StackEvalifyIssue tracking · Desk research
Linear vs Jira: plans, limits, and team fit
Both products can track engineering work, but the cost model is only part of the decision. Linear gates role control, guest access, and team count by plan; Jira meters automation steps and changes permissions, planning, storage, and support across tiers. Compare the controls your workflow consumes—not only the issue tracker’s surface UI.
Source check: · Desk research only; StackEvalify has not run a hands-on product test for this comparison.
Quick take
Start with Linear if its issue and team model fits and you want scheduled cycles with a clear free-plan issue cap. Consider Jira if you need its documented range of work views, customizable workflows, forms, or cross-team planning. Those are product-fit signals, not a claim that one tool is faster or easier for every team.
Plans and documented limits
The free plans are not like-for-like: Linear publishes an unlimited-member allowance but caps teams and issues; Jira’s free plan caps users and publishes different storage and automation allowances.
Free plan
- Linear
- Unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues, and 10 MB file uploads. Every user is an admin on the Free plan.
- Jira
- Up to 10 users, unlimited goals, projects, tasks, and forms; 2 GB storage and 150 automation steps per subscription each month.
First paid tier
- Linear
- Basic is $10 per user/month billed yearly. It raises the team limit to 5 and removes the issue and file-upload caps.
- Jira
- Standard adds user roles and permissions, external collaboration, and 400 automation steps per user each month. Atlassian prices the subscription with a calculator based on seats and billing cycle.
Higher-tier planning
- Linear
- Business is $16 per user/month billed yearly; it adds unlimited teams, private teams and guests, Insights, Asks, and other listed features.
- Jira
- Premium adds cross-team planning, dependency management, customizable approval processes, and 750 automation steps per user each month.
Planning workflow
- Linear
- Cycles are repeating, time-boxed work periods that are not tied to releases. Teams can set a duration from 1 to 8 weeks.
- Jira
- The official feature page lists backlog, list, board, timeline, and calendar views, plus customizable workflows and dependency planning.
Linear’s listed paid prices are billed yearly. Atlassian asks buyers to use its pricing calculator with their seat count and billing cycle; confirm the current quote, currency, taxes, and plan terms before purchase. Published limits and prices can change.
Unlimited members do not mean unlimited access control
Linear: restricted guests still consume paid seats
Linear Free allows unlimited members, but all users are admins. Basic adds admin roles; restricted guest accounts require Business or Enterprise and are billed at the same rate as regular members. Linear bills every unsuspended user in the paid Workspace, regardless of role.
Linear: monthly and annual seat changes settle differently
On monthly billing, member changes affect the following month without mid-month charges or credits. Annual plans generate prorated charges for additions and prorated credits for suspensions; credits apply to future invoices or renewal rather than being refunded.
Price contractors, support partners, and client viewers as real Linear seats if they need guest access. Also verify integration visibility: Linear warns that some Workspace integrations may expose data beyond a guest’s invited teams.
Jira automation is now a step budget
Jira Cloud measures executed triggers, conditions, actions, branches, and loops as automation steps. A simple trigger plus one condition and one action can consume three steps; a loop consumes the loop step plus the actions executed for each item. Allowances are pooled at the organization level and refresh monthly.
The published Jira allowances are 150 steps per subscription on Free, 400 per user on Standard, 750 per user on Premium, and 1,000 per user on Enterprise. Runs that perform no action and aborted or throttled runs do not consume steps. Test the highest-volume flows with production-like issue counts before relying on the headline allowance.
How the planning models differ
Linear: cycles
Linear describes cycles as scheduled, time-boxed work periods, similar to agile-flavored sprints, and says they are not tied to releases. Teams configure a repeating duration from one to eight weeks and can create up to 15 future cycles.
Jira: multiple views and configurable workflows
Atlassian lists backlog, list, board, timeline, calendar, and summary views. Its feature page also describes customizable workflows, forms, dependency management, and integrations through the Atlassian Marketplace. Check the plan matrix to confirm which capabilities your chosen plan includes.
A practical way to decide
- Shortlist Linear if the 250-issue free cap is workable, you want its cycle model, or its paid plan limits match the number of teams and controls you need.
- Shortlist Jira if you need its documented range of views, configurable workflows, or Premium cross-team planning and dependency management.
- Before migrating, trial both with the same representative project. Compare issue intake, permissions, reports, integrations, migration effort, and the actual quote for your seat count.
Sources and method
This is a comparison of vendor-published pricing, billing, role, automation, and workflow documentation checked on 9 November 2026. It is desk research, not independent usability testing. Plan features, limits, regional availability, and prices may change; verify them with the vendors before making a purchase decision.
- Linear pricing and plan comparison
- Linear documentation: members, admins, and billed guests
- Linear documentation: monthly and annual seat billing
- Linear documentation: cycles
- Atlassian Jira pricing and plan comparison
- Atlassian Jira feature overview
- Atlassian Support: Jira automation step metering
- Atlassian Support: automation service limits