Linear Review 2026: Deep Dive for Solo Devs & Small Teams
Free tier limits, real costs per team size, and honest "not for" warnings. Everything you need to decide if Linear fits your stack.
Quick Summary
💰 Monthly Cost by Team Size
🚫 Not Recommended For
- Non-technical teams (marketing, HR)
- Teams needing built-in docs/wiki
- Large organizations needing extensive customization
Linear Pricing (2026)
| Plan | Price | Billing |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Forever |
| Basic | $8/mo | monthly |
| Business | $14/mo | monthly |
| Enterprise | Custom | yearly |
Pros & Cons
✅ What We Like
- Blazingly fast UI — feels instant even with thousands of issues
- Keyboard-first design loved by developers
- Built-in AI agents for auto-triage and workflows
- Excellent GitHub and Slack integration out of the box
- Free tier includes unlimited members (rare)
❌ What Could Be Better
- Free tier capped at 250 issues — fills up fast for active projects
- Limited document/wiki features — need Notion or similar alongside
- No built-in time tracking
- Not ideal for non-engineering teams (marketing, ops)
- Fewer integrations than ClickUp or Monday
Feature Breakdown
🏆 Our Verdict
Linear scores 4.9/5 in our evaluation. Solo Dev Score: 8.5/10. It's best suited for Software engineering teams (2-20 people), Solo devs who want a fast, opinionated tracker, Teams using GitHub-centric workflows. We recommend it as a top choice in its category.
📝 Editor's Note
Linear is the fastest project management tool we have ever tested — sub-100ms interactions even with 5,000+ issues. The free tier now includes unlimited members (rare in this space), but caps at 250 issues which fills up fast for active projects. Their AI triage feature is surprisingly accurate at auto-categorizing incoming issues.
💡 Pricing Verdict: At $8/user/month for Basic, Linear is competitively priced for engineering teams. The free tier works for small side projects, but any team shipping weekly will hit the 250-issue cap within 2 months. The jump to Basic is worth it for the unlimited issues alone.
🔄 Switching Tips: Migrating from Jira to Linear? Use their official importer — it handles epics, sprints, and custom fields well. The mental model shift from Jira’s heavyweight workflows to Linear’s streamlined approach takes about 2 weeks for most teams.
See how it compares: ClickUp, Asana, Todoist
Try Linear Free →Frequently Asked Questions
Is Linear worth the price in 2026?
Linear starts at Free / $8/mo. Based on our evaluation, it scores 4.9/5 overall. Whether it's worth it depends on your team size and feature requirements — read our detailed breakdown above.
What are the main alternatives to Linear?
Several tools compete with Linear in its category. Check our comparison section above for head-to-head matchups with the top alternatives.
Does Linear offer a free plan?
Check our pricing section above for the most up-to-date information on Linear's free tier and paid plans.
Is Linear good for small businesses?
Linear can work for small businesses depending on your budget and requirements. Review our "Best For" section to see if it matches your use case.
📖 Read Next
More project management reviews you might find useful
Notion
All-in-one workspace for notes, docs, project management, and wikis.
ClickUp
Feature-rich project management platform designed to replace multiple tools.
Monday.com
Visual project management platform with customizable workflows and automations.