Linear vs Jira vs Plane

Written head to head: Jira vs Linear, with when to choose each side.

Compared on	Linear Free plan · from $10/user/mo VisitRemove	Jira Free plan · from $9.70/user/mo VisitRemove	Plane Free plan · from $6/seat/mo VisitRemove
What it is	Issue tracking and product planning for software teams, with a built-in agent that can write code	Atlassian's project and issue tracker with Rovo AI agents on paid plans and a free plan for 10 users	Open-source project management and wiki with AI agents, on Plane's cloud or self-hosted, including air-gapped
Free plan	Unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues, 10MB file uploads; includes the agent platform, Linear Agent and MCP access	Up to 10 users, unlimited goals, projects, tasks and forms, backlog, list, board, timeline, calendar and summary views, 150 automation steps per subscription per month, 2 GB storage, 100 email notifications a day, community support. No Rovo AI.	Up to 12 users; projects and work items, cycles and modules, five layouts, intake, estimates and project pages; available on cloud or self-hosted
Cheapest paid plan	$10/user/mo billed annually (Basic)Linear pricing	$9.70/user/mo (Standard)Jira pricing	$6/seat/mo billed annually (Pro)Plane pricing
What it covers	$10 per user a month billed yearly; 5 teams, unlimited issues and file uploads, admin roles, Loops. Billed for unsuspended users. Coding sessions and Loops use prepaid AI credits on top.	$9.70 per user a month on monthly billing for users 1 to 100; lower graduated rates above 100 users (the page shows an average of $8.48 at its default of 300 users). Annual billing is priced by user tier instead, for example $2,450 a year for 16 to 25 users. Includes 25 Rovo credits and 400 automation steps per user a month, 250 GB storage.	$6 per seat a month billed yearly or $8 billed monthly, on cloud or self-hosted. Includes 500 AI credits per seat a month (reset monthly, no rollover) and 5 guests per paid member.
Free trial	None stated	7-day free trial of Standard or Premium; no payment information required	Two-week free trial of Pro or Business
Platforms	Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, API	Web, iOS, Android, CLI, API	Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
Integrations (vendor's figure)	Not stated	3,000+ integrations in the Atlassian Marketplace	50+ tools, including Slack, GitHub and Figma
Open source	No	No	Yes, self-hostable
Good for	Software product teams planning cycles and roadmaps Engineering teams that assign issues to coding agents Startups that want an issue tracker with a usable free tier	Software teams planning sprints and tracking work items Organisations already using Confluence and other Atlassian products Coordinating dependencies across many teams on Premium	Teams moving off Jira that want an open-source or self-hosted option Software teams running sprints with docs next to the work Regulated organisations that need on-premises or air-gapped deployment
Watch out for	The free plan is capped at 250 issues and 2 teams The pricing page shows only yearly-billed prices, although the docs say monthly billing is available Coding sessions and Loops draw on a prepaid AI credit balance on top of seat fees	Free plan: 10 users, 2 GB storage, 150 automation steps a month for the whole subscription and no Rovo AI Annual billing is sold in user tiers, and Enterprise is annual only and priced from 801 users Cross-project dependencies, approvals and the 99.9% uptime SLA need Premium	The free plan is limited to 12 users Paid features on a self-hosted instance need a licence key bought from Plane's Prime portal AI credits are per seat, reset monthly and do not roll over
Made by	Linear Orbit, Inc.	Atlassian	Plane Software, Inc.

Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.

Every tool in project management tools is on its category page, with the written head-to-heads on Compare.