Linear suits small software and product teams that want a fast, opinionated issue tracker with unlimited members on its free plan. Jira suits teams that need many views, heavy automation and room to grow to large organisations, with up to 10 users free. Watch Linear's 250-issue cap and Jira's 10-user cap before you commit.
Linear and Jira both track issues, sprints and projects, yet they feel nothing alike. Linear is built around a tight set of concepts that every team shares. Jira gives you a toolkit you shape yourself. The free plans make the difference obvious, so that's where I started.
Linear and Jira free plans in one table
| Linear | Jira | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, free for everyone | Yes, free forever |
| Who can join on free | Unlimited members | Up to 10 users |
| Main free limit | 250 issues and 2 teams | 2 GB of storage |
| File uploads on free | 10MB per file | Within the 2 GB storage |
| Automation on free | Not listed as a free feature | 150 automation steps a month for the whole site |
| AI | Agent platform and Linear Agent on the free plan; Triage and Code Intelligence on Business | Rovo AI credits start on the Standard plan |
| Views | Issues, projects, cycles and initiatives | Boards, lists, timeline and calendars |
| Integrations named | API and webhooks on every plan; Zendesk and Intercom on Business | Confluence, Figma, Slack and Gmail |
| Mobile | Not covered on the plans page | iOS and Android apps |
How Linear is built
Linear's docs describe the issue as the basic unit of work. Every team owns its own workflow, triage process and cycles, and sub-teams can inherit settings from a parent team. That structure is why Linear feels consistent across a company: you don't design the system, you adopt it.
- Free: unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues.
- Basic: 5 teams, unlimited issues and unlimited file uploads.
- Business: unlimited and private teams, guests, Triage Intelligence and Linear Insights.
How Jira is built
Jira starts from templates for anything from agile sprints to marketing campaigns, then lets you switch between boards, lists, timeline and calendar views. Atlassian's features page leans on Rovo AI to break big ideas into tasks, assign them and write automations from plain language.
- Free: up to 10 users and 2 GB of storage, no card needed.
- Standard: room for up to 100,000 users per site and 250 GB of storage.
- Dependency mapping to coordinate engineering, product and marketing launches.
Moving a backlog between Linear and Jira
Linear lists import and export, plus API and webhook access, as core features on every plan, so you can pull a backlog in and take it out again without upgrading. Jira's side of the move is its templates: pick the agile or campaign template that's closest to how you work, and the boards, lists and timeline are ready before the first issue lands. Whichever way you go, move one team first and keep the old tool read-only for a few weeks so nobody loses history.
The limit that bites first
On Linear's free plan the ceiling is issues: 250 across the workspace. A busy team can burn through that within a few sprints, so treat the free plan as a trial run of the workflow rather than a permanent home. On Jira the ceiling is people. Atlassian's plans page keeps the free plan to 10 users, so an eleventh hire moves you up a tier, and automation on free is a shared pool of 150 steps a month, not a per-person allowance.
If your team runs Scrum or a scaled framework like SAFe, Jira's templates map onto that vocabulary directly. Linear uses cycles instead of sprints, which suits teams who'd rather not run the full ceremony.
Which team fits which tool
Linear fits startups and product teams of any headcount who want every engineer to see the same structure and move quickly through issues. Jira fits teams that need to plug project work into the wider Atlassian set, run several methods side by side, or report across departments. If you're still choosing a method, my piece on why kanban took over project management is a useful primer.
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My advice for picking between them
Count two things before you sign up: how many people need access, and how many issues you'll log in a quarter. Lots of people and modest issue volume points to Linear's free plan. A small team with a long backlog points to Jira's. Then run one real sprint in your favourite before you migrate anything.
Do you make an issue tracker or project management tool? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place in comparisons like this one.
Frequently asked questions
Is Linear free?
Yes. Linear's free plan is free for everyone with unlimited members, 2 teams and up to 250 issues.
How many users can use Jira for free?
Up to 10. Atlassian lists the free plan as free forever for 10 users with 2 GB of storage.
Does Jira's free plan include automation?
Yes, with 150 automation steps a month shared across the whole site. Higher plans give each user a monthly allowance.
Does Linear have sprints?
Linear uses cycles, which teams plan issues into. Its docs list cycles alongside issues, projects and initiatives as core concepts.
