Linear
Linear is an issue tracker and project planner for software teams: issues, cycles, projects and roadmaps, linked to your GitHub pull requests, with coding agents such as Cursor, Codex and Claude taking issues like teammates.
It suits founders building a software product, alone or with a small team, who want the plan and the code to stay in step.
The free plan has unlimited members and 250 issues; Basic is $12 a user a month, or $10 billed yearly, as checked on 30 October 2026.
Reviewed by the IndieHacked team
- What it does
- Plan and track software work as issues, cycles and roadmaps, linked to GitHub, with coding agents taking issues like teammates.
- Our take
- Founders building a software product who want the plan and the code in step. Issues, cycles and roadmaps sit in one app, an issue's status follows its GitHub pull request, and a well-scoped issue can go to Cursor, Codex, Claude or Linear's own agent.
- Pricing
- FreemiumLow priceFree: unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues and 10 MB uploads, with the Linear Agent, the MCP server and the API included. Basic is $12 a user a month, or $10 billed yearly, for 5 teams and unlimited issues and uploads; Business is $18, or $16 billed yearly, and adds unlimited teams, private teams and guests, Insights and Linear Asks, as checked on 30 October 2026. Billing counts each unsuspended user in the workspace. Coding sessions and Loops run on prepaid AI credits: model tokens at the providers' published rates with no markup, plus $0.25 per 20 minutes of sandbox time, from a $10 top-up. Linear refunds nothing mid-subscription, so its docs suggest starting on monthly billing.
The IndieHacked breakdown
What it does
Linear tracks software work as issues, which belong to a team and move through that team's workflow, and groups them into cycles, projects with milestones and company-wide initiatives. Documents attach to projects and issues for specs and runbooks. Linking a GitHub pull request updates the issue's status, and issues can sync both ways with GitHub Issues. It runs in the browser and as apps for macOS, Windows, iOS and Android.
Agents are members of the workspace: you assign them issues, add them to projects or mention them in comments, and the person who delegated stays the assignee. The Linear Agent, included from the free plan up, answers questions about the workspace and creates or updates work; with AI credits it starts coding sessions in which Claude Code or Codex writes and tests the change in the cloud and returns a draft pull request. Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients reach your issues through Linear's MCP server.
Who it suits
Founders building software, alone or with a few people, who want one place where the plan meets the code. The free plan takes unlimited members, so a co-founder or first engineer joins at no cost, and Basic at $12 a user a month lifts the 250-issue limit when the backlog grows.
It fits a founder who already works with coding agents. Linear describes engineers assigning issues to Cursor, Codex or Claude like teammates, with the agent posting its progress and pull request on the issue. Startups backed by a partner in Linear's Startup Program, Stripe Atlas and Mercury among them, get up to 6 months of Business free.
Not the right fit for
Founders who want the company's docs, wiki and non-software plans in the same tool. Linear is built for planning and building products, and its documents hang off projects and issues; Notion, reviewed here, holds the wiki, meeting notes and project databases together, and Linear's Notion integration shows its issues inside Notion pages.
Founders who bring clients or freelancers into a private board on a small budget. Guest accounts and private teams start on Business, at $18 a user a month billed monthly; Notion, reviewed here, lets 10 guests into a free workspace.
Also on the shortlist
- NotionProductivityTasks, projects and sprints as databases you set up yourself, next to the docs and wiki; from $12 a member a month.Free for one person, paid plans from $12 a member a month, as checked on 30 October 2026
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