What Is Leap? The Vertical Tab Manager That Brings Workspaces to Chrome

If you have ever looked at your Chrome tab bar and seen nothing but tiny, unreadable favicons — you are not alone. The average knowledge worker keeps 10 to 30 tabs open at any given moment, and power users regularly push past 60. Chrome was never designed for that.

Leap is a Chrome extension that replaces the horizontal tab strip with a clean vertical sidebar — and adds Arc-style spaces, saved tabs that stay after you close them, nested folders, pinned daily sites, cloud sync and themes on top. Think of it as the Arc Browser sidebar experience, without leaving Chrome.

This article walks through every major feature so you can decide if Leap is the right fit for the way you work.

Vertical Tabs: See Every Tab at a Glance

Chrome squishes 30 tabs into a row of identical icons. Leap replaces that strip with a vertical sidebar that shows every tab by title and favicon — scrollable and always visible.

• Saved tabs stay — save a tab into a space or folder and close it in Chrome; it stays in the sidebar and reopens with one click.
• Pin your daily sites — Gmail, Calendar, Notion — docked at the top of the sidebar. Type an address straight into the dock or pin any open tab; a click focuses the tab you already have, and unread counts show on the icon.
• Hover-to-close — the close button stays hidden until you hover, keeping the interface clean.
• Right-click context menu — copy link, rename, duplicate, mute, move to another space, and more — all from one menu.

Workspaces (Spaces): One Browser, Separate Lives

Spaces are the core concept in Leap. Each space holds its own set of tabs, folders, and pinned sites — completely isolated from every other space. Switch between them with a single click.

A typical setup might look like this:

• Work — Jira, Slack, Google Docs, your company dashboard
• Side Project — GitHub, Stack Overflow, Vercel, your staging URL
• Personal — YouTube, Reddit, Gmail, online shopping
• Research — academic papers, Notion, bookmarked articles

When you switch to a space, Leap shows only that space's tabs and collapses the rest out of the way — no distractions, no context bleed. You get a fresh, focused browser for every area of your life.

Each space gets its own color from a palette of 9 carefully picked colors (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Mint, Blue, Purple, Pink, Gray), so you can spot which space you are in at a glance.

Saved Tabs That Stay: Close Them Without Losing Them

Most tab managers just group what is open. Close the tab and it is gone from the group too. Leap works differently: it saves tabs.

Put a tab into a space or a folder, close it in Chrome, and it is still there in the sidebar — one click reopens it. Your spaces become places you come back to, not piles of tabs you are afraid to close. Keep the browser light and your context intact.

Your open tabs are listed below the saved ones. Already using Chrome's own vertical tabs? Collapse that section and keep Leap for spaces, saved tabs and pins.

Nested Folders: Organize the Way Your Brain Works

Tabs inside a space can be grouped into folders, and folders can be nested up to 3 levels deep. This gives you a file-system-like hierarchy right inside your browser.

For example, inside your "Work" space you might have:

• Project Alpha
  • Design → Figma files
  • Backend → API docs, server logs
  • Tickets → Jira board, sprint backlog
• Meetings — Google Meet links, agenda docs
• Reference — internal wiki, style guide

Right-click any folder for power moves: share all links at once, turn a folder into a full space, duplicate it, change its icon, or copy every link inside as a formatted list.

Drag and Drop: Total Control, Zero Friction

Every element in Leap's sidebar is draggable. Reorder tabs within a space, drag them between spaces, drop them into folders, or pull them out. Move folders between spaces. Rearrange spaces themselves.

The drag-and-drop system supports:

• Tab → Folder (nest it)
• Tab → Different Space (move it)
• Folder → Different Space (with all tabs inside)
• Reorder tabs, folders, and spaces freely

Themes and Customization: Make Chrome Yours

Leap ships with a dark mode for late-night sessions and a light mode for daytime work. But it goes much further than that.

• 10 color palettes — from Grayscale to Vivid, each with carefully tuned accent colors
• Custom hex colors — use your brand colors or any color you want
• Per-space look — name, emoji, color and background for every space, so you always know where you are
• Multiple space bar views — dots, compact list, or dropdown — pick what fits your workflow

Cloud Sync: Your Setup, on Every Computer

Your spaces, saved tabs, folders, pins and settings sync to the cloud from the moment you install — no sign-up needed. Sign in with Google or email whenever you want the same layout on your other computers: set things up on your work laptop and find it waiting on your home desktop. Free.

Sync is local-first: every change writes to local storage immediately, then syncs to the cloud in the background. That means Leap is fast even on slow connections and works offline.

Save From Anywhere: Right-Click or Two Shortcuts

You do not have to open the sidebar to save something. Right-click any page, choose Save to Leap and pick the space. Or use one of the two keyboard shortcuts:

• Alt+S — open or close the Leap sidebar
• Alt+Shift+S — save the current tab to Leap

You can change both in Chrome's extension shortcut settings.

How Much Does Leap Cost? Nothing.

Leap is completely free. Every feature is included:

No subscription, no trial countdown, no credit card — just install it and use everything.

How Leap Compares to Other Tab Managers

There are several tab management solutions available. Here is how Leap stacks up:

• vs. OneTab — OneTab closes your tabs into a list on a separate page. It now has folders, search and optional encrypted sync, but no spaces, no sidebar and no pinned sites — you go to the list instead of working in places. See Leap vs OneTab.
• vs. Workona — Workona offers workspaces and vertical tabs; theming and sync are more limited, and some features cost extra. Every Leap feature is free.
• vs. Chrome Tab Groups — Chrome's built-in tab groups are basic: no saved tabs that outlive closing, no nested folders, no pinned dock, no themes. Leap builds on top of Chrome's tab groups to add what is missing.
• vs. Arc Browser — Arc has a beautiful sidebar and spaces, but it is a separate browser. Leap brings the same experience to Chrome, so you keep your extensions, saved passwords, and browsing history. Two things Leap cannot do: hide Chrome's horizontal tab bar, or give each space its own logins (separate cookies) — Chrome does not allow extensions to.

Getting Started with Leap

Setting up Leap takes about 30 seconds:

1. Install Leap from the Chrome Web Store — it is free.
2. The sidebar opens automatically. Your existing tabs appear in a default space.
3. Create your first spaces (Work, Personal, etc.) and start dragging tabs into them.
4. Save the tabs you want to keep, then close them — they stay in the sidebar.

No sign-up needed — sync starts right away. Sign in with Google or email when you want the same spaces on another computer.

The Bottom Line

If you live in Chrome and struggle with tab overload, Leap is built for you. It combines the best ideas from Arc Browser — vertical tabs, workspaces, a beautiful sidebar — with saved tabs that stay after you close them, nested folders, pinned daily sites, cloud sync, and deep customization. All without leaving the browser you already use.

Every feature is free, for everyone — no subscription, no trial, no credit card.