Choosing the right project management software is not about picking the prettiest or the most affordable tool. It is about choosing a system that supports how your company plans, collaborates, ships, and grows.

Plane and Linear take fundamentally different approaches. Plane's interface adapts to your team's needs. New teams see simple, focused workflows. As you grow, advanced features such as custom states, automation, and detailed analytics naturally appear. You're not overwhelmed on day one, but you're also never hitting a ceiling when you need more depth.

Linear is built specifically for EPD teams, and it shows. Plane works equally well for Engineering, Marketing, Operations, and Customer success. Features like calendar views and workflows are designed for how different teams actually work—not just development cycles.

If you want an all-in-one system that is fast and adapts to your teams instead of your teams adapting to the tool, Plane is the stronger long-term choice.

If you want a fast and focused issue tracker for software teams, Linear is exactly that.

In this guide we break down the real differences across workflows, features, extensibility, customizability, deployment, and pricing. The goal is to help you understand not only what these tools do, but which one actually fits the way your organization works.

TL;DR

How is Plane different

1. One workspace for everything your teams need

Plane brings planning, execution, documentation, and collaboration into a single workspace. Instead of juggling multiple tools for tracking work, writing docs, managing sprints, gathering requests, or supporting different teams, Plane keeps everything connected and structured. This gives teams a shared source of truth for projects, knowledge, and progress.

Plane includes,

• Project management built for Engineering, Product, Design, Operations, and Business teams
• A full Wiki for writing and maintaining documentation
• Cycles, Modules, Milestones, and Initiatives for planning work at every level
• Native time tracking for accurate estimates and reporting
• Intake forms for structured requests from internal teams or customers
• Multiple views including List, Kanban, Calendar, Gantt, and Spreadsheet
• Automations for cross-team workflows and operational processes
• Integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Slack, and SAML SSO
• Cloud, self-hosted, and air-gapped deployments for full data control

In other words, Plane gives teams everything they need to plan, document, and ship work inside one unified platform with one login and one structured workspace.

If you need a single system that the entire company can use without switching between tools, Plane fits that need naturally.

2. The total cost of ownership

Choosing a project management software is a long-term commitment. Migrating data, retraining your team, and adapting workflows after a year or two is a costly and disruptive process that can set back productivity for weeks or even months. Therefore, a thorough analysis of what you can expect to pay over the long term—including both direct subscription costs and the "hidden" costs of supplementary tools—is critical to making an informed decision.

While a direct comparison of pricing plans is useful, it's also important to consider the additional expenses that may be required to fill feature gaps.

The hidden cost of a missing Wiki

Plane integrates a wiki-style documentation feature out of the box, enabling teams to centralize knowledge management alongside project tracking. Teams using Linear, which lacks this feature, will likely need a separate subscription for a knowledge management tool.
Popular options include,

• Notion: $10 per user/month (monthly billing) or $8 per user/month (annual billing with 20% savings)
• Confluence: $5.42 per user/month (Standard plan, monthly billing) to $10.44 per user/month (Premium plan, monthly billing)

For a 10 people team, this adds an extra $648 to $1,440 annually to their software budget. When combined with Linear's $1,200 annual cost (Basic plan), the total cost of ownership for a Linear + Wiki tool stack ranges from $1,848 to $2,640, compared to just $720 for Plane's Pro plan a difference of $1,128 to $1,920 per year.

With that in mind, here's a breakdown of the direct costs,

Plane is consistently more cost-effective than Linear across its published paid tiers.

• A 10-seat team on Plane's Pro plan costs $720 annually, a 40% savings compared to the $1,200 for Linear's Basic plan. This gap narrows at scale but remains significant.
• A 250-seat team on Plane's Business plan costs ~$39,000 annually, versus ~$48,000 for Linear's equivalent, a 19% savings.

This cost advantage makes Plane a compelling option for budget-conscious leaders, though potential overages on Plane's metered AI credits must be factored into the total cost of ownership.

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3. Core work management and feature breadth

Plane is a broader work management system, while Linear is optimized for fast issue tracking.

Plane and Linear take completely different approaches to core work management. Linear focuses on a streamlined experience for Engineering and Product teams. Plane provides a fuller, multi-layered system for teams across an organization including Engineering, Product, Design, Marketing, Operations, and customer-facing teams.

Below is a functional comparison of the most important building blocks of work management.

4. Customization and flexibility

Plane gives teams full control over how they work. Linear keeps configuration intentionally light.

Customization is one of the clearest areas where Plane and Linear separate. Plane is designed for companies that need to model their own processes with custom fields, layouts, workflows, and governance. Linear minimizes configuration to preserve a fast, opinionated experience.

Below is a detailed comparison of how each tool supports customization across workflows, structure, and governance.

5. Intake management

How requests enter your workflow matters for team alignment and responsiveness.

The way a tool handles incoming work items reveals how broadly it supports not just engineering but customer-facing teams, Support, and Operations.

Plane offers multi-channel intake including public forms, email, and guest submissions for clients and stakeholders. Linear provides a streamlined triage inbox (Triage) and internal request system (Asks) focused on engineering and internal workflows.

Below is a detailed comparison of intake features across the two platforms.

6. Knowledge management

Knowledge management highlights one of the biggest differences between Plane and Linear.

Plane includes a full workspace wiki designed for documentation across teams.

Linear offers lightweight project pages that work well for notes but do not replace a true documentation system.

7. Security & Compliance

Security and compliance matter if you’re handling regulated data, global teams, or sensitive operations.

Plane offers multiple deployment options and certifications that appeal to regulated industries.

Linear focuses on strong cloud security and enterprise controls but is cloud-only.

Final notes

Software teams rarely operate in isolation. They collaborate with Design, Marketing, Operations, Customer support, Leadership, and Partners. That requires a platform that supports the full lifecycle of work, not just engineering workflows.

Linear is exceptional for high-speed engineering teams. Plane is designed for the entire company.

With Plane, you get a platform that grows with your organisation, supports different teams, offers multiple planning models, integrates documentation, and gives you the freedom to deploy in the cloud, self-hosted, or air-gapped.

If you want a tool that matches the complexity and ambition of modern teams, Plane is the more complete choice.