If your team uses Linear mainly as a board of tasks that move from left to right, a Linear alternative can be a plain kanban board. You give up cycles, triage, issue sync and the Git workflow, and you stop counting issues against a plan. If your engineers live in those features, a board will not replace them, and you should look at other issue trackers instead.
We build a kanban board, so we are not neutral. Linear's prices and limits below come from Linear's pricing page, read on 27 October 2026, in US dollars on yearly billing. Check it before you budget, because plans change.
Why do people look for a Linear alternative?
Usually it is one of two things: the free plan fills up, or the tool is built for a kind of team they are not.
On the free plan, Linear's pricing page lists unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues and a 10MB file upload limit. 250 issues sounds like a lot until a small team has logged a year of bugs, ideas and chores. Basic is $10 per user per month on yearly billing, with unlimited issues and unlimited file uploads. Business is $16 per user per month.
The other reason is fit. Linear's own feature list is organised around issues, projects, cycles and initiatives, with triage and code tools on the higher plans. That suits a software team with sprints. It is a lot of structure for a design studio, a small agency or someone running a side project.
What do the current Linear alternative lists miss?
The top results are lists of eight to ten tools, mostly written by project management vendors or comparison sites, plus a forum thread about a self-hosted option. They line up features: roadmaps, integrations, time tracking, reporting.
They rarely ask the smaller question. What if you only use the board? Nobody prices that case for three to ten people, and nobody says which tool on the list is simply columns and cards. They also skip the issue cap on Linear's free plan, which is the thing most small teams actually hit. This post covers those two gaps.
What does Linear cost compared with a flat-price board?
Linear charges per user on paid plans, so the bill follows headcount. These are the yearly-billing numbers.
| Users | Basic per month | Business per month |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | $30 | $48 |
| 5 | $50 | $80 |
| 10 | $100 | $160 |
EasyKanban is free for 3 boards with unlimited cards and up to 3 team members per board. Pro is €6 a month or €60 a year and removes the board and member limits. Linear does things a board does not, so read the numbers as the price of the part you actually use.
Which parts of Linear does a kanban board replace?
A board replaces one habit: cards in columns, dragged across as work progresses, filtered by tag or person. It does not replace cycles, triage queues, issue SLAs, Git integrations or the reporting on Linear's higher plans.
Here is a quick test. Look at your last ten issues. If each one was created, moved through a few statuses and closed, with no cycle planning and no automation involved, you are running a board inside an issue tracker. If you plan work in cycles, route incoming requests through triage, or link issues to pull requests, you are using Linear for what it was built for.
Two things a plain board still does well:
- A limit on work in progress. A long issue list shows everything at once. A board can warn you when a column holds too many cards, which is how WIP limits keep a small team from starting everything at the same time.
- No cap on the backlog. Cards are unlimited on the free plan, so an old idea can sit in a column for a year without counting against anything.
Which Linear alternatives fit which kind of team?
Pick by how you work, not by the longest list of tools.
If you are a software team that wants a lighter, self-hosted tracker, our guide to open source Jira alternatives covers Plane, Taiga and others, including the ones built around cycles. If you want one tool for tasks, docs and goals and accept per-seat pricing, see the ClickUp alternative guide. If your team is leaving a heavier work management suite, the Smartsheet comparison makes the same board-only argument.
If you want a board and nothing else, see how EasyKanban compares to Trello, or try a board without an account on the no-signup board. It is columns, cards and tags, at a price that does not change when a fourth person joins.
How do I move from Linear to a kanban board?
Export your issues from Linear, then bring them in as a CSV. EasyKanban reads a CSV and asks you to map its columns in the import dialog, pre-filling any column called Title. Keep one column for the card title and one for the status, which becomes the column name on the board. Check what your Linear export actually contains before you plan around it, because the format depends on how you export.
Before you import, close or delete the issues nobody will look at again. A card holds a title, a description and a tag. Cycles, estimates, projects, sub-issues and links to pull requests do not come across, so it is better to find that out on a copy than on your live workspace. Keep the Linear workspace for a month and read from it, so nothing is lost if you change your mind.
What are the trade-offs of leaving Linear?
You lose structure and speed for engineers. Linear's keyboard-driven issue flow, cycles and Git links are the reason many software teams choose it, and a board has none of that. You also lose triage and the reporting managers outside the team may rely on.
You gain a smaller thing to maintain, and no issue counter. For a team of three to ten that tracks design work, client requests or a backlog of ideas, that is usually the right trade. For a product team shipping in cycles, it usually is not.
FAQ
What is the best free alternative to Linear?
For a plain task board, a free kanban board is enough. EasyKanban is free for 3 boards with unlimited cards. If you need cycles and Git integration, you would compare other issue trackers instead of boards.
How many issues does Linear's free plan allow?
Linear's pricing page lists 250 issues, 2 teams and unlimited members on the free plan. Basic, at $10 per user per month on yearly billing, removes the issue limit and raises the team limit to 5.
Is there a Linear alternative with no per-user pricing?
Yes. Linear's paid plans are priced per user. EasyKanban charges per account instead, free for 3 boards or €6 a month for Pro with unlimited boards and members, so adding a fourth person does not change the bill.
Can I import my Linear issues into a kanban board?
Yes, through CSV. Export your issues, make sure one column holds the status and one holds the title, then import it. Cycles, estimates, sub-issues and pull request links do not come across, so check a copy first.
When should I stay on Linear?
Stay if your team plans in cycles, uses triage, or links issues to code. A board is the better choice when Linear has turned into a task list with a status column and you pay per user to move cards.