A comparison · checked October 30, 2026
Looking for a Linear alternative? Here is an honest comparison
The best Linear alternative depends on who else needs to work in it. Linear is built for software teams, and its own principles say tools should be built with the creators in mind [9]. If it is price, Linear's Free plan stops at 250 issues and 2 teams, and Basic is $10 per user a month billed yearly [1]. If it is hours, Linear estimates in points and sizes [3] and its docs point to integrations such as Harvest for time tracking [10]. This page compares Kavanah, Linear, Jira and ClickUp on what their own pages said today, says exactly what comes across from a Linear export, and names the cases where you should stay on Linear.
#Why it is different
Why teams look for a Linear alternative
Most teams that look past Linear are not unhappy engineers. They are companies where engineering is one team of several. Linear is opinionated by design: its principles say productivity software needs to be designed for purpose, and that flexible software which lets everyone invent their own workflows eventually creates chaos as teams scale [9]. That is exactly why engineers like it, and exactly why an operations, client-services or finance team finds it a narrow fit. Estimates are complexity points or t-shirt sizes, and an unestimated issue counts as 1 point by default [3]. Cycles last 1 to 8 weeks and are deliberately not tied to releases [8].
Hours and outside people are the usual gaps. Linear's docs do not describe native time tracking; its integrations directory offers Harvest, which starts a timer from an issue's sidebar [10], and Linear even reserves the label name "hours" as duplicative of existing features [3]. Guest accounts and private teams are on Business, at $16 per user a month billed yearly, and SAML, SCIM and the audit log are on Enterprise [1]. The Free plan allows unlimited members but 250 issues and 2 teams [1]. Exports have limits too: a member can export at most 250 issues from a view as CSV and an admin 2,000, guests cannot export issues, and attachment files are not included [2].
Be fair to Linear, though, because the reasons to stay are real. Its agent platform, MCP access and Linear Agent are on every plan, including Free [1]. Linear Agent can answer questions about your workspace and codebase and take action on your behalf [5], agents can open pull requests against issues and are not counted as billable seats [4], and coding sessions are billed by usage rather than per seat [6]. Linear says it holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001:2022, and lets you store data in the EU or the US [7]. If your company is a software team and the work is code, Linear is very hard to beat. Leaving is a good decision when the rest of the company needs to plan, track hours and work with clients in the same tool. The checklist below is how to tell which.
#What to require
What to check in any Linear alternative before you move
Use this list on every tool you shortlist, including ours. The first two are where most Linear migrations go wrong, because they are only discovered after the import.
01
An export plan that fits Linear's limits
Linear's issue CSV carries title, description, status, estimate, priority, project, assignee, labels, cycle, dates, parent issue and more, but not attachment files [2]. A view export is capped at 250 issues for members and 2,000 for admins, so an admin runs the export, and the full workspace export is admin-only [2]. Plan the export before you plan the import.
02
What happens to cycles, projects and parent issues
Most importers read a flat list. Check which of Linear's structures the new tool rebuilds, which become text, and which you will recreate by hand.
03
Hours, not just points
If the business plans or bills by the hour, check that the tool logs time against tasks natively and uses it. Linear estimates in points and sizes [3]; time comes through integrations [10].
04
Room for the rest of the company
Check that non-engineering teams get views, workflows and permissions that suit them, and that clients or contractors can be let in. On Linear, guest accounts are on Business [1].
05
GitHub links that still work
Engineers will keep working in GitHub. Check how pull requests link to tasks in the new tool, and whether old issue keys in pull request titles will link at all.
06
AI agents: what they touch and who approves
Linear's agents can take most actions human users can, within the delegating user's permissions [4][5]. Ask any vendor which agent actions wait for a person, what a run costs, and how you reverse one.
07
The price at your real team size
Linear Basic is $10 per user a month billed yearly and Business $16 [1]; Jira is free for up to 10 users [11]; ClickUp's Core is $9 per user a month billed yearly [12]. Add any AI usage billed on top: Linear's coding sessions and Loops are billed by usage [6].
#How Kavanah does it
How Kavanah covers what you use Linear for
Kavanah is an agentic project management platform: tasks, sprints and planning for every team, with AI employees that do coordination work inside limits a person sets. Each item below describes the product as it ships today, including where it falls short of Linear.
CSV import of a Linear export
Kavanah reads the columns Linear's CSV export documents: title, description, status, priority, assignee, labels and due date. Imported into a new project, each Linear status becomes a board column, and assignees are matched to members by name or email. Limits: 1,000 rows per import, only the first label is kept, and estimates, cycles, projects, parent issues and issue identifiers are not imported. There is no Linear connector and no sync.
Project keys, sprints and velocity
Every task gets a project key such as KAV-123, and you can rename a project's prefix. Sprints with velocity, plus a planner that compares each person's estimates with the hours they actually logged over the last 90 days and says what fits at the median and at the 90th percentile.
GitHub-linked tasks
Install the GitHub App and pull requests and commits that say "fixes #123" or "task 123" link to that task, with branch and state. Two-way GitHub Issues sync is available per repository. Kavanah has no agent that writes code or opens pull requests; Linear does.
Time tracking on every plan
Native time tracking on every plan, logged against tasks and used by the sprint planner, so estimates are checked against real hours rather than points.
Every team in one place
Custom statuses per project, sub-tasks, dependencies, custom fields, several assignees per task, a Timeline view and a critical-path chart, plus documents, team chat and discussions. Clients you invite through the client portal can follow their projects without being charged as a seat.
AI employees with controls
AI employees with a role, scoped tools and access only to the projects you choose; once you turn it on, a task assigned to one is worked by it. Safe mode removes risky actions, action policies make chosen categories wait for approval, every action lands in a ledger, and actions can be undone. Anything that runs on its own or spends AI credits is off until you turn it on.
Learn moreAPI, CLI and MCP
A REST API with a published OpenAPI spec, API keys that carry the permissions of the person who minted them, the kvn command line, and an MCP server so Claude can use your workspace as a connector.
Learn moreIdentity and security, stated plainly
SAML 2.0 and OIDC single sign-on and SCIM on the Enterprise plan, TOTP and passkey sign-in, per-project and per-task access control, and an audit log. The SOC 2 Type II observation period is underway; there is no report yet.
Learn morePriced per seat, AI metered separately
The free Starter plan covers up to 5 members and 10 projects. Basic is $3 a seat a month ($2 billed yearly) with 100 AI credits per seat shared by the workspace, and Pro is $6 ($4 yearly) with 250. Pay as you go drops the seat fee entirely: seats and projects are unlimited and you buy credits in packs from $10 per 1,000.
Learn more#In practice
Migrating from Linear to Kavanah, step by step
Engineering lead and a workspace admin
1. Decide who moves
- Decide whether engineering moves, or only the teams around it. Some companies keep engineers on Linear and run everything else in Kavanah.
- List the Linear teams and projects that move, and the cycles that are still open.
- Invite your team to Kavanah first, with the names or emails they use in Linear, so assignees match on import.
Linear workspace admin
2. Export from Linear
- Have an admin export the issues as CSV [2]; a member's view export stops at 250 issues, an admin's at 2,000.
- Split each file so no import is over 1,000 rows, for example one file per Linear team or project.
- Keep the full workspace export, and Linear itself, as your archive: attachments, comments and history stay there.
Workspace admin
3. Import each file as a new project
- Send the CSV to the task import API with a project name, from a script or the kvn command line. Each Linear status becomes its own column on the new board.
- For a small file you can instead attach it in chat and ask the agent to import it.
- Read the import report, invite anyone whose name matched no member, then reassign.
Team lead
4. Rebuild what a CSV does not carry
- Rename the project's key prefix, recreate the open sprint and add estimates in hours.
- Recreate parent issues as parent tasks with sub-tasks, and add the dependencies that matter.
- Install the GitHub App and ask developers to reference tasks as "fixes #123"; Linear identifiers in old pull requests do not link to Kavanah tasks.
- Start logging time against tasks, so the next sprint plan has real numbers behind it.
#Compared
Kavanah, Linear, Jira and ClickUp compared
Each competitor cell describes only what that vendor's own public page said when we checked on October 30, 2026: Linear's pricing, security and AI pages and its docs on export, issue properties, agents, Linear Agent, AI credits and cycles, and its Harvest integration page [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][10], Jira's pricing page [11], and ClickUp's pricing and import pages [12][13]. Linear's prices are as billed yearly; its page did not show monthly figures to a scripted read. Jira's prices come from the structured price data on its pricing page, which quotes them at a 300-user tier. ClickUp's "Regular price" figure is not labelled as a monthly rate, so only its yearly figure is given. "Not described" means the page did not say, not that the product lacks it. Kavanah cells describe the product as it ships.
| Criterion | Kavanah | Linear | Jira | ClickUp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry paid price | Basic $3 per seat a month, $2 billed yearly; or Pay as you go, no seat fee, credits from $10 per 1,000 | Basic $10 per user a month, billed yearly [1] | Standard $8.48 per user a month in the page's price data [11] | Core $9 per user a month billed yearly [12] |
| Free option | Starter: up to 5 members and 10 projects, 2 GB | Free: unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues, 10MB uploads [1] | Free for up to 10 users, 2 GB storage [11] | Free Forever: unlimited free members, 60 MB storage [12] |
| Bringing work over from Linear | CSV import: title, description, status, priority, assignee, first label, due date; 1,000 rows per import | Issue CSV export; view exports capped at 250 issues for members, 2,000 for admins; no attachment files [2] | Not described | Not described; CSV is among the listed import sources [13] |
| Estimates and native time tracking | Estimates in hours, checked against time logged on every plan | Points or t-shirt sizes [3]; time tracking through integrations such as Harvest [10] | Not described | Time tracking on Core and up; trial on Free [12] |
| Sprints | Sprints and velocity; planner forecasts at p50 and p90 from estimate-vs-actual history | Cycles of 1 to 8 weeks, not tied to releases [8] | Not described | Not described |
| AI agents and their controls | AI employees with scoped tools; safe mode, approval policies, action ledger and undo | Linear Agent on every plan, within the user's permissions; agents not billed as seats [1][4][5] | AI agents on every paid plan; Rovo credits by plan [11] | Super Agents, paid for with AI credits [12] |
| AI that writes code | None; GitHub pull requests and commits link to tasks | Coding sessions billed at model rates plus $0.25 per 20-minute sandbox block [6] | Third-party agents and Rovo MCP Server on paid plans [11] | Not described |
| Guests and clients | Client portal; clients are not charged as seats | Guest accounts on Business [1] | Free guest access on paid plans [11] | Guest permissions on Core [12] |
| SSO and SCIM | SAML 2.0 / OIDC SSO and SCIM on Enterprise | Google SSO on every plan; SAML and SCIM on Enterprise [1] | SSO and SCIM with an Atlassian Guard subscription; included on Enterprise [11] | SSO, SAML and SCIM on Enterprise [12] |
| Security attestations named | SOC 2 Type II observation period underway; no report yet | SOC 2 Type II; ISO/IEC 27001:2022 [7] | Not described | SOC 2 and ISO 27001 [12] |
#Questions
Questions buyers ask
- What is the best Linear alternative?
- It depends on who needs to use it. For a large engineering organisation with formal processes, Jira is the usual choice. For a company that wants docs, goals and time tracking in one tool, ClickUp covers more kinds of work. Kavanah fits companies where engineering is one team of several and everyone needs sprints, time tracking, a client portal and AI employees under real controls, at $3 a seat a month. For a software team whose work is code, staying on Linear is often the better call.
- Is there a free Linear alternative?
- Yes. Jira is free for up to 10 users, ClickUp's Free Forever plan allows unlimited members with 60 MB of storage, and Kavanah's free Starter plan covers up to 5 members and 10 projects with time tracking included. Linear's own Free plan allows unlimited members but stops at 250 issues and 2 teams.
- Can I import my Linear issues into Kavanah?
- Yes, from a Linear CSV export. Kavanah reads the title, description, status, priority, assignee, labels and due date columns, up to 1,000 rows per import, and can turn each Linear status into a board column. Only the first label is kept, and estimates, cycles, projects, parent issues and Linear's issue identifiers are not imported. Have a Linear admin run the export, because a member's view export stops at 250 issues.
- Does Kavanah integrate with Linear?
- No. There is no Linear connector, sync or direct importer today; moving work is a one-time CSV import. Companies that keep engineering on Linear and move other teams to Kavanah run the two side by side, and link Kavanah tasks to GitHub pull requests instead.
- Does Kavanah have time tracking, unlike Linear?
- Yes. Time tracking is built into every Kavanah plan, logged against tasks, and the sprint planner compares each person's estimates with the hours they actually logged. Linear's docs estimate in points or t-shirt sizes and point to integrations such as Harvest for time tracking.
- Can Kavanah's AI write code like Linear's agents?
- No. Linear's agents can open pull requests against issues, and Linear offers coding sessions billed by usage. Kavanah's AI employees do coordination work instead: planning, updating tasks, drafting and reporting, inside the projects and tools you give them, with approval policies, an action ledger and undo. Kavanah links pull requests and commits to tasks through its GitHub App.
- When should a team stay on Linear?
- When the company is a software team and the work is code. Linear's speed, its opinionated workflow, Linear Agent on every plan and agents that open pull requests are real advantages for engineers, and Linear holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. If no one outside engineering needs to plan, track hours or work with clients in the same tool, the cost of moving is likely to exceed what you gain.
#Go deeper
One question at a time
- Linear vs Kavanah: An Honest Comparison for Companies, Not Just EngineersLinear is built for software teams and says so. Kavanah is built for a whole company running projects with AI employees. Here is where each is stronger, and when you should stay on Linear.
- How to Migrate From Linear to Kavanah Within Linear's Export LimitsLinear's CSV export is capped at 250 issues for members and 2,000 for admins, and Kavanah imports 1,000 rows at a time. Here is a migration plan that fits both limits, and what to rebuild by hand.
- Linear Pricing Explained (2026): Plans, Limits and AI CreditsLinear's Free plan stops at 250 issues, Basic is $10 and Business $16 per user a month billed yearly, and coding sessions and Loops draw on a separate AI credit balance. Here is what each plan includes.
- Story Points vs Hours: Planning Sprints in Linear and KavanahLinear estimates in points and t-shirt sizes and forecasts capacity from velocity. Kavanah estimates in time and checks it against the hours people really log. Here is when each approach works.
Related reading
- Jira alternative: an honest comparisonPrices, what each tool imports from Jira, and when to stay.
- Project management software for tech companiesGitHub, sprints, and agents over the API.
- Agentic project managementWhat AI employees do, and the controls that keep them in bounds.
- PricingPer-seat plans, Pay as you go, and how AI credits work.
Sources
- [1] Pricing — Linear, 2026, updated
- [2] Exporting Data — Linear Docs, 2026, updated
- [3] Issue properties — Linear Docs, 2026, updated
- [4] AI Agents — Linear Docs, 2026, updated
- [5] Linear Agent — Linear Docs, 2026, updated
- [6] AI Credits — Linear Docs, 2026, updated
- [7] Security — Linear, 2026, updated
- [8] Cycles — Linear Docs, 2026, updated
- [9] Linear Method: Principles & Practices — Linear, 2026, updated
- [10] Harvest integration — Linear, 2026, updated
- [11] Jira pricing: Free, Standard, Premium, Enterprise — Atlassian, 2026, updated
- [12] ClickUp Pricing and Plans — ClickUp, 2026, updated
- [13] Import anything into ClickUp — ClickUp, 2026, updated
Sources and the comparison were checked on October 30, 2026. Product details change; check each vendor's own pages before you decide.
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