Linear Alternatives in 2026 (With and Without AI Credits)

The best Linear alternatives in 2026 depend on why you are leaving. Non-engineering teams usually land on Atrix or Notion; teams that want open source and self-hosting pick Plane; teams that need Jira-style workflows pick Shortcut or Jira itself. Linear remains the fastest pure issue tracker, and its $10 seat price has not changed, but its AI features now bill from a separate credit balance.

We use Linear-style cycles in our own work and have watched three client teams move off Linear this year. This post explains who leaves and why, what changed with Linear's AI credits in June and August 2026, and what each alternative costs as of October 2026.

Who actually leaves Linear

Linear is excellent at one thing: letting an engineering team move issues through cycles quickly. The people who leave are rarely unhappy with that. They leave for one of four reasons.

The team is not only engineers. Marketing, operations, sales and founders find Linear's terse, keyboard-first interface hard to live in, and Linear has no docs, CRM or chat to give them a home.
They are paying for three tools. Linear plus Notion plus a CRM is common. At 10 people that is roughly $100 for Linear Basic, $100 for Notion Plus and whatever the CRM costs, before AI.
They want to own the data. Linear is cloud-only. Teams with data-residency needs or a preference for self-hosting look at Plane.
They are wary of metered AI. This is the new one, and it needs explaining.

What changed with Linear's AI credits in 2026

Linear's seat prices are unchanged as of October 2026: Free (unlimited members, 250 issues, 2 teams), Basic at $10 per user per month billed yearly, Business at $16. What changed is how the AI features are paid for.

June 2026. Linear's terms update introduced AI credits: "denominated in U.S. dollars and fungible across all metered AI services", pooled at the workspace level. Coding Sessions, the agent that writes code from an issue, became the first and so far only metered service.
July 2026. Linear Agent automations were renamed Loops, and the pricing page now footnotes both Loops and Coding Sessions as "requires AI credits".
20 August 2026. Linear's changelog announced a lower-cost model for Coding Sessions with two components: model tokens passed through at the provider's published rates with no markup, plus a sandbox runtime charge of $0.25 per 20-minute block. Admins can set workspace and per-user spend limits that pause usage when reached.

This is a reasonable design. It is also a bill that moves with usage, and a small team that leans on the agent can see it grow in a way that a flat seat price never did. If that bothers you, the alternatives below either bundle AI into a fixed allowance (Atrix, ClickUp, monday) or leave it out (Plane's free tier, Shortcut).

The alternatives at a glance

Prices as shown on each vendor's pricing page in October 2026, yearly billing where the vendor quotes it.

Tool	Best for	Entry paid price	Free plan	Docs built in	AI model
Linear	Engineering teams	$10 per user	250 issues, 2 teams	No	Seats plus metered credits
Plane	Open source, self-hosting	$6 per user yearly ($8 monthly)	12 users	Wiki on paid plans	AI credits on paid plans
Atrix	Teams of 2 to 15 that want work, docs, CRM, hiring in one	$39 flat for 5 seats	None; 7-day trial with card	Yes	Fixed AI runs per plan (100 or 500)
Shortcut	Jira-like workflows without Jira admin	$8.50 per user	10 users, 1 team	Yes	Limited
Jira	Larger teams, compliance, Atlassian ecosystem	about $7.91 to $8.48 per user	10 users, 2 GB	No (Confluence is separate)	Rovo included on paid plans
Notion	Docs-first teams with light task tracking	$10 per member	Yes, limited for 2+ members	Yes	Agent on Business; credits for Custom Agents

Plane: the open-source Linear alternative

Plane is the most direct answer to "Linear, but open source". The interface borrows Linear's shape (issues, cycles, modules, views) and the open-source edition can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure. The cloud Free plan allows 12 users; Pro is $6 per user per month billed yearly or $8 monthly; Business is $13 yearly or $15 monthly.

Where it falls short of Linear: speed and polish. Linear's keyboard navigation, triage intelligence and GitHub integration are more mature. Plane's mobile apps and AI features are younger. For a technical team that wants to own its data, that trade is often worth it; the search "linear vs plane" is almost always answered by "do you want to self-host?"

Atrix: for teams that need more than an issue tracker

Atrix AI is our product, so read this section as one vendor's view. It is built for teams of 2 to 15 that want product work, docs, chat, CRM, hiring and HR in one workspace rather than five subscriptions.

The work tracker will feel familiar to Linear users: five views, cycles of one to four weeks with a goal, burndown and automatic rollover, coloured labels, milestones and a backlog. It deliberately has no story points or velocity. Around it sit docs with live co-editing and version history, team chat, a calendar with public booking links and Google or Outlook sync, a five-stage CRM, hiring with a public careers page, people records with leave and expenses, OKRs and time tracking.

AI is bundled rather than metered. Builder is $39 a month for 5 seats and 100 AI runs; Studio is $149 for 15 seats and 500 runs; yearly billing is 20% off. A Develop run takes a brief and produces requirements, an architecture note and planned issues on the board. The requirements audit checks coverage against a frozen baseline; it does not scan code. The MCP server exposes 85 tools over OAuth 2.1 and is listed in the Official MCP Registry, so Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Codex can work the same issues. Details at /features/mcp.

Honest limits: no free plan (the 7-day trial needs a card), a far smaller integration catalogue than Linear's, no coding agent that writes and runs code in a sandbox, and nothing above 15 seats except for founding teams who subscribe before 31 December 2026 and keep unlimited seats.

Shortcut and Jira: when you want Jira-style workflows

Shortcut keeps stories, epics, iterations and customisable workflows, with docs built in. Free for up to 10 users and 1 team; Team is $8.50 per user per month and Business $12. It is slower-moving than Linear but far less terse, and non-engineers cope with it better.

Jira is the alternative when you are growing past 15 people or need the Atlassian ecosystem. Free covers 10 users with 2 GB. Atlassian raised cloud list prices on 13 October 2026; its page showed Standard at $7.91 per user per month before the rise and a price tracker recorded $8.48 after. Rovo AI is included on paid plans with usage allowances. The cost of Jira is less the price than the administration: schemes, permissions and Marketplace apps billed on every user.

Notion: when docs matter more than tickets

Notion is where many non-engineering teams end up after Linear, because the docs are first-class and a task database is good enough for light tracking. Plus is $10 per member per month and Business $20, with Notion Agent and AI Meeting Notes included on Business and metered credits for Custom Agents at $10 per 1,000.

The limit is the one we wrote about in our Notion comparison: a database is not a tracker. There are no cycles with burndown, no triage, no automatic rollover, and keeping a Notion board in sync with engineering reality takes a person. Our full comparison is at /compare/linear.

How to choose

Engineers only, happy with metered AI or not using it. Stay on Linear. Set a spend limit on credits and move on.
Engineers only, want open source or self-hosting. Plane.
Mixed team of 2 to 15 that wants work, docs, CRM and hiring together with a fixed AI allowance. Atrix.
Want Jira's workflow model without Jira's admin. Shortcut.
Growing past 15 or already on Confluence and Bitbucket. Jira.
Docs-first team with light task needs. Notion.

FAQ

Is Linear getting more expensive in 2026?

Seat prices are unchanged at $10 (Basic) and $16 (Business) per user per month billed yearly. What is new is AI credits: Coding Sessions and Loops are billed from a pooled, dollar-denominated balance on top of seats, with model tokens at provider rates plus $0.25 per 20-minute sandbox block since 20 August 2026.

What is the best Linear alternative for non-engineers?

Atrix or Notion. Both give marketing, operations and founders docs and boards they can live in; Atrix adds CRM, hiring and chat, Notion has the larger template ecosystem.

Linear vs Plane: which should a small team pick?

Linear if speed, polish and GitHub integration matter most and cloud hosting is fine. Plane if you want open source, self-hosting and a lower per-seat price ($6 yearly versus $10).

Does any Linear alternative have a free plan without issue limits?

Plane's cloud Free plan allows 12 users with no issue cap stated; self-hosted Plane has no limits at all. Shortcut's Free plan allows 10 users. Linear's Free plan caps at 250 issues.

Can I migrate issues out of Linear?

Yes. Linear exports issues to CSV from workspace settings, and Plane, Shortcut, Jira and Atrix all import CSV. Map statuses and labels first, then spot-check 20 issues after import.

Next step

Compare feature by feature at /alternatives/linear, or start a trial at /pricing and import your Linear CSV in an afternoon.

Linear alternatives in 2026: for non-engineers, for all-in-one teams, and for anyone wary of AI credits