Firefox Tab Groups vs Session Managers: What the Browser Gives You vs What Extensions Add

Firefox 131 introduced built-in tab groups, a feature that allows you to visually organize your open tabs into named clusters. This functionality is useful for organizing your tabs into separate groups for work and weekend research during a single browsing session. However, tab groups have limitations. They do not save the group for future use, meaning you cannot reopen it after Firefox crashes or you restart your computer.

Additionally, they cannot maintain multiple named workspaces across days or weeks and do not provide a list of sessions to choose from.

In contrast, session managers like Tab Manager & Session Saver offer a different solution. They allow you to save and restore complete sets of tabs across browser sessions. To do this, you name the session, save it, close Firefox (or your computer restarts), and then reopen Firefox to restore the session. All the tabs are restored in the correct order, regardless of whether it's after a reboot, crash, or intentional workflow switching. This feature works even after crashes or restarts, providing a way to pick up where you left off.

While both tab groups and session managers store data locally, they serve different purposes. Tab groups provide in-session visual organization, while session managers help you restore your browsing sessions. These two features can be used together if you want both in-session visual grouping and the ability to save and restore named workspaces. The privacy angle is also worth noting as both Firefox's built-in tab groups and session managers store data locally without syncing to the cloud.