support: Session Buddy's tab group feature is still in development, while VertiTab fully supports it
• Multi-Format Export: 7 formats including URL, Markdown, JSON, CSV, HTML
• Cloud Sync & Data Safety: Snapshots sync to cloud, recoverable even if local browser data is lost. Session Buddy only has local storage
• Multi-Browser Coverage: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi, Whale
• All-in-One Management: Beyond snapshots — vertical tabs, tree tabs, AI assistant, tab panels, smart hibernation and more

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VertiTab Is More Than Snapshots

Snapshots are just one of VertiTab's many features. As a complete vertical tab manager, VertiTab also offers:

• 🌳 Tree-Style Tabs: Visualize parent-child tab relationships, manage like folders
• 🤖 AI Assistant: Supports ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek — AI can directly group tabs, create bookmarks
• 🗂️ Tab Panels: Create custom panels to categorize tabs
• 🔍 Smart Search: Search tabs, history, bookmarks, and reading list simultaneously
• 💤 Smart Hibernation: Auto-hibernate inactive tabs to free memory
• 🎬 Advanced Picture-in-Picture: Native subtitles, danmaku, progress bar thumbnails

👉 Download VertiTab for Free — Supports Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi, Whale and more.

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FAQ

Is VertiTab's snapshot feature free?

Yes, the core snapshot features (create, edit, restore, export) are completely free. Premium subscription unlocks more snapshot slots, cloud sync, and other advanced features.

Will Session Buddy support tab groups and cloud sync in the future?

According to Session Buddy v4's release notes, the backend architecture for tab group support and cloud storage is complete and these are the highest-priority planned features. However, as of v4.1.1 (February 2026), these features haven't been officially released.

Is it easy to migrate from Session Buddy to VertiTab?

Very easy. VertiTab supports directly importing Session Buddy data: export a JSON file from Session Buddy, then go to VertiTab's snapshot management page and select "Import from Other Extensions" in the bottom-left menu. Your Session Buddy collections will be converted into VertiTab snapshots. Both extensions can also be installed simultaneously.

What browsers does VertiTab support?

VertiTab supports Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi, Whale, and other Chromium-based browsers.

I don't want the sidebar tab management — can I just use the snapshot feature?

Absolutely. VertiTab's snapshot and cloud sync features are independent modules that don't depend on sidebar tab management. You can use just the snapshot feature for saving and restoring browser states without opening the side panel.

Do snapshots take up a lot of storage?

Snapshots save tab metadata (URLs, titles, window positions, etc.), not the page content itself. Each snapshot is typically only a few KB to tens of KB.