Project Management Comparison

Jira vs. Linear

At a glance

Jira

Best for

Best for software development teams running agile workflows.

Small and mid-sized
Enterprise

Linear

Best for

Best for software and product teams that want fast, structured issue tracking and planning.

Freelancers
Small and mid-sized
Enterprise

Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.

Full Comparison

Criterion	Jira	Linear
Starting price	Free; Standard from ~$7.91 / user / month Premium ~$15.25 per user and month, Enterprise on request. The free tier covers up to 10 users.	Free; Basic from $10 / user / month Billed yearly. Business is $16 per user and month. Enterprise is custom and annual billing only. The free plan covers up to 250 issues and 2 teams.
Free trial	Free tier	Free tier
Made in	Australia	Not stated
Task planning	Yes, agile boards for Scrum and Kanban, with sprints, backlogs and roadmaps	Yes, issues grouped into projects, cycles and initiatives, with board, list and timeline views and roadmaps
Resource planning	Limited natively, capacity planning via Premium Advanced Roadmaps or marketplace apps	Not built in; Linear centers on issue tracking and product planning
Time tracking	Yes, native worklogs	Not built in; available through third-party integrations
Reporting and controlling	Yes	Insights and Dashboards on the Business plan and up, with project progress and analytics
Integrations and API	Yes, deep developer-tool integration	Yes, GraphQL API and webhooks, with integrations for GitHub, GitLab, Slack and Figma
AI features	stated Yes	No
MCP-ready	No	stated Yes
Deployment	more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Support	more entries Email helpdesk, Phone, Community forum	Email helpdesk, Community forum
Onboarding	more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Live online demos and webinars	Documentation and knowledge base
Company size	Small and mid-sized, Enterprise	more entries Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
Integrations	more entries Confluence, Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Tempo	GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Figma, Sentry

Compare more tools

Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.

The short version

Key Differences

Starting price Jira Free; Standard from ~$7.91 / user / month Linear Free; Basic from $10 / user / month
Deployment Jira Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise Linear Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Company size Jira Small and mid-sized, Enterprise Linear Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
Support Jira Email helpdesk, Phone, Community forum Linear Email helpdesk, Community forum
AI features Jira Yes Linear No

Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

Jira

Strengths

The standard for agile software teams
Deep developer-tool integration
On-premise option via Data Center

Limitations

Overkill and complex for non-software teams
Configuration can get heavy

Linear

Strengths

Fast, keyboard-driven interface built for software teams
Clear model of issues, projects, cycles and initiatives
Strong developer integrations and an official MCP server for AI agents
Free plan for up to 250 issues and 2 teams

Limitations

No built-in time tracking or staffing-style resource planning
Focused on software and product work, less suited to general project management

Plans

Pricing

Jira

Free $0 Up to 10 users.
Standard ~$7.91 Per user and month.
Premium ~$15.25 Per user and month.
Enterprise Custom On request.

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Linear

Free $0 Up to 250 issues, 2 teams and 10 MB file uploads.
Basic $10 Per user and month, billed yearly. Unlimited issues and up to 5 teams.
Business $16 Per user and month, billed yearly. Unlimited teams, private teams and more integrations.
Enterprise Not stated Custom pricing, annual billing only. Adds SAML/SCIM, priority support and account management.

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What users say

Review Scores · opens after launch

Jira

Ease of use: Not rated yet
User interface: Not rated yet
Onboarding: Not rated yet
Support and service: Not rated yet
Value for money: Not rated yet
Features: Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.

Linear

Ease of use: Not rated yet
User interface: Not rated yet
Onboarding: Not rated yet
Support and service: Not rated yet
Value for money: Not rated yet
Features: Not rated yet

No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.

How we check reviews

Reviews are not published yet. The form on a tool's page works and reaches us, but nothing from it appears on this site, so no score here is based on a review. The rules below are the ones that will apply once reviews go live.

Every review is read by a person before it appears. We require a working email address and use it to come back to the author, so a review has a reachable sender rather than being anonymous. We publish positive and negative reviews alike, we pay nothing and offer nothing for a review, and we accept none that was bought or incentivised.

What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on what they tell us, plus the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.

A vendor cannot have a review removed, cannot buy one, and cannot have one changed. Paid placement and a paid listing have no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.

Where this comes from

Jira https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira · no check date recorded yet

Linear https://linear.app · checked against the official source on 2026-08-22

This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.