Anakin vs Linear (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Linear grades higher than Anakin: 3.0 against 2.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 2, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Anakin grades higher on value for money and the free plan. Linear grades higher on features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Anakin
Team workspace for planning work and assigning it to coding agents
Linear
Issue tracking and product planning for software teams
Which one is for you
Pick Anakin if
- Fits if you run a small team and want to hand tasks to coding agents
- Works for groups of up to 5 who want a free planning board
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a tool that builds an app from a prompt, as this is a planning workspace
- Not for you if you have no coding agent, as it sells no model usage
- Watch out: the docs are marked coming soon and no monthly price for Team is shown
- Too light on phones, as only Mac, Windows and Linux apps are named
Pick Linear if
- Fits if your team ships software and plans in issues, sprints and roadmaps
- Works for teams handing work to coding agents like Cursor, Codex or Copilot
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if your team isn't building software, since it's all issues and cycles, with no time tracking or budgets
- Tight if you'll pass 250 issues or 2 teams on the free plan, and there's no trial of the paid plans
- Pricey if you need private teams, guests or Insights, which start on Business at $16 a person
- Not for you if you want to do real work from your phone, as reviewers report lost edits and fewer features
- Watch out: there's no Linux app, and SAML and SCIM are Enterprise only, priced on request and billed yearly
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAAnakinGood | 3.0GPALinearVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree for up to 5 people and $7 per user a month on yearly billing after that, against project tools like Linear and Jira that charge more. | CBasic is $10 a person a month on yearly billing, the dear edge of this category rather than the middle, and it buys 5 teams and unlimited issues. The parts a growing company wants, private teams, guests, Insights and Asks, are on Business at $16, double what most tools here charge. |
| Free plan and trial | AThe full product is free for organisations of up to 5 people, with no seat charge. Guests, agents and computers do not count. | CUnlimited members, but 250 issues and 2 teams is a wall a busy team hits in weeks, and there is no trial of the paid plans on top. Treat free as a long look round rather than somewhere to settle. |
| Features | DAgile planning, parallel agent runs, import and sync. It needs coding agents you pay for yourself and does not build apps on its own. | BIssues, cycles, projects, initiatives, triage, list and board layouts, and Linear Agent on every plan including free. That covers a software team's tracking. For the rest of this category plenty is missing: no time tracking, no budgets, no resource planning, and Insights waits for Business. |
| Ease of use | CDesktop apps to install, then agents and plans to connect. No store rating is on record. | A4.83 on the App Store from 2,179 ratings, the top band. It follows the issues-and-sprints setup engineering teams already use, though anyone outside software has that to learn, and the phone app is the thin part. |
| Platforms and integrations | CMac, Windows and Linux desktop apps with 8 integrations. No phone app is named. | AWeb, Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, with GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Figma, Sentry, Zendesk, Intercom and Notion on the integrations page and an API behind them. The gap is Linux: the download page has no app for it. |
| Best for | a workspace that plans work and hands it to coding agents | software teams tracking issues |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Anakin and Linear. How we grade
Where they differ
- Anakin also covers Gantt & timelines and AI agents.
- Linear also covers tasks.
At a glance
| Anakin | Linear | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $7 per user / month, billed yearly | $10 per user / month, billed yearly |
| Free plan | Free for organizations of up to 5 people, with the full product and no seat charge. | Unlimited members, 2 teams and 250 issues, with the agent platform and Linear Agent included. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Anakin Labs, Inc. | Linear |
| Price read from | anakin.ai | linear.app |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 2, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Anakin
- Anakin does not sell model usage; agent runs use your own coding plans or API accounts.
- It is a planning and delegation workspace, not a prompt-to-app builder like most of this category.
- The site's docs are marked as coming soon, and the pricing page does not show a monthly-billing price for Team.
- The download dialog lists macOS, Windows and Linux desktop apps; no iOS or Android app is named.
Linear
- The Free plan stops at 250 issues and 2 teams.
- Private teams, guests, Linear Insights and Linear Asks need the Business plan at $16 per user / month.
- SAML and SCIM are limited to Enterprise, which is billed annually only.
- The download page lists macOS, Windows, iOS and Android apps but no Linux app.
Key features
Anakin
- Agents as teammates
- Work can be assigned to a person, an agent or a crew, and agents and skills are shared across the team.
- Agile planning
- Issues, projects, sprints, backlog and triage, with board, list, table, dashboard and Gantt views.
- Parallel agent runs
- Each agent can work in its own isolated worktree so parallel changes stay separate until reviewed.
- Import and sync
- The site lists migration or two-way sync with Jira, Linear, Asana, GitHub Issues, GitLab Issues and Shortcut.
- Bring your own agents
- Runs go through a connected computer and the Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or other plan the team already pays for.
Linear
- Issues and cycles
- Every piece of work is tracked as an issue. Cycles are recurring, fixed-length periods that a team plans a set of issues into.
- Projects and initiatives
- Projects collect the issues behind one deliverable, and initiatives group several projects under a larger company objective.
- List and board layouts
- Nearly every issue view can switch between a list and a kanban-style board, with optional swimlanes for an extra grouping.
- Triage and Asks
- Triage is a review step for new work before a team takes it on. Linear Asks, on the Business plan, turns workplace requests into issues.
- Insights
- Built-in analytics for whichever set of work a team wants to examine. Linear Insights is part of the Business plan.
- Linear Agent and coding agents
- Linear Agent is included on every plan, and the integration directory lists coding agents such as Codex, Cursor and GitHub Copilot.
Plans
Anakin
Free$0
for up to 5 people
The full product for organizations of up to 5 people; guests, agents and computers do not count as people.
Team$7
per user / month, billed yearly
The same product for organizations larger than 5 people, with unlimited people.
Self-hostedCustom
A private deployment on your own infrastructure; priced through a demo call.
Linear
Free$0
Unlimited members, 2 teams and 250 issues, with the agent platform and Linear Agent.
Basic$10
per user / month, billed yearly
5 teams, unlimited issues, unlimited file uploads and admin roles.
Business$16
per user / month, billed yearly
Unlimited teams, private teams and guests, Linear Insights, Linear Asks, Triage Intelligence, and Zendesk and Intercom integrations.
EnterpriseCustom
SAML and SCIM, granular admin controls, invoice or PO billing, and migration and onboarding support. Annual billing only.
Ways to pay less
Anakin
No public discounts listed.
Linear
- Nonprofit
75% off for eligible charities
Linear's billing docs offer eligible charities 75% off the Basic and Business plans on request by email. Enterprise is excluded.
- Education
Free year for students, 75% off for staff
The Education Program gives full-time students free access for one year and university staff a 75% discount, requested from a .edu address.
- Startups
Up to 6 months of Business free for startups
Startups with fewer than 50 employees that are not yet paying and belong to a Linear partner program can get up to 6 months of the Business plan free.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Anakin or Linear?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Anakin is cheaper to start with: $7 a month for each person, against $10 a month for each person for Linear. Anakin starts at $7 per user / month, billed yearly, and Linear starts at $10 per user / month, billed yearly.
Which has a free plan, Anakin or Linear?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Anakin and Linear have a free plan.
Which platforms do Anakin and Linear run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Anakin lists a Linux app and only Linear lists a web app and iOS and Android apps. Both list macOS and Windows apps. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.