Linear vs Trello: which one fits your team?
Same idea, two weights. One is understood in four seconds by anybody; the other enforces a workflow and produces the reports. The step between them is usually a growth event, not a preference.
It turns on how much process your team needs enforced, and how much of it people will actually follow.
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.
Pick Trello if
you want a board everyone gets instantly, for free, and tracking state is all you need. Where it stops: a board says what state something is in, never when it happens.
What it costs
For a team of 5, billed yearly: Linear is about $480 a year, Trello is about $300 a year, and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT. Between the two of them Trello is $180 a year cheaper at that size.
Linear: Free tier, then around $8 to $14 per seat per month. Trello: Free up to 10 collaborators. $5 Standard and $10 Premium per user per month billed annually.
Where they part company
Linear does more on 7 of them
- dependencies and a timeline
- linking pull requests to the work
- having a plan for today
- showing who has room
- docs and a wiki inside
- portfolio and agile reporting
- AI that does the work rather than the scheduling
Trello does more on 2 of them
- two way calendar sync
- being useful before you configure it
Side by side
| What it does | Linear | Trello | UnaTask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time blocking on a calendar | No | No | Core |
| A plan for today and this week | Partly. Cycles and lists, not a day laid out against hours. | No | Core |
| Two way calendar sync | No | Partly. A calendar power up on the board, not a calendar you plan a week on. | Yes |
| It is the task manager itself | Core | Core | Core |
| Dependencies and a timeline | Yes | No | Yes. Dependencies with a timeline that shows what is waiting on what. |
| See who has room | Yes | Partly | 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 | Core. Strong native pull request linking, with status driven from branches. | Partly. Through a power up rather than natively. | Yes |
| Docs and wiki inside | Partly | No | Partly. Docs live on a project, they are not a wiki you would run a company from. |
| Portfolio or agile reporting | Yes | Partly | Partly. Team workload and project progress, not portfolios that roll up to a board. |
| Rules that fire on their own | Yes | Yes. Butler rules on the board are genuinely good and free to start. | Yes |
| AI that does the work, not just the scheduling | Partly | No | Yes. AI teammates you assign a task to. The work comes back on the task for review. |
| Useful before you configure it | Yes | Core | Core |
| A free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
What should not decide it
They answer the same on 7: time blocking on a calendar, being the place the tasks actually live, booking links, turning meetings into tasks, turning email and chat into tasks, rules that fire on their own and having a free plan.
And where UnaTask sits
UnaTask is a third direction rather than a point on that line: keep the surface small, and add the calendar neither of them has.
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 and AI that does the work rather than the scheduling.
Common questions
Linear vs Trello: which should I pick?
Pick Linear if you ship software and you want the sharpest place there is to track issues and cycles. Pick Trello if you want a board everyone gets instantly, for free, and tracking state is all you need.
What is the biggest difference between Linear and Trello?
The clearest gap is dependencies and a timeline, where Linear does more than Trello. Underneath that, Linear is a system of record for software work, built around issues and cycles, and Trello is a list or a board that everybody understands without being taught.
Is Linear or Trello cheaper?
For a team of 5, billed yearly: Linear is about $480 a year, Trello is about $300 a year, and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT. Between the two of them Trello is $180 a year cheaper at that size.
What do Linear and Trello have in common?
They answer the same on 7 of our 16 axes, among them time blocking on a calendar, being the place the tasks actually live and booking links. Those are the things that should not decide it for you.
Where does UnaTask fit against Linear and Trello?
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 June 2026 and 2 August 2026.