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Ok here's my situation. Looking to practice my chipping in my backyard but i live in a townhouse.
The area i have is about 16 x 40. On the sides there are wooden fences(the neighbors) straight ahead only the woods.
Was out there this morning with real golf balls and plastic ones also.
Not comfortable with the real ones for fear of breaking something.
The plastic ones were ok but since they sit up in the grass because they are so light it didn't feel very realistic.
Would the almostgolfball or something similar be a good way to go.
Anyone use those for chipping practice?

nope i havent used those for chipping. if you are just chipping with it, i wouldnt be fearful of breaking anything with real ones. but if you are actually taking swings, then use the foam balls or the almostgolf balls.

For shortgame practice I wouldn't want to use anything except the ball that I play. To avoid breaking things, hit in the direction of the woods, then walk the balls back and repeat, I guess.

get a flag to the direction of the woods.

I use foam balls...hit them in my living room into the drapes with full and partial swings...helps quite a bit with swing building...

I use the almostgolf ball and think they are worthwhile. You don't get the same feel as hitting a real ball and you don't get the same distance but you can work on proper placement and swing. I find that if I'm getting the ball in the air the way I want and going in the right direction that I can make the other adjustments with a little time on the chipping green before a round.

I am a big fan of the almost golf balls. The big pros are you are hitting something that actually looks like a ball (unlike the "birdie ball"), the ball is dimpled so your swing flaws (slice, hook) will show up, and it is pretty safe. The big cons are that while it can be used for judging distance, it's 1 yards of "real balls" to 1 foot of "almost balls" isn't perfect; it doesn't have the mass of a real ball so if you hit out on the toe or heel it doesn't cause the club to rotate like a real ball would; also because it doesn't have the mass of a real ball, on a windy day it is almost comically thrown around.

With all the pros and cons, ultimately, if it helps you get outside and hit balls more often than you otherwise wouldn't have, then it is probably good.

As an alternative if you have an even smaller yard, Golf Digest makes similar balls that are sold in Target stores that are dimpled like the almost balls, but have even less mass and have an even shorter total flight distance.

I do like the foam ones mentioned by b-n-r also, and I also use them for indoor swings.

I really do not like the wiffle balls or the balls that are nothing but a plastic shell. I find that the plastic breaks way too easily and then all you can do is throw them away.

My personal ranking:

Almost balls > Golf Digest balls at Target > Foam balls > Wiffle Balls & Plastic shell balls.

Nothing is better than real balls, really, but if you are constrained by real estate, getting out and hitting something and getting the feedback from a ball flight is better than nothing at all.

This is a good plan. The walking the balls back part of the practice routine here gives you time to think about what you are trying to accomplish. Hit about 3 to 5 and then go and pick them up and repeat. You may not hit as many balls as you could if you hit a whole bag of them, but the time spent thinking about your shots, thinking about your goals, thinking about the swing make the shots you do hit much, much more valuable.

The suggestions about hitting towards the fence makes perfect sense (thats what i was doing today anyway).
My fear comes from the fact that i a still very new to the game so while 99% of golfers could practice chipping in my backyard with no problems i'm not 100% confident i wouldn't shank one off a fence and crack something.
I will probably just grab some of those Golf Digest or almostgolfballs for the time being then go with the real thing when i get a little better.
Since i'm only practicing fairly short chips the distance may not be much of an issue aslong as the ball is heavy enough that i sits down in the grass some(as opposed to a plastic ball which just lays high in the grass)