How do I move my web apps and setup to a new computer without starting from scratch?

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Getting a new computer should be exciting. For a lot of people running their work life through a dozen web tools turned into desktop-feeling apps, it's actually dreaded, because the last time it happened they spent half a day re-logging into everything, re-pinning icons, and trying to remember which combination of bookmarks and browser profiles they'd built up over a year. The setup wasn't saved anywhere, it just lived in that one machine.

Why bookmarks don't actually save your setup

A bookmark is just a saved address. Export your bookmarks from the old machine, import them into the new one, and you get a list of links, not a working setup. None of your logged-in sessions come with it, none of your app icons, none of the way you'd arranged things into a sidebar or a dock. You still click every single one, sign in again, and sit through whatever two-factor prompt that service throws at you. If you run six or eight tools this way, that's six or eight separate logins before you're back to normal, and that's before you've re-created any custom pinning or arrangement you'd set up.

This is the gap WebCatalog's cloud sync is built to close. If you've turned your web tools into WebCatalog apps (each one behaves like its own desktop app, with its own icon, dock presence and window, instead of living as a tab), the sync feature carries the apps themselves, which spaces they live in, and your general settings across every device signed into the same account.

What actually syncs, and what doesn't

Confirmed directly on WebCatalog's own pricing page: cloud sync is included on every plan, including the free Basic tier, not something you need to upgrade to Pro or Business to get. What syncs is the structural layer: which apps you've added, which spaces they're organized into, and your app-level settings and preferences.

One thing worth being precise about, since it's easy to assume otherwise: cloud sync carries your setup, not necessarily every logged-in session for every underlying web service. Whether you land already signed into, say, your CRM or your email tool on the new machine depends on how that specific web app itself handles sessions (some web apps keep you logged in on any new device once you re-enter your password once, others require a fresh login per device as a security measure that's entirely up to that service, not WebCatalog). What WebCatalog guarantees is that the app itself, its icon, its place in your layout and its settings are already there waiting, so even where you do need to log back into an underlying service, you're doing it inside the already-set-up app, not rebuilding the app from nothing.

WebCatalog's own pricing page doesn't publish a specific sync limit (number of apps, spaces, or a storage cap for what syncs), which the source material for this page also flagged as unstated. If you're moving a genuinely large setup, dozens of apps across many spaces, it's worth confirming there's no practical ceiling for your account tier directly with WebCatalog's support before you rely on it for a big migration, rather than finding out partway through.

Step by step: how to move your setup to a new computer

1. Before you touch the new machine, confirm you're actually using WebCatalog's account sync on the old one. Open WebCatalog's settings and check you're signed into an account, not just running apps locally with no account attached. If you've never explicitly signed in, your current setup may not be backed up to sync at all, in which case fix that first, on the old machine, while you still have it.
2. Install WebCatalog on the new computer from WebCatalog's own site, matching your platform (Mac or Windows).
3. Sign into the same account you used on the old machine. This is the step that actually triggers the pull of your synced setup, not a fresh install assuming it will just appear.
4. Give it a few minutes and check each space. Your apps, spaces and general layout should populate automatically. If anything looks missing, a sync delay rather than a real loss is the most common cause; wait a bit and refresh before assuming something didn't transfer.
5. Log back into any individual web service that asks for it. The app and its place in your setup are already there; you're just re-authenticating to that specific tool, the same way you would on any new device for any web service with strict session rules.
6. Once everything looks right on the new machine, that's your confirmation the migration genuinely worked, and you can retire the old computer without worrying you've left part of your setup stranded on it.

A realistic example: moving an 8-app setup

Say you run a small team and your own daily setup is eight tools turned into WebCatalog apps: your CRM, two project boards for different clients, your invoicing tool, a shared inbox, a time tracker, your accounting software, and a scheduling tool, organized into two spaces, one for client-facing work and one for internal admin (see keeping client work and your own tasks apart on one computer). On a bookmarks-only setup, replacing a dead or stolen laptop means re-adding all eight from scratch, re-arranging them into some kind of order, and logging into every single one, which realistically eats most of a morning once you count re-finding passwords and clearing two-factor prompts.

With cloud sync already turned on, the same migration is: install WebCatalog, sign in, wait a few minutes, and all eight apps reappear already sorted into your two spaces, in the layout you'd built. You still log into each underlying service individually if that service requires it on a new device, but you're not rebuilding the scaffolding around them. For most people that cuts the whole process down to well under an hour, including the individual logins, rather than a half-day rebuild. For a new employee rather than a new laptop, see setting up work apps on a new hire's computer.

Common mistakes that make this harder than it should be

• Assuming sync is automatic without ever signing into an account. WebCatalog can run locally without an account attached, which means there's nothing in the cloud to pull down later. If you've never deliberately signed in, check that now rather than discovering it the day your laptop dies.
• Setting up the new machine before confirming the old one synced cleanly. If you skip straight to installing on the new computer without first checking your old setup is actually backed up (by, for instance, signing out and back in on the old machine to confirm it re-pulls correctly), you have no fallback if something's missing.
• Treating "it synced" as "I'm logged into everything." As covered above, the app and its place in your layout syncing is a different thing from staying authenticated into every underlying web service. Budget a few minutes for individual logins even on a clean sync.
• Not checking password manager coverage before the swap. If your actual logins live in a separate password manager rather than saved in-app, make sure that tool is also synced or accessible on the new machine; WebCatalog syncing your apps doesn't substitute for that.

WebCatalog sync vs. a password manager vs. doing nothing

	WebCatalog cloud sync	Password manager alone	No sync, re-add everything by hand
What it carries over	Apps, spaces, layout and settings	Saved passwords and autofill, not the app-like setup itself	Nothing automatically
Time to restore an 8-app setup	Minutes, plus individual logins where required	Still have to recreate each app manually first	Most of a morning, by experience
Cost	Free on Basic	Often a separate subscription	Free, but costs your time
Best paired with	A password manager, for the login layer sync doesn't cover	WebCatalog or a similar app-layer tool	Nothing, which is the actual problem

These aren't really competitors. A password manager and WebCatalog's sync solve two different halves of the same problem: one carries your logins, the other carries the structure you've built around your tools. Running both together, rather than treating either as a complete answer on its own, is the setup that actually survives a hardware change cleanly.

When to skip this and just use bookmarks

If you genuinely only use two or three web tools and don't mind re-logging into them occasionally, the overhead of setting up WebCatalog and its sync specifically to solve a once-a-year laptop swap probably isn't worth it. The real payoff shows up once you're running enough tools, or switching devices often enough (a desktop and a laptop you alternate between, for instance), that re-building the setup by hand becomes a recurring tax rather than a once-off inconvenience. A lighter option is one start page with all your work tools.

How I'd approach this

For a single person or a small team, turning on WebCatalog's account sync once, before you ever need it, is the right move; it costs nothing on the free Basic plan and means the next hardware change is a non-event instead of a lost morning. Where I get involved is further along: a business that has genuinely outgrown ad hoc desktop app sync and wants a proper managed device setup, standardized tool access for every new hire, with real provisioning and offboarding, not something a free personal tool was ever built to handle at that scale. If that's closer to where you are, WebCatalog is still worth trying first for cost reasons, but I'd be honest with you early about where it stops being the right tool for a growing team.