Workona, Toby and Haystack are all tools that help users supercharge their browsing experience and share many similar features. However, there are some key differences between the two tools, such as:
Summary
Toby is dedicated only to tab management while Workona and Haystack besides allowing you to save and organize your tabs, also aim to organize and search your browser history, plus your collaboration history by integrating with other cloud apps such as Google Drive and offering universal search. Universal search means that users can search not just their open tabs or their browsing history but documents and links that exist outside their browser in other apps such as Google Drive or Slack. This is defined by Haystack as “collaboration history”
Platforms
Toby and Workona are both Chrome extensions only. Workona is compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge browser, while Toby is only compatible with Chrome and Firefox. Meanwhile, Haystack is a multi-platform web, desktop, and mobile (iOS, Android) application and a Chrome extension. In practice, it means that if you delete Toby or Workona from Chrome all your data is lost while in the case of Haystack things are stored safely in the cloud. It also means you can use Haystack from any device and search and access your browser’s history or saved resources from anywhere.
Use
The Toby Chrome extension overtakes your new tab page and replaces it with its own. While both the Haystack and Workona Chrome extensions open up as a popup.
Search
Both Toby and Workona has only basic search functionality. You can search for the title of the cloud document or page you are looking for. While Haystack has full-text document and link search allowing users to find anything in their saved resources, browsing history or collaboration history based on not only the title but also the content of the page or document. Haystack also searches in the message context a document or link was shared in e.g. the body of an email or a message in Slack.
Structure
Haystack organizes data on two levels, teams and stacks. Workona and Toby organizes data on a single level called workspaces in Workona and called collections in Toby.
Sharing
Both Haystack and Workona allows users to share lists (teams, workspaces) with other users, while Toby does not have this feature.
Business
Toby defines itself as a tab manager. Workona’s motto is “work organizer for the browser” Haystack positions itself as a “cloud operating system”.
Pricing
All tools come with a free and paid version.
