Happy Valley

Linear vs Plane

Linear and Plane are both project management tools aimed at developers and small businesses. Plane costs less, from $8/mo versus $10/mo for Linear. Both have a free plan.

Linear

Issue tracking built for fast software teams

Plane

Open-source project management

PricingFreemium · $10Open source · $8
Starting price$10/mo$8/mo
Free planYesYes
Free trial—14 days
Built forDevelopers, Small businessesDevelopers, Small businesses
Platformsweb, macos, windows, ios, androidweb
CountryUS · 2019US · 2022
Rating——

Choose Linear if

Product and engineering teams from 3 to a few hundred people who ship continuously and want speed over configurability.

  • Fastest issue tracker in day-to-day use; keyboard-first design
  • Opinionated structure keeps teams consistent without configuration
  • Excellent GitHub, Slack and Sentry integrations

Look elsewhere if: Organizations that need bespoke workflows, custom issue hierarchies, or a single tool for marketing, HR and engineering.

Choose Plane if

Engineering and product teams that want Linear-like workflows with open source and lower cost.

  • Open source with a real self-host path
  • Cheaper than Linear and Jira per seat
  • Flexible views without Jira's complexity

Look elsewhere if: Teams needing enterprise reporting and ecosystem today (Jira) or maximum polish (Linear).

Linear vs Plane pricing

Linear

  • Free$0Unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues
  • Basic$10/user/moBilled yearly; 5 teams, unlimited issues and uploads, admin roles
  • Business$16/user/moBilled yearly; unlimited teams, private teams, Insights, Asks
  • EnterpriseCustomAnnual only; SAML, SCIM, advanced security

Plane

  • Community (self-hosted)$0AGPL, self-hosted
  • Free (Cloud)$0Up to 12 users
  • Pro$8/seat/mo$6/seat/mo billed annually; 500 AI credits/seat
  • Business$15/seat/mo$13/seat/mo billed annually; 1,000 AI credits/seat
  • Enterprise GridCustomPrivate and managed deployments, granular access

Linear · Key features

  • Cycles (sprints) with automatic rollover and capacity view
  • Projects and initiatives with milestones, updates and roadmap views
  • Triage inbox for bugs and requests from Slack, Intercom, Zendesk and Sentry
  • GitHub/GitLab automation: branch naming, PR links and auto-close on merge
  • Insights dashboards for velocity, scope change and cycle time
  • Local-first sync engine; the app works offline and feels instant

Cons

  • Limited customization compared with Jira (no custom issue types)
  • Reporting is improving but still lighter than enterprise tools
  • Not designed for non-engineering departments

Plane · Key features

  • Issues, cycles, modules and multi-layout views
  • Pages for docs and Intake for triaging requests
  • Self-hosting with Docker; AGPL community edition
  • Importers from Jira, Linear, Asana and GitHub
  • Custom workflows, time tracking and Plane AI (Pro)
  • API, webhooks and Slack/GitHub integrations

Cons

  • Less polished than Linear
  • Smaller integration ecosystem
  • Self-hosting needs maintenance

Linear vs Plane: FAQ

Which is cheaper, Linear or Plane?

Plane starts at $8/mo and Linear at $10/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.

Do Linear and Plane have a free plan?

Yes, both Linear and Plane have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.

Not sure yet?