Defeat your browser tabs

How many tabs are open right now in your browser?

I always take a look at my friends 😬' notebooks to see how many tabs are open in the browser. It is very common for there to be several tabs, each with a working web application.

If you identify with this and are resistant to living in chaos, that's okay . But if you want to have a little more focus and routine in your work, I'll give you some suggestions to overcome the proliferation of tabs in your internet browser.

Toby: the bookmark manager ↑

Free for personal use. Paid for teams.

The first alternative to beat tabs is to use the browser's bookmarks tab. But soon it will be crowded and you will only change problems. As far as I've researched, there isn't a native browser with a good solution for managing bookmarks. That's where the Toby .

The app (actually a Chrome extension) transforms the native behavior of the browser button that, by default, opened a new tab. With Toby installed, this button opens a kind of desktop in the browser, where all your favorites will be. In summary, it is this: Toby turns the bookmarks bar into a bookmarks workspace .

Since Toby isn't a new browser, its experience is more familiar. In addition, precisely because you use the same browser you are already used to, the address bar will always be visible - which can even be a disadvantage. After all, half of the magic of the following apps is precisely in hiding the address bar, reminding us that we are, most of the time, in real apps, and not mere web pages.

I've used the app more, but I still have my bank account shortcuts registered with Toby. It may sound like superstition, but I prefer to keep sensitive sites running natively in Chrome, using Toby as my bookmark manager.

Franz: messaging app ↑

Quite satisfying. Paid version available.

While managing tabs and bookmarks is a generic problem, there may be a specific cause for it. If your proliferation of tabs stems from the management of messaging apps, the Franz is the solution . You'll have all your messaging apps, including email, in one environment, which might solve your situation.

I use Franz at least weekly or when I need to search for an email in one of my Gmail accounts. I also use Franz to check other email accounts, Slack accounts that I follow less often, as well as Discord accounts. In other words, Franz is my go-to solution for messages, especially those that I don't want to receive notifications about right away.

Station: one app for everyone else ↑

Free for personal use. In the future, it will be paid to teams.

While Franz is focused on messaging apps, Station It caters to the most popular applications of all kinds. Station is in full development and recently the functionality that allows the creation of applications that are not yet listed was included.

I always use Station every day and I am very satisfied. It really is a must-have app for me . I wouldn't trade Station for anything.

Manageyum: Paid and Simpler Option ↑

Paid app with trial.

Manageyum it is an option only if you are willing to pay USD 47. But I find this difficult to convince, since the free version of Rambox does practically the same thing, with a little less elegance.

It is worth noting that, while the competition focuses on enabling multiple logins in several simultaneous applications, Manageuym also allows you to run multiple instances of the same application . This seems to be a real differential.

What it seems to me is that, in any case, the price is disproportionate to the product that is supplied. This perception is confirmed by the comments on the Product Hunt page. The same page also reveals that the current version of the software is already two years old, while competitors are moving quite fast, perhaps because they have more funding and staff.

Personally, since I paid for the software, I ended up leaving some very specific applications installed on it, services in which I manage multiple accounts without having to enter the password again at each appointment. I also keep my YouTube there, because curiously, it doesn't work well in the other apps I use. But this certainly does not justify the investment.

Rambox: paid and more robust option ↑

Paid app with a 30-day trial. Free version available, but limited.

Or Rambox It's the most mature option I've come across, as it has almost everything you can dream up for organizing your desktop. But this comes at a price: USD 4/month. Although there is a free version, it doesn't even resemble the paid version. If you don't intend to pay for the app, there's no point in starting to use the free version, as it is incompatible with the paid version. There is no migration between them.

Although it is the most complete application in the category, in my view, it still lacks some features, for example, reordering them in the vertical bar. From what I tested, once you create a group, you have no way to drag to change the order. Also, I didn't find an option to remove an app from the group, as well as make it appear in two groups.

I also noticed that Rambox is very faithful, in an exaggerated way, to the philosophy of the operation of an isolated application, failing to allow the opening of any link as a new tab. I think it's about a flexibility that a paid app (even more so as a subscription) needs to offer. In this regard, Station, which is free, seems to have a much better executed functionality.

I ended up not using Rambox to the point of having a definitive opinion about it, having only performed tests.

Shift: Rambox challenger ↑

Paid app, the most expensive of all. Free version available, but limited.

I still don't have a definitive opinion on the Shift , but it seems to me a more expensive Rambox option. Another impression is that it positions itself as a solution for managing several Gmail accounts, although it is much more than that. In any case, it prioritizes the development of features for Gmail, for example, an integrated search of all your email boxes with one click.

If you subscribe to such a service for $99.99/year, that's okay. For me, unfortunately, it's a problem. There is also a cheaper option, for USD 29.99/year, but it does not have all the features. In the same vein as the limitation of features, the free version is nothing more than a demo, which does not offer any conditions to test the application.

I don't recommend this app, although I recognize its quality. I simply think it's more expensive than it should be .

Firework: clone your launchpad ↑

Paid app. Free version available quite functional.

Firework It's a small launchpad for your web apps, with a pretty satisfying free version. As far as I could tell, the only missing features are: renaming the apps and allowing them to open in a new window. In the free version, Firework limits simultaneous access to two applications, but I don't think that's a problem. Just like Manageyum, in Firework it is possible to run more than one instance of the same application simultaneously .

It is a solution that really emulates the operation of a dedicated launchpad, quite functional and intuitive. For comparison, while Manageyum is a tabbed window (resembling a browser), Firework is a desktop with applications (exactly built like a launchpad). As a consequence, Manageyum will struggle to accommodate a large volume of applications, while Firework's approach is more scalable. So, point to Firework.

I also think Firework gets it right by having a minimalist browser, with the option to hide the navigation bar, which seems to me to be exclusive to it. This is a very interesting and little-known solution. The paid version is (theoretically) only available through a Russian payment mechanism, priced at approximately USD 15/year.

Although I tried to make the purchase, I was unable to complete the transaction with any of my credit cards. Firework is a curious app: I like it, but I don't use it much, especially since I've experienced compatibility issues with Airtable and YouTube.

Conclusion ↑

With the proliferation of great solutions being our own applications, our desktops have become a real mess. The browser has become the desktop of the computer and the most popular browsers have not kept up with this evolution. But there are already great solutions to this problem and, every day, there are many others.

In this scenario, you will find applications that are still in the early development phase. Some recognize this and do not charge for now, others charge anyway. Be smart and stick with one of the honest solutions I've listed.

Let's go to them: for favorites, Toby; for messages, Franz; for popular apps, Station . And if you demand the installation of lesser-used apps, in addition to being demanding enough to pay, you can choose between Manageyum (tab-centric browser, USD 47), Rambox (tab-centric browser, USD 4/month) and Firework (full launchpad, USD 15/year).