Session Buddy Alternative
A fresh Session Buddy alternative
Session Buddy is a beloved, free session manager — great for crash recovery. But it's seen infrequent updates and feels dated. Roost offers the same save-and-restore core with a cleaner Manifest V3 experience, duplicate removal, RAM suspend, and a one-time $5 Pro.
What Session Buddy does well
Session Buddy saves and restores browsing sessions, recovers tabs after crashes or accidental closes, and lets you search open tabs and saved collections — all stored locally, and all free. For years it's been a go-to backup tool, and if that's all you need, it still does the job.
The catch is momentum. Independent 2026 roundups repeatedly note that Session Buddy receives infrequent updates, and its interface feels older next to newer, Manifest V3-native tools. For a utility you rely on daily, active maintenance matters — it's what keeps an extension working as Chrome changes.
What Roost adds
| Feature | Session Buddy | Roost |
|---|---|---|
| Save & restore sessions | Yes | Yes |
| Crash recovery | Yes | Manual save + restore |
| Duplicate tab removal | No | Yes |
| Suspend tabs to free RAM | No | Yes (on demand) |
| Export to Markdown | Export formats vary | Yes |
| Full-text search in saved tabs | No | Pro |
| Smart auto-grouping by domain | No | Pro |
| Actively maintained (MV3) | Infrequent updates | Yes |
| Price | Free | Free · $5 once |
When to stick with Session Buddy
If you want a purely free tool whose one job is to be there when Chrome crashes, Session Buddy remains a reasonable safety net. Roost is the better fit if you want a modern daily driver that actively de-dupes, reclaims RAM, and searches inside your saved tabs — and you're happy to pay $5 once for the power features.
Moving your sessions across
- Install Roost (free) from the Chrome Web Store.
- In Session Buddy, open a saved collection and restore it.
- In Roost, click Save tabs to store it as a named session.
- Optionally export each Roost session to Markdown as a portable backup.
A session manager that keeps up
Modern, private, actively maintained — free to start.
Add Roost to Chrome — FreeRelated comparisons
Frequently asked questions
Is Roost free like Session Buddy?
Roost has a generous free tier (unlimited sessions, restore with layout, de-dupe, RAM suspend, Markdown export, search by name). Pro is $5 once for full-text search, smart auto-grouping and auto-archive — no subscription.
Does Roost do crash recovery?
Roost is built around deliberately saving sessions, then restoring them. Saving a session before a big context switch gives you a reliable restore point; Pro auto-archive can capture sessions on a schedule.
Is my data private with Roost?
Yes. Everything is stored locally in your browser. Roost's only network request is license verification — no account, no servers, no tracking.
Is Roost actively maintained?
Yes — it's built on Manifest V3 and maintained by an identifiable solo developer who replies to support email.