Compared honestly · updated 2026-09-26
Session Buddy lost your sessions? Here is what a verified backup changes.
Session Buddy is the biggest name in this category: a million users, a 4.7 rating, free, and mostly local. It also has a documented pattern of sessions and collections disappearing, most visibly during the forced v4 upgrade in March 2024, and a privacy policy that says less than its reputation suggests. Backstop takes the parts that matter and adds the one thing Session Buddy never had: proof that a save actually landed.
- Session Buddy: capable and free, but saves are not verified and a version migration in 2024 left users staring at empty collections.
- Backstop: every save is a separate snapshot, read back and checksummed before it is trusted. Nothing is ever migrated in place.
- Session Buddy's policy says data stays on your device but also collects opt-out usage metrics and reserves room for future logins. Backstop's code makes no network requests.
Session Buddy vs Backstop, side by side
| Session Buddy | Backstop | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free; Pro $12 one-time |
| Account required | No (policy reserves room for future login-based features) | No, and there is no server to log into |
| Where your data lives | Local, in one database | Local, one snapshot per save |
| Version history | Collections can be edited in place | Every save is a separate, dated snapshot |
| Verified after write | No | Read back and checksummed before it is listed |
| Automatic snapshots | Yes | Yes, on a timer (free keeps 10, Pro keeps 200) |
| Export / import | Yes | Plain JSON, free forever; encrypted export in Pro |
| Usage metrics | Anonymized metrics collected by default, opt-out in Settings | None. No network requests in the code |
| Permissions in the published manifest (read 26 Sep 2026) | tabs, unlimitedStorage, storage, alarms; no host permissions | tabs, storage, unlimitedStorage, alarms; no host permissions |
| Chrome Web Store data disclosure | Declares handling of PII, payment, authentication and web history | Declares none |
| Browsers | Chrome, Edge | Chrome, Edge, other Chromium |
Competitor facts were checked on 2026-09-26 against the sources linked below. If something has changed, tell us and we will correct it.
Where Session Buddy users get hurt
The March 2024 upgrade that emptied collections
Session Buddy 4 rolled out as an automatic upgrade on 12 March 2024. The next day a support thread opened titled "SB was auto upgraded now all my past collections are gone", and several more users reported the same. Support's answer was that v4 preserves v3 data "unless your repair reset the DB". An in-place migration of a single database is exactly the operation that goes wrong without a verified copy to fall back to.
Backups that quietly don't happen
Recent Chrome Web Store reviews describe the failure people fear most from a backup tool: nothing visibly wrong until the moment you need it.
"needing it to take backups and it simply not doing it, I'm removing" — September 2026
"It does not make snapshots, Losses randfndom tabs. It is just not somethiong you could depend on" — August 2026
Sources: Chrome Web Store reviews · AlternativeTo review, Oct 2025
"No tracking" with footnotes
The store listing says "no accounts, no tracking". The privacy policy, effective February 2026, says your data "exist[s] only on your device" and then describes anonymized usage metrics (install date, browser version, collection counts) collected unless you opt out, plus room for "future premium features, such as cloud storage, that require users to create logins". The Chrome Web Store privacy tab declares handling of personally identifiable, financial, authentication and web-history data. None of that is sinister. It is just more than "no tracking".
Sources: Session Buddy privacy policy · Chrome Web Store privacy tab
What Backstop does instead
Backstop never edits a saved session in place and never migrates a database under you. Each save is a new snapshot with its own key. After writing, Backstop reads the snapshot back and checks it against a checksum; only then does it appear in your list. A failed write cannot damage an older snapshot. Automatic snapshots run on a timer so the recent past is always there.
There are no usage metrics to opt out of because Backstop's code makes no network requests. Nothing leaves the machine unless you export it yourself, and plain JSON export is free forever.
To be fair to Session Buddy
Session Buddy has a richer session browser, more views and more polish than Backstop, and a much longer track record. It is maintained and updated as of April 2026. Most people never hit its failure cases. Backstop is narrower on purpose: it trades features for a guarantee about the saves you already made.
Try Backstop
Free on the store. No account, no server, nothing uploaded. Pro is a $12 one-time purchase, sold through Paddle, and plain export of your own data is never paywalled.
Install from the Chrome Web Store Install from Edge Add-ons Read how Backstop works
Questions people ask
- Can I move my Session Buddy collections into Backstop?
- Export from Session Buddy first. Backstop imports its own plain JSON format; a converter for Session Buddy exports is on the list. In the meantime the safest step is simply to keep the Session Buddy export file somewhere you control.
- Does Backstop collect usage metrics?
- No. There is nothing to opt out of. Backstop's code contains no network calls; you can confirm that in the published package, which requests no host permissions.
- Does Backstop have automatic snapshots like Session Buddy?
- Yes. They run on a timer; free keeps the last 10, Pro keeps the last 200. Each one is verified after it is written.
- What does Pro cost?
- $12, once, through Paddle. It adds the deeper snapshot history, encrypted export and search across history. Plain export never moves behind the paywall.