What is Linear used for?

Linear is a product development system for planning and building software with issue tracking, projects, initiatives and built-in AI agents. It is a good fit for engineering teams planning sprints and releases, product managers tracking roadmaps, and teams assigning work to AI agents.

Yes. Linear has a free plan, and paid plans start at $10 per seat per month.

Is Linear open source?

No. Linear is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Linear include Veritas Kanban, Plane and Huly.

What are some alternatives to Linear?

Linear competes with Jira, Shortcut and ClickUp. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Linear alternatives.

Linear: features, pricing and alternatives

About Linear

Linear is a commercial tool for software and product teams to plan and track their work. The vendor describes it as a product development system for teams and agents, made specifically for planning and building products and designed for the era of AI.

The interface shown on the homepage includes an inbox, a view of your own issues, reviews, workspace-level initiatives and projects, and a pulse view. Issues carry activity histories, and the product introduces agent tasks and agent insights so that AI agents can be assigned and monitored alongside people. The vendor also publishes docs, customer stories and a pricing page.

Linear is a hosted, proprietary service and is not self-hosted. It suits product, design and engineering teams that want an opinionated, fast tracker for issues and roadmaps, and that are starting to involve AI agents in their development workflow.

Key features

Issue tracking with activity history
Projects and company-level initiatives
Personal inbox and my issues view
Agent tasks and agent insights
Pulse overview of workspace activity

Good fit for

→Engineering teams planning sprints and releases
→Product managers tracking roadmaps
→Teams assigning work to AI agents

Tags: issue-tracking; project-management; product-development; ai-agents; roadmaps; software-teams

Linear: questions and answers

What is Linear used for?: Linear is a product development system for planning and building software with issue tracking, projects, initiatives and built-in AI agents. It is a good fit for engineering teams planning sprints and releases, product managers tracking roadmaps, and teams assigning work to AI agents.
Is Linear free?: Yes. Linear has a free plan, and paid plans start at $10 per seat per month.
Is Linear open source?: No. Linear is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Linear include Veritas Kanban, Plane and Huly.
What are some alternatives to Linear?: Linear competes with Jira, Shortcut and ClickUp. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Linear alternatives.