Session Buddy started out as a simple tab recovery tool. Over time, it has grown into a session management and bookmarking solution used by over 650,000 people all over the world. It’s a project I’m proud of and extremely passionate about.
But there’s a lot of work to be done. Important features like sync and drag/drop are missing. While a lot of progress has been made towards completing these and many other features, my time has often been spread across multiple projects.
Here’s the deal. I absolutely love working on Session Buddy. But building and maintaining a software product requires a tremendous amount of work. In order for me to move forward with a sustained full-time focus on growing Session Buddy into a feature complete product, I need to find a way to earn a living doing it.
So I’ve decided to put the fate of Session Buddy in the hands of those most qualified to know its value and understand its potential: its users.
In order to do that, I joined a service called Patreon that helps creators earn ongoing revenue directly from their fans. The idea is that a small monthly pledge by enough individual supporters can have a significant impact. In fact, if only 1% of monthly active Session Buddy users pledge $3/month, I will be able to take on developing and supporting Session Buddy full-time.
As part of my end of the bargain in all this, I will provide full transparency on the ongoing status and long-term plan for Session Buddy development. I’ve set up a page that allows you to track development progress, grouped by release and broken down by feature. I intend to update this on a weekly basis.
If you have any questions, thoughts, or ideas about funding this effort, please let me know.
Oh and if you get a chance, please help spread the word to other folks who might be interested in supporting Session Buddy.
Thanks for reading and for considering a pledge.
Sincerely,
Hans
56 Comments
Sam Framcisco
Please consider open-sourcing your extension in exchange for "the internet" (or, more precisely, a voluntary and, arguably, representative subset of its users) funding development. After all, information (including code) yearns to be free. By the by, will a future version of Session Buddy let me restore my tab-specific browsing histories as well? Thank you.
hansifer
The short answer on open-sourcing Session Buddy is that given current circumstances, the amount of participation required to yield a sufficient percentage of quality contributions requires a prohibitive administrative cost (basically all of my bandwidth). It's unlikely that this approach would speed up development in a meaningful way while maintaining quality. But it's a lot more nuanced than what I've articulated here and there are many factors to consider. I urge you to familiarize yourself with the discussion to-date by visiting the Session Buddy forum.
You'll also find a good amount of discussion there on your last question. The tl;dr is that it's not technically possible, unfortunately. However, the planned Session Buddy feature of "Session History" could provide a viable substitute by including per-tab navigation tracking.
Rosdi
Thanks for this tool.. absolutely love it... I can't afford to pledge monthly donation (yet)... so I just sent a tiny $5 one time donation...
hansifer
Thanks, I really appreciate it. Every donation makes a difference!
Interplicity
Love this tool, just sent you some funds for June. Keep up the great work.
hansifer
Thank you!
Sun
You have no idea how many times Session Buddy saved the day. I'm the queen of having 50 tabs open at once and chrome doesn't confirm whether you want to close all tabs so if you press X by accident.. well I'm sure everyone knows what I'm describing. I'm gunna donate now!
hansifer
I'm glad it helped you. Thanks for your support!
Aiden
Amazing! I had an idea of creating a Chrome extension which can save tags and reopen them. I talked about it with my friend, but he told me your extension. LOL. I added it to my Chrome. I like it very much. So, here are some suggestions. 1. The name "Session Buddy" is UNSEARCHABLE. After I had that idea, I search the keywords like "save tags", "bookmarks" in google shop, but I didn't see "session buddy". Maybe you can add "tags" to your app name? 2. When I close links under "Current Windows" in your app, it also closes the same tag in the Chrome. I think it's better not to close it in Chrome. When people suddenly want to save some tags in Chrome, but they are also watching videos on Youtube. They don't want to save the YouTube tag but they don't want to close it right now. My suggestion is adding another close icon with the function "only close in record" at the end of the links(your close function is in the front of the links). 3. When users right-click on the extension icon there is a "save current session", can it pop a window to let us save names?
These are my suggestions. Hope they can help you a bit. I so admire your works. At last, Is this link https://github.com/tgrk/session-buddy-tool your resource on github? I want to study it.
hansifer
Thanks for your compliments and suggestions!
Nope, that github repo is not mine.
Essam
session buddy is Amazing tool , it's save my time and sure I'll make donate <3
tribalvibes
This extension has saved the day many times. Love the simplicity and streamlined UI--please don't add too many features :) #1 feature would be to restore the windows in the workspace in which they existed when saved. See Chromium https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=74812 Do whatever hacking you need to make this work with Mac OS. #2 feature would be search titles/urls across all saved sessions. I'll make a one-time donation. Cheers!
hansifer
Thanks! Glad you like it.
I'll add a line item for #1 to the roadmap under "Workspace considerations". #2 already exists but an improvement to this is in the works.
Flavius
I love this extension and I'll make a donation now by PayPal. TYVM
hansifer
Thank you!
DDB
Hans, I'll be happy to make a one-time donation. Set up a way, and I'll do it. PayPal, Google Wallet, Amazon Payments, or other -- take your pick!
DDB
Found the way... will do it.
hansifer
Thank you! I really appreciate your support.
Tom
How did you do that (one time donation)?
Tom
Found it. It is not on patreon, but here: https://sessionbuddy.com/contribute/
Shinigami
Good news! I will make a one-time donation once you add the bitcoin option :)
hansifer
Thanks! I'm working on adding support for that to the donate page.
Marcos
Great extension, I can't afford subscription but will make one-off donation.
hansifer
Thanks Marcos! I really appreciate that.
Anon
I absolutely love "Session Buddy", it is by far the best extension of its kind!
And even though I fully understand your financial needs and are absolutely willing to donate, I do have an issue with the kind of long-term commitment that comes with Patreon and the likes. I just do not want to find myself in a situation where in a few months (or years?) from now I might wonder where _my_ revenue ends up--only to realize that it gets eaten in small but countless monthly chunks.
Bottom line:
Put a "donate" button somewhere, and I will donate an adequate one-off sum. But if you request a permanent contribution from me, I will stop using your service/app/extension and go find an alternative.
(And this is what I am always doing, not only in your case.)
hansifer
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and expressing an interest in donating. I totally get that some folks aren't comfortable with the idea of a recurring donation.
There are one-time donation options available on the Session Buddy donate page.
Thanks again for considering a donation! It means a lot.
Don
Hi,
SB is a great tool and has much further to achieve (like syncing between your machines (PCs/smartphones/etc.).
Many fear that ongoing payments are not controlled and may be abused by hackers.
In order to supply a sense of security, I suggest to enable a one-time payment as well, which can provide the creator of SB (dear Hans) with an initial amount to start the journey and may remind annually (as Wikipedia does) instead of monthly payments or nothing at all.
hansifer
Thanks for your feedback! One-time donation options are available on the Session Buddy donate page.
Demmitri
Favorite tool and I will def support you. Just a little feedback, can you make the default option to "open tabs" to open them in the current window? Thank you for your work!
hansifer
Thanks for your suggestion.
There's a pending task item to bring back support for assigning an open default under "Bring back one-click collection open" on the roadmap. This includes an "open in current window" option.
Anto
It's a very usefull utility/companion but have a little boring thing...is slow on first startup on chrome, but, when loaded nothing to say, if U can add only the button restore previous sessio, without dropdown open to restore button.
Thank You
hansifer
Thanks for your feedback. There's an item on the roadmap under "Bring back one-click collection open" that addresses your concern.
Marc B.
I literally keep on average 50 to 75 tabs open in different windows in order to do my work. I can also say that Session Buddy has saved me countless hours.
I hope a lot of people will follow my lead and donate or become a patron so that you can continue the development. Please keep up the good work.
hansifer
Thanks for your words of encouragement, Marc. It's nice to hear how useful Session Buddy has been for you.
Thanks also for the generous donation!
Kurt Eager
it would be great if it was sync automatically with my google accounts so i don't have to import it to all the computers that i use throughout the week when i make updates to my saves sessions
hansifer
Thanks for commenting! This is indeed the most important feature on the roadmap.
Israel
Great job Hans! A one time purchase would be preferable though... And if you could make one for Microsoft Edge browser that'd be so cool!! :)
hansifer
Thanks!
A MS Edge version is on the roadmap.
Also, one-time donation options are available on the Session Buddy donate page.
Shahrukh
I really like session buddy. But I have a request, that each time when we open a new tab in a browser so you should update and save all the current session so in a case of sudden power shutdown, we can access all last tab session by a backup. I really felt this problem a lot of time due to short of electricity or sudden electric breakdown.
Thanks You
hansifer
Session recovery from crashes and power outages is already a core feature of Session Buddy. Recovered sessions can be accessed under "Previous Sessions" in the nav pane.
Egao No Genki
I'll submit donations whenever it's convenient for me, but:
IF YOU WOULD PLEASE ENABLE A CLOUD-SAVING FEATURE: Then I WILL commit to an automated monthly donation schedule.
By the way, please offer more than just PayPal. Google's payment brokerage service would be more trustworthy, and basically anything else major and reputable for that matter. Thanks!
So as soon as you offer more payment services besides just PayPal, I PROMISE I WILL donate!
hansifer
Thanks!
Cloud saving and sync is the most important feature on the Session Buddy roadmap.
As for donation options, I just recently added support for credit card payments. I'm currently looking into adding Bitcoin as well.
Lilien
Session Buddy is a great Chrome extension and I really love its functionality, but if it ever tries to establish an internet connection to a server ("cloud") I will immediately uninstall this version. Open TABs and Browsing history are are highly private and valuable information and I will never agree to store this outside my local disks. PLEASE make this at least optional.
hansifer
I completely agree with you about the sensitive nature of browsing history. Session Buddy will NEVER upload this information without explicit user consent. When cloud storage/sync is introduced, it will be opt-in. The default mode for Session Buddy will always be to store data locally only.
manolo
hurra guys! session buddy c'est super cool! keep it up with the good job. Greetings from Spain.
J
Hi!
You should post a chart showing how close/far you are to achieving the support you need in order to do this full-time. That sort of thing inspires and drives supporters. Just a suggestion :)
-J
hansifer
That's a great idea, thank you!
Jonas
Amazing tool! Love it, thank you for making it!
For now just quick feedback on what would be super useful for my intensive use.
- Do not overcomplicate UI, always keep it simple, fast, clean, clear.
- I do use a lot of tabs in every session, there fore I have some complexity in managing them. Here is one feature which would help me a lot.
- Please make a feature that can synchronize multiple saved sessions in to one (kind of multiple saved session MERGE into single saved session)!! Really needed for those who has habit of opening lots of pages and making many sessions.
Simply when I save one session with 200-400 tabs, next month I have similar session again. But it's a hassle to find some pages in one session, and some in other. I want to merge tabs from selected sessions and have one. For example I don't need some pages, then remove them. There fore saved session can stay more cleaner and it's clear which saved pages I still want to review. Some times I save many pages which I want to consume, but only find time for them later. But late I already have many more new pages, so merging would help dramatically to reduce number of sessions needed to be stored, and would help a lot.
You are welcome to chat more for any questions you might have.
- Also maybe some app to access sessions on mobile? ..if for iOS, iCloud could be used to sync data across devices.
:)
hansifer
Thanks for the awesome feedback!
Session merge and tab deduping is actually already supported. Just select multiple sessions (eg, via ctrl+click or shift+click on session tiles or click+drag session tiles up or down). When you do that, the merged result is displayed and a MERGE button will appear at the top of the view, as well as a checkbox to show/hide duplicate tabs.
B
I LOVE session buddy so so much- it's definitely saved me a couple of times and it's so great to use! Thanks for doing this <3
Random
I continue to be amazed that SB actually works (and works well) as browsers are notoriously unstable, constantly revised creatures. I'd like to kick in something, but have, err, limited means to do so. Is there way to make a one-time gift to SB?
hansifer
Thanks for your kind comment and for considering a donation. It's much appreciated.
There's a one-time donation option via PayPal at https://sessionbuddy.com/donate/.
I also plan to add more options over time (eg, Bitcoin, Stripe).
Egao No Genki
How about Google Wallet? I would LOVE to donate through GOOGLE WALLET.
Please add Google Wallet!
hansifer
I wish I could, but Google Wallet currently does not allow donation payments.
Anon
This extension is the best thing happened to google chrome users!,
thank you so much!, the sync feature sounds awesome! it is very needed indeed, i have 2 PCs and each time i need to backup and then delete the old sessions in-order to load the new backup sessions via teamviewer and such.., thank you!
Raj
Absolutely, I will be the first one to show my support. I love SessionBuddy & hope you can soon introduce the mentioned features available that have been long awaited. Thanks.