Linear is best for technical freelancers, small product teams and agencies shipping software. Its clearest advantage: Free plan available for small workspaces.
- Avoid if
- teams tracking non-software client work
- Cheapest useful plan
- $12.00/mo · Basic
- Free plan
- Yes
- Setup effort
- easy: 30 min
- Main limitation
- Built around software delivery, so client-services work fits awkwardly
- Free plan available for small workspaces
- Noticeably faster to operate than general work-management tools
- Opinionated defaults mean less configuration before it is useful
- teams tracking non-software client work
- anyone needing time tracking and invoicing in the same tool
What it actually does
Keyboard-first interface and fast search, cycles, projects and roadmaps, Linear Agent coding sessions that open a pull request, team-level project labels and statuses, Git branch linking.
Before you pay
Who it is for
Linear is built for software teams: issues, cycles and projects with opinionated defaults, so it is useful with little setup and fast to operate. Client-services work fits it awkwardly, and it has no time tracking or invoicing. The free plan suits small workspaces.
What a year costs
Basic is $12 per user a month billed monthly, $144 a year, or $10 billed yearly, $120 a year. Business is $18 per user a month, $216 a year, or $16 billed yearly, $192 a year. Enterprise is sold on annual billing only. Our first reading, on 12 August, took the yearly figure; the record holds the monthly price since 13 September, a correction rather than a price rise.
What we would check before paying
Whether your work is software delivery: if it is client projects with hours to bill, a general project tool plus a time tracker fits better. The pricing page has one billing toggle per plan, so read each card on the monthly setting.
What changed recently
Loops (Linear's automated agents) can be triggered from Slack and GitHub, saved as templates for the workspace, and set to different reasoning levels. Source ↗
Linear Diffs shows stacked pull requests, groups related ones in Reviews and previews the affected pull requests before a GitHub stack is merged. Source ↗
The Linear coding agent sends simpler tasks to a faster model and supports environment secrets and open-weight models. Source ↗
Read on each vendor's official changelog, not tested by us.
The limits to know
- Built around software delivery, so client-services work fits awkwardly
- No native time tracking or invoicing
- Enterprise is sold on annual billing only
Pricing & billing commitment
- Rate on record
- $12.00/mo · Basic
- What that figure is
- Month-to-month rate per seat, read on the vendor's monthly view.
- Commitment
- None: payable one month at a time
- The vendor's exact condition
- $12 per user/month billed monthly; $10 per user/month billed annually
The pricing page, as read
What it costs at 1, 3, 5 and 10 users
Linear bills per seat, so the invoice follows head count. Calculated at the rate on record, before tax, with no annual commitment.
| Seats | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12.00 | $144.00 |
| 3 | $36.00 | $432.00 |
| 5 | $60.00 | $720.00 |
| 10 | $120.00 | $1440.00 |
In practice
- Platforms
- Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
- Integrations
- GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Figma, Zapier
- Setup
- easy: 30 min
Linear in our comparisons
Alternatives to Linear
Compare side by side:Linear / ClickUpLinear / AsanaLinear / Trello
Frequently asked questions
What is Linear?
Linear is a tool used mainly for issue tracking, sprint planning, product roadmaps. Main features: keyboard-first interface and fast search, cycles, projects and roadmaps, Linear Agent coding sessions that open a pull request. It has a permanent free plan; the paid entry point is $12.00/mo · Basic.
How much does Linear cost?
The paid entry point is $12.00/mo · Basic. Month-to-month rate per seat, read on the vendor's monthly view. The exact condition attached to that figure: $12 per user/month billed monthly; $10 per user/month billed annually. Read on the official pricing page on 26.10.2026. Prices move quickly: confirm before subscribing.
Does Linear have a free plan?
Yes. Linear publishes a permanent free plan. Check this before settling on it: built around software delivery, so client-services work fits awkwardly.
What devices and tools does Linear work with?
According to the vendor's documentation, Linear runs on: Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android. Documented integrations: GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Figma, Zapier. Listed from the official sources, not tested by us: check your own setup on the free plan.
How we checked this record
The evidence record
- Evidence level
- Vendor documented: Official documentation and pricing page reviewed and dated. No independent verification, no hands-on test recorded.
- Affiliate status
- No affiliate link on this record, no commission.
Hands-on test
No automated hands-on test has been completed for this review cycle. This record rests on the vendor's official documentation and pricing page, re-read and dated. We say so rather than imply otherwise.
The research record
Read on the vendor's monthly view (per-plan switch off), from France; screenshot kept
Read on the vendor's monthly view, from France
Corrected to the month-to-month figure already recorded in this record's own billing condition
Published by us from the vendor's annual view: our error, read on 2026-08-12
Sources
The official pages this record rests on. No tracking links here: these addresses name the vendor.
Evidence freshness
Each kind of check has its own clock and its own threshold. A price ages in weeks and a feature list in months; sharing one date between them would let an old review pass for a recent check.
| Check | When | State |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Checked 17 days ago | Fresh |
| Features | Checked 18 days ago | Fresh |
| Privacy & data | Never checked | Not independently checked |
| Hands-on test | Never checked | Not independently checked |
| Page review | Checked 92 days ago | Due soon |
What remains unverified
- No workflow was run inside the product. Everything here comes from the vendor's documentation and public pages.
- Data handling and the privacy policy were not independently verified during this research cycle. We therefore publish no conclusion about security or where data is stored.
- Export terms and the real cost of leaving are not on this record: we have not tested them.