Jira vs Linear: which one fits your team?
Both of these are systems of record for shipping software, and both are good at it. The choice is usually about how much process you want enforced and where the issues already live.
It turns on how heavy a workflow your team will tolerate, and whether everything already lives in GitHub.
Pick Jira if
more than a handful of engineers ship on it and you need reporting that satisfies an audit. Where it stops: it needs somebody to administer it, and it is not a daily plan.
Pick Linear if
you ship software and you want the sharpest place there is to track issues and cycles. Where it stops: there is no calendar, so it never says when the work happens.
What it costs
For a team of 5, billed yearly: Jira is about $480 a year, Linear is about $480 a year, and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT.
Jira: Free up to 10 users. Roughly $8 Standard and $15 Premium per user per month on annual billing. Linear: Free tier, then around $8 to $14 per seat per month.
Where they part company
Jira does more on 4 of them
- two way calendar sync
- dependencies and a timeline
- portfolio and agile reporting
- rules that fire on their own
Linear does more on 3 of them
- being useful before you configure it
- having a plan for today
- linking pull requests to the work
Side by side
| What it does | Jira | Linear | UnaTask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time blocking on a calendar | No | No | Core |
| A plan for today and this week | No | Partly. Cycles and lists, not a day laid out against hours. | Core |
| Two way calendar sync | Partly | No | Yes |
| It is the task manager itself | Core | Core | Core |
| Dependencies and a timeline | Core | Yes | Yes. Dependencies with a timeline that shows what is waiting on what. |
| See who has room | Yes | Yes | Core |
| Booking links | No | No | Yes |
| Meetings become tasks | No | No | Yes |
| Email and chat become tasks | Partly | Partly | Yes |
| Pull requests linked to work | Yes | Core. Strong native pull request linking, with status driven from branches. | Yes |
| Docs and wiki inside | Partly. Confluence does this, and it is a separate product with its own bill. | Partly | Partly. Docs live on a project, they are not a wiki you would run a company from. |
| Portfolio or agile reporting | Core | Yes | Partly. Team workload and project progress, not portfolios that roll up to a board. |
| Rules that fire on their own | Core | Yes | Yes |
| AI that does the work, not just the scheduling | Partly | Partly | Yes. AI teammates you assign a task to. The work comes back on the task for review. |
| Useful before you configure it | No. It usually wants a dedicated admin before it fits your team. | Yes | Core |
| A free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
What should not decide it
They answer the same on 9: time blocking on a calendar, being the place the tasks actually live, showing who has room, booking links, turning meetings into tasks, turning email and chat into tasks, docs and a wiki inside, AI that does the work rather than the scheduling and having a free plan.
And where UnaTask sits
UnaTask is not competing for this slot. It is the calendar around it: link the pull request to the task, block the hours for the review, include the people without a GitHub login.
It does more than both of them on time blocking on a calendar, having a plan for today, two way calendar sync, showing who has room, booking links, turning meetings into tasks, turning email and chat into tasks, AI that does the work rather than the scheduling and being useful before you configure it.
Common questions
Jira vs Linear: which should I pick?
Pick Jira if more than a handful of engineers ship on it and you need reporting that satisfies an audit. Pick Linear if you ship software and you want the sharpest place there is to track issues and cycles.
What is the biggest difference between Jira and Linear?
The clearest gap is being useful before you configure it, where Linear does more than Jira. Underneath that, Jira is a system of record for software work, built around issues and cycles, and Linear is a system of record for software work, built around issues and cycles.
Is Jira or Linear cheaper?
For a team of 5, billed yearly: Jira is about $480 a year, Linear is about $480 a year, and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT.
What do Jira and Linear have in common?
They answer the same on 9 of our 16 axes, among them time blocking on a calendar, being the place the tasks actually live and showing who has room. Those are the things that should not decide it for you.
Where does UnaTask fit against Jira and Linear?
UnaTask does more than both on time blocking on a calendar, having a plan for today and two way calendar sync. It is free on your own and €10 per seat for a team, with every feature included. Where it does less: it is not an issue tracker with sprints and burndown, and it is not a documentation workspace.
Details checked 2 August 2026 and June 2026.