Built this over the past month to solve my own tab management problem. Chrome was eating 8GB RAM with 50+ tabs open.
*What it does:*
- Saves/restores tab sessions with one click
- Auto-suspends idle tabs after 30min (uses Chrome's discard API)
- Search across all saved sessions
- Everything stored locally (no servers)
*Tech decisions:*
Went with vanilla JS instead of React for performance:
- React prototype: ~450ms load time
- Vanilla version: ~180ms
For something you open 20+ times daily, that 270ms matters. Tradeoff was losing reactive state management, but worth it for the speed.
Manifest V3 compliance was easier without framework dependencies.
*Current state:*
- 600 active users (started 3 weeks ago)
- ~30k tabs saved
- <2MB total size
- MIT licensed code (considering open source)
*Challenges:*
1. State management without React - rolled custom pub/sub pattern
2. Chrome's tab API rate limits - had to batch operations
3. Storage quota management - compression + cleanup logic
4. Cross-session data consistency
*What I learned:*
Performance matters more than I thought. Users notice the difference between 200ms and 500ms when it's a frequently-used tool.
Privacy-first approach resonated - every competitor tracks usage. Going 100% local was the right call.
Happy to answer technical questions or hear feedback on the approach.
aabdoahmed•1mo ago
Built this over the past month to solve my own tab management problem. Chrome was eating 8GB RAM with 50+ tabs open.
*What it does:* - Saves/restores tab sessions with one click - Auto-suspends idle tabs after 30min (uses Chrome's discard API) - Search across all saved sessions - Everything stored locally (no servers)
*Tech decisions:*
Went with vanilla JS instead of React for performance: - React prototype: ~450ms load time - Vanilla version: ~180ms
For something you open 20+ times daily, that 270ms matters. Tradeoff was losing reactive state management, but worth it for the speed.
Manifest V3 compliance was easier without framework dependencies.
*Current state:* - 600 active users (started 3 weeks ago) - ~30k tabs saved - <2MB total size - MIT licensed code (considering open source)
*Challenges:*
1. State management without React - rolled custom pub/sub pattern 2. Chrome's tab API rate limits - had to batch operations 3. Storage quota management - compression + cleanup logic 4. Cross-session data consistency
*What I learned:*
Performance matters more than I thought. Users notice the difference between 200ms and 500ms when it's a frequently-used tool.
Privacy-first approach resonated - every competitor tracks usage. Going 100% local was the right call.
Happy to answer technical questions or hear feedback on the approach.
Link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/tab-master-save-tab...