Tabs Outliner

The Next Generation Session Manager; A Really Working Too Many Open Tabs Solution; And Your Browsing Notebook.

Tabs Outliner is a powerful Chrome extension combining a tab manager, session manager, and a tree-like personal information organizer. It helps you reduce the clutter of too many open tabs by allowing you to annotate and save tabs and windows in their original context, enabling resource-efficient browsing. Its flexible drag-and-drop tree structure lets you organize tabs and windows hierarchically, add notes, and reorder items for better prioritization.

The extension includes a crash-resistance feature to restore tabs selectively after a browser crash, avoiding the pitfalls of default crash restoration. Additional capabilities include exporting annotated tab lists for sharing and a one-click solution to close and save all open windows to regain focus and computer performance. Optional paid features like keyboard shortcuts, clipboard support, and automated Google Drive backups enhance user experience but are not required, ensuring effective use of the extension for free.

By:
https://tabsoutliner.com
Users:
100,000
Rating:
4.45
(3,313)
1 new ratings
Version:
1.4.153 Last updated: 2024-10-02
Creation date:
2020-04-30
Risk:
Moderate risk impact Low risk likelihood
Permissions:
  • storage
  • tabs
  • unlimitedStorage
  • favicon
  • identity
  • system.display
Size:
1.56M
Email:
om*****@gmail.com
URLs:
Website ,Privacy policy
Full description:
See detailed description
Source:
Chrome Web Store
Updated:
a day ago

User reviews

Tabs Outliner is a powerful Chrome extension praised for managing numerous tabs and complex windows effectively. Users value its ability to organize tabs, save sessions, and navigate quickly between projects. However, recent browser changes have broken the extension for many, causing data loss and UI failures. Backup functionality is unreliable or behind paywalls, frustrating users. The outdated and confusing UI, lack of developer support, and necessary learning curve add to the challenges. Despite these issues, dedicated users continue to find it indispensable for tab management.
Pros
  • Highly useful for managing large numbers of tabs and complex nested trees.
  • Allows easy closing and reopening of windows with all their tabs.
  • Acts as an effective bookmarking storage and window/tab navigation system.
  • Offers organizational features like renaming tabs, adding notes, and grouping related tabs for projects or research.
  • Has a loyal user base that has used it for many years and find it invaluable.
Cons
  • Extension is currently unmaintained and broken on recent browser updates, causing loss of tabs/data for many users.
  • Backup features are confusing, some require payment, and many users lost years of saved tabs due to lack of reliable backups.
  • UI is outdated, cluttered, or confusing to new users, with important information buried and difficult to understand.
  • Support from the developer is lacking; emails and support requests often go unanswered.
  • Requires a learning curve and proper shutdown procedures to avoid issues; improper browser shutdown causes errors and data loss.
Recent reviews
This extension has one of THE best features of any extension out there, to the point where I can't imagine switching browsers to one that won't support it. However, my score reflects that it seems to have fallen out of active support and updates, and many features no longer work as well as they did--in fact, a number no longer have a settings toggle for them like they used to before last year's (somewhat forced by Google) update. Two or so years ago, I'd have given it 4/5 stars. Backups (I'm a paid user) have a number of issues. The "tag" you can put on backups seem to be stuck to a value I used to use on a separate computer, so changing it does not change the tag on new backups. This means I can't distinguish between backups from a number of other systems I use. I had to resort to putting a label in the my tree to identify it. They also no longer seem to backup locally on any regular schedule. Also, when viewing a backup, groups cannot be expanded or collapsed. Luckily, I can drag to the active outliner window though. Next, the option to not tree out tabs but just store linearly under a window is gone. As well as the option to restore windows and the outliner window sizes and locations. I've also noticed that after restarting a system after hibernation, the old outliner window goes unresponsive, and a new one will usually open automatically, in the wrong location and size that is. These are the biggest issues I've had since the update almost a year ago, and they do significantly get in my way, which is why I have downrated the extension. Restoring the above to what it was before would restore my rating to its former value. Somewhat related to the lack of support is that my license got corrupted once a couple/few years ago, and I couldn't find the email with my license, so I was stuck. I had to buy a new one because I never got any response from the author. And on the issue of paid licences, you should note that a license is tied to a given user profile, so if you use multiple user profiles for yourself (e.g., I have a "home" and "work" profile), if you want to get paid features, you have to pay for each one. One QoL addition I'd like to see, if this ever goes back into active updating, is that it would be nice if I could open a new window under a group using a kbd shortcut or some other mechanism. Right now, to do so you have to open the window normally, which puts it at the end of the outliner list, then drag it up and into the group you want. For a short list, this is fine, but it's tedious when you have a very long list of groups and windows under them. Another QoL addition is one I encounter at work a lot since we use an SSO system that is less than great. So I open a window and don't noticed that some tabs have redirected to the SSO page (or sometimes even redirect to an error page). If I don't login to that page quick enough, that page because useless since it won't let me refresh to try again. And since it was a redirect, there no page history to go back to (and even if there was, technically the page I was on is no longer the one I'd go back to since it was a redirect. I end up having to use a new window to SSO login, then restore the window/group from an outliner backup. It would be nice if outliner could somehow save some history itself when it sees a redirect so I could go "back" from that history. While I my issues here are really more due to the really poor SSO implementation at work, if outliner could mitigate this, that would be an almost instant 5* rating :)
by Ch*****, 2025-05-30

I love Tabs Outliner, super useful for complex nested trees full of many windows and huge numbers of tabs. Easily close and reopen whole windows with all their tabs, it's an incredible bookmarking storage and window/tab navigation system. Only problems are can't do backups in Brave because it won't let you pay for a license in Brave, and you have to close all windows before rebooting the browser or it will randomly organize your whole tree structure upon reopening things as the browser reloads. Let me charge a card without logging into Chrome when I'm in the Brave browser, or let me transfer my paid license some other way from Chrome.
by Tr*****, 2025-05-23

brilliant. Cannot live without it.
by Jo*****, 2025-05-14
View all user reviews ›

Extension safety

Risk impact

Tabs Outliner requires a few sensitive permissions. Exercise caution before installing.

Risk impact analysis details
  • Critical Grants access to browser tabs, which can be used to track user browsing habits and history, presenting a privacy concern.
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Risk likelihood

Tabs Outliner has earned a fairly good reputation and likely can be trusted.

Risk likelihood analysis details
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