Linear vs Plane

Linear

• Software teams planning work in issues, cycles and projects
• Small teams: the free plan has no member limit
• Teams that hand issues to coding agents

Plane

• Teams that want to self-host their project management tool
• Small teams of up to 12 people who fit the Free plan
• Teams moving off Jira, Linear, Asana or ClickUp using the built-in importers

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.

Plane

• The Free plan is capped at 12 users; time tracking, the workspace wiki, dashboards and work item types start at Pro.
• The download page lists the Windows desktop app as coming soon; macOS and Linux desktop apps are available.
• The mobile apps work with Cloud and the commercial self-hosted editions, not with the open-source Community Edition.
• LDAP, granular access control and multiple workflows with approvals are limited to Enterprise Grid, which is priced by quote.

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.

Plane

Work items, cycles and modules

Projects hold work items, which are planned into time-boxed cycles and grouped into modules. Cycles come with velocity tracking and burndown charts.

Five layouts and saved views

Work items can be shown as a list, board, calendar, Gantt chart or spreadsheet, and a set of sort, filter and display options can be saved as a view.

Pages and wiki

Project pages are included on Free. Pro adds a workspace wiki for company-wide knowledge, and Business adds nested pages and embeds.

Plane AI and agents

Plane AI answers questions from across the workspace, and agents run on mentions, assignments and schedules. Pro includes 500 AI credits per seat a month and Business 1,000.

Intake

Intake collects feedback and requests for triage before they become work items. Business adds a dedicated intake email address and public web forms.

Self-hosting

Plane deploys on your own servers with Docker or Kubernetes, and an air-gapped edition covers isolated networks. The core is open source under AGPL v3.0.

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.

Plane

• Free$0

  Up to 12 users. Projects and work items, cycles and modules, five layouts with unlimited views, work item intake, estimates and project pages.

• Pro$6

  per seat / month, billed annually ($8 billed monthly)

  Unlimited seats, 500 AI credits per seat, work item types, workspace wiki, time tracking, dashboards, initiatives, teamspaces and integrations.

• Business$13

  per seat / month, billed annually ($15 billed monthly)

  1,000 AI credits per seat, project templates, recurring work items, intake email and forms, a workflow per project and customer profiles.

• Enterprise GridCustom

  Quote on request. Private and managed deployments, granular access control, multiple workflows with approvals, LDAP and audit logs.

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.

Plane

• Annual discount

  Save up to 25% with annual billing

  Pro is $6 per seat / month billed annually against $8 billed monthly, a 25% saving. Business is $13 against $15, about 13%.

• Startups

  Startup discounts on request

  Plane's startups page says startup discounts are reviewed on demand: applicants send their company stage, team size and needs through the sales form.