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Linear vs Jira: One Opinionated Model or a Tracker You Configure?

Linear suits software teams that want speed and agent hand-offs; Jira suits organizations that encode many departments' processes in one tracker.

Reading time
3 min read
Sources
20 cited
In this piece

GILD verdict

Choose Linear when software teams are the tracker's main users and want speed, pull requests that move issue status, and a choice of coding agents.

Keep Jira when several departments run their own fields, approvals, and workflows in one system, or when you need self-managed Data Center. Before any cutover, run two teams on Linear with Jira Sync for one cycle and compare the reports leaders rely on.

The named switches all run one way: Oscar Health moved more than 600 staff from Jira to Linear in just over a month, and Brex replaced Jira after a 2024 pilot, both in Linear's own customer stories. Linear wins for engineering speed, and Jira wins for process control. Linear's Jira guide says it chose not to pursue Jira's issue types, components, required fields, or constraints, so a department that depends on them stays on Jira. Both trackers now let teams assign work to AI agents.

Choosing between Linear and Jira

Choose Linear if

  • Software teams want a tracker they keep current themselves, with pull requests moving issue status.
  • You want to assign issues to Cursor, Codex, Devin, GitHub Copilot, or Linear's own coding sessions.
  • Your process fits teams, cycles, projects, and initiatives, and the fields you must enforce can be required in form templates when an issue is filed.

Choose Jira if

  • Several departments run different processes in one system, with custom fields, approvals, and workflow rules.
  • You already rely on Confluence or Jira Service Management and want Rovo working across them.
  • You need self-managed hosting through Data Center.

Side by side

DimensionLinearJira
List priceList prices in US dollars. Atlassian's per-user price falls as team size grows: at 300 users it averages US$8.48 and US$15.56 monthly, per Atlassian's pricing page on October 28, 2026. Linear bills every unsuspended user.Basic US$10, Business US$16 per user per month billed yearly; US$12 and US$18 billed monthly; Enterprise customStandard US$9.70, Premium US$19.60 per user per month billed monthly for the first 100 users, with lower rates above that; Enterprise billed annually
Free tierUnlimited members, 2 teams, and 250 issuesUp to 10 users, 2 GB of storage, and 150 automation steps a month
Process modelingStatuses set per team, with sub-teams inheriting cycles and labels from the parent on Business; no Jira-style issue types, components, required fields, or constraints; form templates can require fields at filingCustomizable workflows and custom fields; user roles and permissions from Standard; customizable approval processes from Premium
Planning across teamsProjects, initiatives with sub-initiatives, and cycles; Insights on Business and Dashboards on EnterpriseCross-team planning and cross-project dependency management on Premium and Enterprise
AI and agentsLinear Agent with skills and Loops that Linear, Slack, or GitHub events can start. Coding sessions running Claude Code or Codex from AI credits. Cursor, Codex, Devin, and GitHub Copilot take assigned issuesRovo Search, Chat, and Agents from Standard. There are 25, 70, or 150 Rovo credits per user per month on Standard, Premium, and Enterprise. Rovo Dev writes code from work items. Third-party agents take assigned work
Identity and adminGoogle SSO on every plan; SAML, SCIM, and the audit log on EnterpriseSSO and SCIM through an Atlassian Guard Standard subscription, included on Enterprise
HostingLinear cloud, with a US or EU data region chosen at workspace creationCloud with multi-region data residency from Standard; Data Center for self-managed deployments
Migration pathA Jira importer, and Jira Sync for pilots and gradual moves; issue types, required fields, and constraints do not sync, and components arrive as labelsLeaving Linear starts from its CSV export of workspace issues
60 seats a monthList prices from each vendor's page; Rovo credits and Marketplace apps excluded.US$960 on Business at US$16 a seat billed annually, no metered AI add-ons. GILD's calculation from published rates, read Oct 28, 20261US$582 on Standard at US$9.70 a seat in the 1 to 100 user tier. GILD's calculation from published rates, read Oct 28, 202614
Who switchedOscar Health moved more than 600 staff off Jira in just over a month and left its custom fields behind; Brex replaced Jira after an April 2024 pilot. Both in Linear's own undated customer stories1920Oscar Health and Brex are the teams that left Jira, per the same stories; GILD found no named move from Linear back to Jira1920

20 sources

  1. Linear pricingOfficial documentationlinear.app
  2. Linear docs: Billing and plansOfficial documentationlinear.app
  3. Linear docs: Sub-teamsOfficial documentationlinear.app
  4. Linear docs: InitiativesOfficial documentationlinear.app
  5. Linear docs: InsightsOfficial documentationlinear.app
  6. Linear docs: DashboardsOfficial documentationlinear.app
  7. Linear docs: AI agentsOfficial documentationlinear.app
  8. Linear docs: Coding sessionsOfficial documentationlinear.app
  9. Linear changelog: Slack and GitHub loopsOfficial documentationlinear.app
  10. Linear docs: JiraOfficial documentationlinear.app
  11. Linear docs: Import guideOfficial documentationlinear.app
  12. Linear docs: SecurityOfficial documentationlinear.app
  13. Linear securityOfficial documentationlinear.app
  14. Jira pricingOfficial documentationatlassian.com
  15. Rovo in Jira: AI featuresOfficial documentationatlassian.com
  16. Jira featuresOfficial documentationatlassian.com
  17. Atlassian RovoOfficial documentationatlassian.com
  18. Linear docs: Issue templatesOfficial documentationlinear.app
  19. Linear customer story: Oscar Health (undated, read Oct 28, 2026)Official documentationlinear.app
  20. Linear customer story: Brex (undated, read Oct 28, 2026)Official documentationlinear.app
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