Jira vs Linear 2026: Pricing, Features and Which Software Team Should Pick Which

Jira is the cheaper pick and the safer one for organizations planning across many teams: Jira Standard costs $950 a year for up to 10 users on annual billing, against $1,200 for 10 seats of Linear Basic at $10 per user a month billed yearly. Linear is the better pick for a product engineering team that wants one fast, opinionated workflow and is willing to pay a little more for it. Prices were read on both vendors' pricing pages on 19 October 2026.

The two tools come from different eras. Jira is Atlassian's configurable tracker, with custom workflows, permission schemes and an automation engine metered by the step. Linear ships one way of working (issues, cycles, projects, initiatives) and sells unlimited issues from its first paid plan. The price gap is small; the difference in how much setup each tool asks for is large.

Toolradar data: in Toolradar's catalog, Jira is listed as an alternative to 48 other tools and Linear to 35, which makes them the two most cross-shopped of the 23 bug tracking tools Toolradar ranks, as of October 2026. Buyers who look at one almost always look at the other, and Toolradar's Jira vs Linear comparison carries the side-by-side tool records.

What each team pays on annual billing

Team size	Jira Standard	Linear Basic	Jira Premium	Linear Business
10 users	$950	$1,200	$1,950	$1,920
25 users	$2,450	$3,000	$4,900	$4,800
50 users	$4,850	$6,000	$9,800	$9,600

Jira's figures are the yearly prices Atlassian prices for each user band (1 to 10, 16 to 25 and 26 to 50 users). Linear's are its per-user yearly rate multiplied by the seats and 12 months. Both are list prices before nonprofit, startup or enterprise discounts.

Two patterns stand out. At the entry tier, Jira is cheaper at every size in the table, by $250 at 10 users and $1,150 at 50. One tier up the order flips: Linear Business undercuts Jira Premium by $30 at 10 users and $200 at 50. So the cheaper product depends on which tier you need, not on the brand.

Jira's bands also create a trap the table hides. A 12-person team falls into Jira's 11 to 15 band, which costs $1,450 a year on Standard, while 12 Linear Basic seats cost $1,440. Below the band edge Jira wins; a couple of hires past it, the two are level.

Monthly billing and the plan ladders

Jira sells Free, Standard, Premium and Enterprise. Billed monthly, Standard costs $9.70 per user a month and Premium $19.60 for the first 100 users, with lower rates for each user above that. Atlassian says annual billing saves up to 17%; at 10 users, monthly Standard adds up to $1,164 a year, about a fifth more than the annual band price in the table. Enterprise is billed annually and sold through sales. Our Jira pricing breakdown lists every user band.

Linear sells Free, Basic, Business and Enterprise. Its pricing page shows Basic at $10 and Business at $16 per user a month, billed yearly. Linear's billing docs say monthly billing exists and that yearly plans carry discounted rates, but the pricing page does not print the monthly rate, so this page compares both tools on annual billing. Enterprise is custom-priced and annual only.

What changes between tiers:

• Jira Standard adds user roles and permissions, Rovo Search, Chat and Agents, 400 automation steps per user a month, 250 GB of storage and business-hours support.
• Jira Premium adds cross-team planning and dependency management, approvals, 750 automation steps per user a month, unlimited storage, 24/7 support for critical issues and a 99.9% uptime SLA.
• Linear Basic adds 5 teams, unlimited issues, unlimited file uploads and admin roles.
• Linear Business adds unlimited teams, private teams and guests, Triage Intelligence, Insights, Linear Asks and Zendesk and Intercom integrations.

Round 1: free plans. Jira wins for a small team

Jira Free covers up to 10 users with unlimited projects and work items, backlog, board, timeline and calendar views, 150 automation steps a month for the whole site and 2 GB of storage. Its limits bite elsewhere: every user is an admin, and the site sends at most 100 emails a day. Linear Free allows unlimited members but stops at 2 teams and 250 issues, with a 10 MB file upload limit.

For a 10-person team with a real backlog, 250 issues is a few sprints of work, so Jira Free lasts longer. Linear Free suits a larger group that wants to trial the workflow on one project before buying seats.

Round 2: entry paid tier. Jira wins on price

Jira Standard is cheaper than Linear Basic at 10, 25 and 50 users on annual billing, and it already includes permissions, Rovo AI features and a per-user automation allowance. Linear Basic's case is scope, not price: unlimited issues, unlimited uploads and a workflow that needs little configuration. A team that would spend days building Jira workflows may find Linear's extra $250 a year at 10 users cheaper than the setup time.

Round 3: mid tier. Linear wins on price, Jira on planning depth

Linear Business costs less than Jira Premium at every size in the table, and it adds the features growing product teams ask for: private teams, guest accounts, AI triage and support-tool intake from Zendesk and Intercom. Jira Premium costs a little more and sells something Linear Business does not list: cross-project dependency management, approval steps in workflows, an uptime SLA and a 1-hour response time for critical issues.

Pick Linear Business for a single product org; pick Jira Premium when several departments plan against shared dependencies.

Round 4: automation and AI. Different meters

Jira meters both. Automation runs on steps: 150 a month for the whole Free site, then 400 per user on Standard and 750 on Premium. Rovo, Atlassian's AI layer, comes with 25 credits per user a month on Standard and 70 on Premium, and Jira can assign work to third-party coding agents such as Claude, Cursor and GitHub Copilot alongside Rovo.

Linear puts its agent platform and Linear Agent on every plan, including Free. Coding sessions and Loops require AI credits, which Linear documents separately from the plan price. If AI coding agents are central to your workflow, our best AI coding assistants ranking covers the tools both trackers connect to, and our guide to AI for project management covers what the AI layer does well.

Round 5: security and administration. Jira wins below Enterprise

Linear offers Google sign-in on every plan and keeps SAML and SCIM for Enterprise. Jira's SSO and SCIM need an Atlassian Guard Standard subscription on Free, Standard and Premium and come included on Enterprise, so both vendors charge extra for identity management below the top tier. Jira does give user roles, permission settings and data residency from Standard, which matters for teams with compliance questions before they reach enterprise size.

Round 6: scale. Jira wins

Jira Standard and Premium allow up to 100,000 users per site, and Enterprise adds up to 150 sites for data isolation by region or brand. Linear Business removes the team cap, and Enterprise adds advanced org modeling and migration support. Both scale far past a startup; Jira's site model is built for companies that run several separate instances.

Who should pick which

Pick Jira if you want the cheapest paid tier at most team sizes, a free plan that holds a 10-person team, cross-team dependency planning, or the Atlassian suite next to it. Our Trello review covers Atlassian's lighter board tool for teams that find Jira too heavy. Watch the user bands: price the band your headcount lands in, not the per-user average.

Pick Linear if your team is mostly engineers and product managers, you want a tracker that works well with little configuration, and you value unlimited issues, AI triage and agent workflows over configurability. Business is the better mid-tier deal on price.

Pick neither if the team is not a software team. Marketing, operations and agency work fits a general project tool better: our best project management software ranking, the ClickUp review and Asana vs monday.com cover that ground, and project management software pricing compared prices seven tools for one 10-user scenario. Agencies should start with our project management software for agencies ranking, and teams that want specs and tasks in one place should read ClickUp vs Notion.

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Strengths and weaknesses

Jira strengths: cheapest entry tier at 10, 25 and 50 users; free for up to 10 users with unlimited work items; cross-project dependencies and approvals on Premium; up to 100,000 users per site.

Jira weaknesses: band pricing makes a team just past a band edge pay for unused seats; automation and AI are metered by steps and credits; the Free plan makes every user an admin and caps email at 100 a day.

Linear strengths: unlimited issues from Basic; Business undercuts Jira Premium; agent platform and Linear Agent on every plan; one workflow that needs little setup.

Linear weaknesses: Free stops at 250 issues and 2 teams; private teams and guests wait for Business; SAML and SCIM are Enterprise only; the pricing page prints only yearly rates.

How we checked

Jira prices come from Atlassian's Jira pricing page, including the plan data behind its team-size calculator, dated 13 October 2026, read on 19 October 2026. Linear prices and plan contents come from Linear's pricing page and its billing docs, read the same day. Category context comes from Toolradar's tool records and its project management ranking.

Jira's yearly figures are Atlassian's band prices. Linear's yearly totals multiply its printed per-user yearly rate by the seats and 12 months. Techpresso did not run either tool for this page, and both pricing pages change, so re-read them before you sign.

Cite this: Techpresso, "Jira vs Linear 2026: Pricing, Features and Which Software Team Should Pick Which", November 2026.

FAQ

Is Jira or Linear cheaper in 2026?

At the entry tier, Jira. On annual billing, Jira Standard costs $950 a year for up to 10 users against $1,200 for 10 Linear Basic seats, and it stays cheaper at 25 and 50 users. At the mid tier, Linear Business costs $1,920 a year for 10 users, slightly less than Jira Premium. Prices were read on 19 October 2026.

How much does Linear cost per user?

Linear Basic costs $10 per user a month and Business $16, both billed yearly. Enterprise is custom-priced and billed annually only. The Free plan allows unlimited members with a limit of 2 teams and 250 issues.

How much does Jira cost per user?

Billed monthly, Jira Standard costs $9.70 per user a month and Premium $19.60 for the first 100 users. Annual billing is priced by user band rather than per seat, for example $1,450 a year for 11 to 15 users on Standard and $1,950 for 1 to 10 users on Premium. Jira Free covers up to 10 users.

Which has the better free plan, Jira or Linear?

Jira Free, for a team of up to 10 people, because it has no issue cap and includes timeline and calendar views. Linear Free allows unlimited members but stops at 250 issues and 2 teams, so it works better as a trial for a larger group than as a permanent home.

Is Linear better than Jira for startups?

For a product engineering team that wants speed over configuration, often yes: unlimited issues from Basic, AI triage on Business and little setup. Linear also runs a startup program with up to 6 months of Business for companies affiliated with its partners. Jira stays cheaper on its entry tier and its free plan covers 10 users.

Do Jira and Linear include AI?

Both do. Jira includes Rovo Search, Chat and Agents from Standard, with 25 Rovo credits per user a month on Standard and 70 on Premium, and it can assign work to third-party coding agents. Linear includes its agent platform and Linear Agent on every plan, while coding sessions and Loops use AI credits.

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