Boardmarks vs Toby
Compare Boardmarks and Toby for Chrome tab and bookmark organization. High-level differences — verify Toby details on Toby's site before deciding.
Both Boardmarks and Toby help you organize Chrome tabs, but they come from different angles. Toby is primarily a tab and session manager — it excels at saving groups of tabs so you can reopen an entire working context later. Boardmarks is a broader New Tab productivity workspace that includes visual bookmark boards, tab saving, todos, habits, notes, and reminders. If your main frustration is losing your tab sessions, both tools solve that problem. If you want a complete daily productivity system alongside tab organization, the comparison tilts toward Boardmarks.
What Boardmarks offers
- Visual bookmark boards on every New Tab — organize links by project, topic, or context
- Save current tab or all open tabs from the toolbar popup in one click
- Todos with Today, Upcoming, and Completed views for daily task management
- Habit tracker with weekly grid, current streak, and best-streak counts
- Scratch notes and calendar date notes next to bookmarks and tasks
- Timed reminders with priority, recurrence, and sticky due alerts
- Local-first Chrome storage by default — workspace data stays on your device
- 7-day free trial from the extension; Pro monthly, yearly, or lifetime plans
Choose Toby if…
Choose Toby if you primarily want a dedicated tab/session manager and are already happy with that workflow (confirm current features on Toby's official site).
Choose Boardmarks if…
Choose Boardmarks if you want visual bookmark boards plus todos, habits, notes, and reminders inside Chrome's New Tab — a complete productivity workspace beyond tab management.
Tab saving: how they compare
Toby is built around the concept of saving and reopening tab sessions — groups of tabs for a project, a research topic, or a work context. Boardmarks approaches tab saving as one capability within a larger workspace: from the toolbar popup you save the current tab or all open tabs into visual boards on your New Tab. The boards persist and are visible every time you open a new tab, so your saved sessions are always in view rather than in a separate tab manager panel.
Productivity tools beyond tabs
Toby is focused on tab organization. Boardmarks includes tabs as one piece of a broader workspace that also has todos, habits, notes, reminders, and a calendar. If you find yourself using a task app, a habit tracker, and a notes app alongside your tab manager, Boardmarks can consolidate those into one New Tab experience. If you only need tab organization and prefer a tool dedicated to that single job, Toby may be the simpler choice.
New Tab experience
Boardmarks replaces your Chrome New Tab with a full workspace. Every time you open a new tab you see your bookmark boards, task list, habit tracker, and reminders. Toby also uses the New Tab, primarily to show your saved tab collections. The key difference is the breadth of what each tool puts there — Toby focuses on tab groups, Boardmarks adds task management, habit tracking, and notes to the same surface.
Fair notes
- Toby focuses on tab and session organization; do not assume feature parity without checking Toby's current product pages.
- Boardmarks is a New Tab productivity workspace first — not only a tab manager. If session management is your only need, Toby may be more focused.
- Both tools store data locally in different ways — check each product's privacy documentation for specifics.
- Tab manager workflows and bookmark board workflows serve slightly different mental models; try both free options if you are undecided.
See also our visual bookmark manager and New Tab extension pages.
Add Boardmarks to Chrome — Free