Head to head
Linear vs Monday.com
The same six questions asked of each one, side by side.
| Attribute | AlternativeLinear | Our pickMonday.com |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Priced per user at $10/user/mo. The pricing page publishes yearly rates only — every plan is labelled 'Billed yearly' — so no monthly-billed figure is recorded. | Priced per seat and quoted annually — $9/seat/mo on Basic. The monthly-billed toggle is rendered client-side and no monthly rate is published, so none is recorded here. The seat count matters more than the per-seat price: the 3-seat minimum applies to monday CRM, Dev and Service, while Work Management defaults its selector to 10 seats, making the real entry cost $90/month, billed annually. |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Ease of start | Scored 4/5Running in an hour | Scored 4/5Running in an hour |
| Fit for solo / small team | Scored 3/5Workable for a small team | Scored 2/5Priced above small teams |
| Switching cost | Medium | Medium |
| Best for | Software teams who want a fast, keyboard-driven tracker with cycles and a defined workflow instead of a blank canvas to configure. | Teams of ten or more who want boards, automations and dashboards that non-technical staff will actually keep updated. |
| Worth knowing side by side | ||
| Renews higher | No | No |
| Worst for | Anyone outside software. Linear is built around issues, cycles and projects, and bending it to marketing or ops work fights the product. | Small teams and individuals. Work Management's selector defaults to 10 seats, so the smallest realistic annual commitment is $1,080 a year. |
| Skip it if | You want to pay month to month. Linear publishes yearly rates only, so the commitment is a year at $120 per user. | You are two or three people. The free plan caps at 2 seats and the paid entry point is priced for a department. |
| Visit | Visit | |
Why Monday.com is marked as our pick
The $9 sticker is per seat and the seat selector starts at ten — budget $90 a month. It has the lowest ongoing cost of the tools compared here. We compare on the price you keep paying, not the introductory rate — a plan advertised cheaply that renews higher is ranked on its renewal price. Read the methodology.
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